Seen Along the Trail

Spring has gone missing!

carolyn220 — Wed, 15 May 2013 00:57:40 +0000

I wonder where it went and when it will return? Last week we were basking in sunshine and wonderfully warm days. Trees and flowers burst into blossoms. I saw an oriole, a rose-breasted grosbeak, and a few ducklings on the bog. And I concluded that the long (very long) and slow (very slow) winter were finally drawing to a close. And then something strange happened. In the words of the cashier at Lowe’s Hardware Store where I purchased some birdseed and new feeders today, “We went backwards!” Back to winter…or so it seems. Rain, sleet, even a few snowflakes, and temperatures nearing the freezing mark…what a wakeup call! “Dont become complacent!” it seems to say. “Be thankful for the sights and sounds of spring; for the warm breezes, colorful flowers, and the sweet scent of blossoming fruit trees; but don’t take them for granted! Remember to “Take time to smell the roses.” Make the most of every moment. Sunshine and blue skies are not a guarantee. They are a gift!

Click to view slideshow.

This has been a public service announcement by Carolyn aka Skip

Filed under: nature

Red, white, black, and prehistoric

carolyn220 — Sat, 11 May 2013 22:30:50 +0000

The pileated woodpecker was in the park today. Because it has been more than a month since I last saw him, I was pretty excited. I thought perhaps he had moved on, so spotting him today was a treat. I have an iBird app on my phone that includes the songs of many different birds, so when I caught sight of him, I dug out my phone, opened the app, and played the song of the pileated woodpecker. To my surprise, he reacted by swooping across the trail in front of me, landing on a nearby tree. Eventually he flew out of my sight and up to the top of the sledding hill. I followed and found him again, bagging a few more pictures. In several of the pictures, I was actually above the W.P. because I was on the observation platform at the top of the hill, and he flew to one of the trees slightly below me. From that point, I had a pretty amazing view of Mr. Woodpecker! If you want to see larger pictures, click on one of them. I think the pileated is a pretty fascinating bird.Even on a cloudy and chilly day like today, spring photo walks can be filled with fun.I hope you enjoy the gallery.

Carolyn aka Skip

P.S. In the title, “prehistoric” refers to the look of the bird. To me, it looks like a throwback to prehistoric times.

Filed under: nature

Bluebird and more!

carolyn220 — Fri, 10 May 2013 20:54:36 +0000

On my walk in the park today, I netted two spring birds and a chipmunk that I couldn’t resist snapping multiple times. I am aware that chipmunks can be pests, and they certainly can do a lot of damage, if given half a chance. A few years ago, one little chippy took out the air conditioning unit at our daughter’s house. Not just a little window AC unit, mind you, but the whole house unit. It was done for, and so was the chippy! Consequently my son-in-law is not one bit fond of chipmunks, but then he isn’t a photographer, and I am, so I like chippies because they are such photogenic little critters. Take a look!

A thunderstorm put an end to my walk today, but not before I had captured a bluebird. It’s not the greatest picture because he flew away before I could creep any closer, but bluebirds are beautiful, and I don’t get too many opportunities to photograph them, so here he is in all his glory:

Finally, here is one of our summer residents, an American goldfinch:

That’s it for today! Hope you enjoy them.
Skip aka Carolyn

Filed under: nature

Red-bellied surprise!

carolyn220 — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 20:32:19 +0000

Red-bellied woodpecker times two!

The red-bellied woodpecker is one of my favorite birds, which makes this photo doubly pleasing to me. Seeing a RBW is not uncommon in our neighborhood park where there are lots of old trees and a bog nearby; however, until today I had never seen two of them sitting on the same tree stump. I am guessing that the one in the foreground is a female because it has a grey cap, but I am not certain. At any rate, this was a red-bellied day! Here are a few other birds from today’s walk. Click on any picture to see it in large.

Filed under: birds, woodpecker, woodpeckers

No doubt about it…

carolyn220 — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 00:52:28 +0000

Spring has arrived! I wouldn’t be silly enough to believe we won’t have any more cold, wet weather, but I’ve seen the signs, and I am announcing the arrival of spring! Today, on my walk in the park, I spotted a golden-crowned kinglet and a yellow-bellied sapsucker for the first time, and there were lots of people enjoying some sunshine and warmer temperatures. Yay for spring! We’ve waited a long time for it to arrive. Here are my favorite pictures from today:

Hope you enjoyed them!
Carolyn aka Skip

Filed under: birds, nature, Ohio, wildlife, woodpecker, woodpeckers

Is it spring yet?

carolyn220 — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 01:14:49 +0000

That’s the question everyone is asking these days. Even today, although it seemed a little milder and I didn’t wear my winter jacket for our trip to the Cleveland Aquarium, the temperature barely inched above 40 degrees. In the afternoon I took a photowalk in the park. For that I wore my winter jacket and hat, and I wasn’t any too warm. Here are my favorite photos from the walk. I hope you like them.

Carolyn aka Skip

Filed under: nature, Ohio, spring, wildlife, woodpeckers

Mallard Mania

carolyn220 — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 18:55:27 +0000

With spring on the horizon (hopefully), the mallards on the bog have gone into courtship mode. They are great entertainment on my daily photowalks. You can see more Mallard Mania here.

Busy days recently. I will try to be more regular in my posts!
Skip aka Carolyn

Filed under: nature

Hobnobbing with the chickadees

carolyn220 — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 02:25:34 +0000

The chickadees in my neighborhood park are well-acquainted with my habit of carrying sunflower seeds in the pocket of my jacket, a fact that brings them flying when they see me tramping down the trail. Yesterday I actually had one land on my hat, but usually they just light on a tree branch or bush nearby, hoping that I have brought them a treat.

Today I had a different kind of chickadee experience. It seems that chickadees are attracted by the song of the Carolina wren. A photographer friend told me she had seen the wrens recently in the area around the evergreen trees, so I headed down that trail. Not seeing any, I got out my phone, opened the iBird app, and played the Carolina wren song. I hoped to see a wren appear among the evergreens, but what appeared instead were, you guessed it, chickadees, and they posed quite willingly on the branches of the evergreen trees.

Unfortunately, as the sun was shining brilliantly (a novelty for March here on the south shore of Lake Erie) and the chickadees had perched on the dark evergreen trees, the camera metered for the dark green trees and completely blew out the white feathers on the chickadees, a fact I didn’t realize it until I saw the pictures on my computer. So today I am sharing with you this picture, one of only two that were salvageable from the 10 or so that I shot today. Lesson learned…and shared with my “blog buddies.”

Until next time…
Carolyn aka Skip

Filed under: American robin

The rear of a deer

carolyn220 — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 02:29:05 +0000

Several whitetail deer crossed the trail in front of me. As I watched, this one leaped off the trail and into the woods. Their grace and beauty make these animals a joy to watch. A very large herd of whitetails lives in our neighborhood park, which is fine so long as they stay in the park. However, they don’t! Every night, and sometimes during the day, they migrate from the park into the surrounding neighborhoods. There they feast on flowers, bulbs, flowering trees, and, under cover of darkness, the seed I put in our bird feeders for the chickadees, nuthatches, and other songbirds. The deer are also a hazard on the highways. It’s too bad they can’t comprehend boundaries. On the other hand, it’s too bad that people have taken over so much of their habitat with housing subdivisions, shopping malls, six-lane highways and the like.It’s an ongoing problem with no good solution.

That’s all for tonight!
See you soon.
Carolyn aka Skip

Filed under: deer, habitat, nature, Ohio, photography, wildlife

An uninvited dinner guest

carolyn220 — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 22:54:13 +0000

I have been playing around with creating diptychs and other collages, so today, after I “developed” my pictures in Lightroom, I chose three related images that I think tell a story. Can you follow the storyline? Hint: Start in the upper left corner.

Here’s the sequence:

I just came across this app for creating collages recently, and it has been a lot of fun. Hope you enjoyed “reading” the story as much as I enjoyed “creating” it.

That’s it for today!
Carolyn aka Skip

Filed under: birds, nature, Ohio, photography, photography experiments, wildlife, winter