It had been many weeks since I walked the trails in Holden Arboretum, one of my many regular routines that changed when Covid 19 entered the scene. Finally, last Friday, I decided it had been too long, so I packed up my camera and headed to Holden. Except to say that Holden didn't disappoint, I …
My view from the patio
The trees in our backyard provide plenty of shade and shelter...for the birds as well as for me, as I park myself on the patio with my camera. I have spent many hours out there this summer, accompanied by the blue birds, house sparrows, bumble bees (If that's not the right name for the species …
Backyard birding
Backyard birding has become a time consuming pastime this summer; in part because we haven't traveled very far from our backyard, but also because many avian visitors have come to call. I have accumulated so many bird blips right outside our back door that they are beginning to overwhelm me; it's definitely time to kick …
Backyard Birds: June (Part 1)
When summer rolls around, a familiar bird in our backyard is the Baltimore oriole pictured above. One glance at her beak as she zooms through the backyard is enough to tell you the oriole has recently enjoyed a taste of the grape jelly in the backyard buffet. Hummingbirds, another common bird in Northeast Ohio during …
Blipping daffodils…part 2
In my blip yesterday, I wrote about the possibility of a freeze overnight and what that might do to my daffs. Well, we did have a freeze. First thing this morning I asked Alexa for a weather report. When she said it was 32 degrees, I dressed warmly, picked up my camera, and headed out …
Backyard birdy
At the end of an off-and-on rainy Sunday afternoon, just as I was watching out the kitchen window, this little finch popped in for a bite to eat. The weather has been variable today. Neither people nor wildlife knew what was going to come at them next, so most of the day they sheltered in …
Covid-19 Morning Entertainment
At home, during the covid-19 lockdown here in northeast Ohio, I can't gather with my (human) friends for a cup of coffee (or a mug of cocoa, my preferred beverage). So this morning I turned to my backyard friends for entertainment, and the pileated woodpeckers didn't let me down. They flew in, and hung around …
New Years Day 2020
On January 1, 2020, I captured a few back yard bird pictures to start off the new decade. Happily, the first bird to pose was an Eastern bluebird, sitting proudly on top of the nesting box and then flying over for a second photo opp on the nearby shepherd's crook. A familiar downy woodpecker and …
Hats, gloves, and scarves!
Hello trail walkers! In my last post, I told you that the time has come to open the closet and sort out my hats, gloves, and hand warmers if I intend to continue trail walking, now that early Autumn has morphed into chilly winter weather. Last week we experienced our first snowfall, a real …
Ugh! Not my favorite weather.
Autumn turned a corner this morning. From lovely, colorful, walk-in-the-arboretum weather, we suddenly transitioned to overcast, drizzly, sit-in-front-of-the-computer-processing-last week's-pictures weather. The picture above was taken last week on the trail in Chagrin River Park, just a mile from my front door. Because of the aforementioned weather, I'm taking a pass on my trail walk today, …
SEEN ALONG THE TRAIL 