A dramatic day at the lake

The big catch

Drama is all around us. When we think of drama, however, we often think of the travails of our fellow humans. Nature, perhaps, presents the fullest range of the dramatic ranging from the life and death struggles of our fellow creatures to the world-changing activities of weather. A brief stop at Hinckley Lake lent plenty of examples for me as I walked the paths this afternoon. Showing She Who Must Be Obeyed one of my favorite spots to watch Great Blue Herons, we spied one fishing. After only a couple of minutes’ observation, the bird smartly jabbed the water, pulled up a fish, and flew off to a nearby sandbar to deal with its prey. Nearing the end of our walk, the day’s very changeable sky put on a show of light and shadow in the clouds and issued a low rumble of thunder. It was a dramatic day at the lake but most people were having picnics.

Backlit storm clouds loom overhead

Garden bug

The Garden Bug

Out and about yesterday we made a stop at The Greensmith Garden Center in Hinckley, Ohio. Greeting visitors to their place is a very unusual flower planter — a Volkswagen Beetle, its boot filled with earth and posies! It might be fun to drive such a vehicle around but the same use has been put to the car’s engine compartment (in the rear) — dirt and daisies. Well, not really daisies but the alliteration was too choice!

Way too soon to be thinking about work

In a tangle of beaks and necks, a Great Blue Heron feeds its young

Today was a day off due to the Memorial Day holiday observance. Our little town had a solemn ceremony at a local cemetery that is home to a war memorial. We spent the morning revisiting the Bath Road heron rookery and neighboring Ira Road/Beaver Marsh nature areas in and near the Cuyahoga Valley National Park (CVNP). The rookery continued to be noisy with the chatter of the many birds occupying nests high in the trees. Once in a while a bird would leave seeking food or arrive bearing it for the burgeoning young. It’s hard to spot the birds amongst the trees but those nests that are visible harbor several large birds these days. I did manage to capture one bird feeding another — a tangle of necks and feathers — though that was even harder to see! Human families, too, dropped by to see how their avian counterparts were doing. I think in many cases the parents were more interested than their children in what the birds were up to but I was heartened to see so many people out appreciating the show.

A young Great Blue Heron quietly wades in the shallows with biting flies pestering it all the while.

The Towpath Trail, key to much of the popularity of the park, was seemingly busy as a freeway with families out riding their bicycles. Though a cyclist myself, I nearly forgot where I was and almost stepped into the path of an oncoming cyclist! Among the many visitors to these particular areas, however, were many birdwatchers. A small group of them, along with us, was surprised when a young Great Blue Heron alighted on a tree branch only about 20 feet overhead. After a quick preening, the bird glided down and landed in the shallow waters of the Ohio & Erie Canal, just south of the Ira Road Trailhead. She Who Must Be Obeyed and I quickly and quietly hiked down the trail to see what we might see. We were treated to close-up views of an apparent juvenile bird as it slowly waded in the shadows, seeking a meal. Though we were close, the heron seemed either not to care or was unaware of our presence as we took turns shooting photos from the bank of the canal. Plants and twigs blocked much of our view so when we felt we got as good photos as we could, we left the heron to its work and headed north on the trail.

Baltimore Oriole perches on a branch not far from its nest

We enjoyed the short walk along the canal and up to Beaver Marsh where nature-lovers were watching Tree Swallows, Wood Ducks (and ducklings), turtles, and fish. Nature watchers happily pointed out their discoveries to each other helping us, by the way, to see a Baltimore Oriole and her nest. The day was hot and humid so we sought shade and lunch around midday. It was, however, a fine day out once again and way too soon to be thinking about work!

The peace of the place remains with me

The gorge of Chippewa Creek, one day in May

Since the weather was predicted to be “hot, hazy, and humid,” we decided to get out and take a photo-hike in the cooler, early-morning hours. One of my favorite beautiful places in the area is the rocky gorge of Chippewa Creek as it flows through the city of Brecksville, Ohio. She Who Must Be Obeyed had never visited the riverbed so we had a first destination. We enjoyed a bagel breakfast at the Bruegger’s Bagels place near the entrance to the metropark, and hiked down into the broad space. The last six feet or so are a bit of a scramble from an earthen riverbank to the washed stone floor, easily handled however. The steep walls of the passage bear the scars of millennia of erosion, weathering, and plant action; they are dark, often damp, and in places support abundant ferns and mosses.

Tree roots grip the rocky, moss-covered walls of the gorge.

Trees, atop the rock walls, form a canopy over much of the area as their upper branches join overhead. With little recent rain, the creek was low and the riverbed mostly dry — perfect for exploration. At least that’s what I thought. She found a slick spot on a smooth rock and tumbled forward, skinning Her knee, nearly damaging her new camera, and threatening to spoil the experience. She recovered, however, and seemed to enjoy the rest of our visit. We found various objects and scenes to photograph — it’s a dark place which can make picture-taking difficult — but I’d brought my tripod this day! After a while, we climbed back out of the valley and enjoyed a good, long, challenging hike on designated Cleveland Metroparks trails. The peace of the place remains with me.

Trees, rock, and water of Chippewa Creek in an HDR imaging experiment.

 

Beginning yet another flight

A female Tree Swallow launches herself from her nesting hole just under the broken branch.

Vacation Day #5? Not really. I spent Friday doing things other than photography. The photo above was from my visit to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park’s Ira Road Trailhead/Beaver Marsh area. I watched as a pair of Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) made frequent commuter flights between nearby ground and areas of the surrounding wetland. I couldn’t be certain whether they were feeding young or working on their nest within the trunk of a dead tree. This was one occasion, however, when I wished I’d carried a tripod — the birds are fast and I’d have liked to catch them arriving at the nest hole or together but the narrow view of the telephoto allowed little lead time. Still, I’m very happy with this picture: the female diving from the nest hole beginning yet another flight.

Now all we need is clear skies

The Sun as it appeared the morning of May 24, converted to monochrome.

Vacation Day #4 and I spent some time this morning experimenting with solar photography. On June 5, the transit of Venus will take place and since the next one after that won’t happen for another 115 years, I thought I should try for this year’s! I discovered to my dismay that the very expensive, modern-design, Herschel Wedge won’t work for photography with my “big” telescope — the six-inch, 1,219mm Meade LXD75. Rats! I’m going to make quick queries to see what I can do to resolve the issue if I’m to use the wedge any time soon … and June 5 is soon! I could not crank the camera “in” close enough to achieve focus with the wedge in place. So with the telescope still set up in the mid-morning sunshine, I removed the wedge and covered the telescope’s objective lens with the very inexpensive AstroZap filter made using Baader AstroSolar film. I connected my trusty (and light-weight) Canon Digital Rebel XT to the scope’s eyepiece holder and made several bracketed exposures. Later I discovered the results were very good though not quite as good as shots made with my Canon EOS 50D and Canon 400mm telephoto. The difference in quality may be attributed to seeing conditions –the images were made days apart– but either setup will do just fine for recording the historic celestial event. Now all we need is clear skies on that day!

A great morning at the lake

In hot pursuit, this Great Blue Heron banks and accelerates low over the water

Sometimes you think you’ve missed the “perfect shot” when, really, you’ve already captured it. Today, vacation day #3, I was visiting Hinckley Lake. I’d not been to the lake in some time and thought I should check in. I came across a Great Blue Heron fishing in the shallows. Just as I got into position to shoot some stills of the big bird, it leaped into the air! I began firing the shutter. I don’t think the bird took flight because of me… I believe it was pursuing another heron fishing around the shoreline from where I was standing. Soon the two birds were charging out over the lake, one after the other and I got what I’d hoped would be the best pictures of the day. I was mistaken. As I was photographing the first bird early in its pursuit, I recorded a couple of images that later surprised me. In my favorite, the heron is banking whilst flying so low to the lake surface a wingtip dragged briefly in the water kicking up a wake! In the second shot (technically made earlier) the Great Blue is stretched out in flight while below, shore birds work for a living on a sandbar. All-in-all a great morning at the lake.

Pursuit begins as the huge bird takes off, over innocent bystanders below