Today's first discovery showed up before we reached the park when I spotted this bluebird in the backyard. He appears pretty regularly in the morning, right about breakfast time. Often I don't see him again until the next morning, but it is still a treat to get a daily visit. In the park, I was …
Wet and windy!
The windy, wet, 38 degree day is definitely not what drew me outside for a trail walk in Chagrin River Park this morning. No Way! What got me out was what I have written about in previous blog posts: my intention to be more active and my determination to increase my stamina and energy. So …
An early Spring morning
Join me for a little early morning birding on the first truly beautiful spring day. The morning dawned cool and hazy and got better as the day went on. By evening, under sunny skies, the park was filled with people...and birds... enjoying our first real taste of spring. I don't have anything else to say. …
Birding in Chagrin River Park
Packing my camera and a pocket full of peanuts, I left for a trail walk on this sunny, but cold, morning. I had forgotten to bring my hat, but I decided to take a short walk anyway...just to stretch my legs and capture a few bird pictures. Setting the timer on my watch for 35 …
Confused by the weather
Since the beginning of the year, our weather has been unsettled, or maybe I should say unsettling. We've had snow, extreme cold, and now rain. Glancing out the kitchen window this morning, I noticed an empty hopper feeder. Slipping on my jacket and boots, I sloshed out and refilled the feeder. A short while later, …
Too cold for trailwalking
As I warned in my last post, right after spotting the red-bellied woodpecker above, our temperatures plummeted and for the past several days have hovered around zero (F). Yesterday the high temp here along the south shore of Lake Erie peaked at zero degrees Fahrenheit and went down from there. The "feels like" temp, given …
When the snow finally fell…
I saw a walker hurrying toward me... Then I noticed why she was in such a hurry. A big buck behind her was closing in! And right behind him were two more bucks, headed her way. With a healthy sense of self preservation, I clicked off a few pictures, swung around, and left them all …
Sunday evening at dusk
My neighbor and I took a short walk along the river trail in Chagrin River Park this evening, the last Sunday evening of 2018. I didn't capture any spectacular pictures, but the light was good, the crisp air was refreshing, and we had a good "chin wag" as my photographer friends from the British Isles …
A family tradition
On Sunday afternoon, two days before Christmas, two daughters, one granddaughter, and I got together to bake Christmas cookies, a family tradition that for me goes w-a-a-a-y back to when I was a child. Many years ago (mid-20th century), Christmas cards, cookies, caroling for neighbors, and a candlelight worship service on Christmas Eve were traditional …
There’s nothing quite like it!
Nothing quite like what, you ask? Well, to be honest, you may or may not agree with me, but I maintain that there's nothing quite like a trail walk in the first real snow of the season. It isn't even winter yet, just the downhill end of Autumn, but on this December morning we …
SEEN ALONG THE TRAIL 