As those ever-present hot, humid August days wore on, once again I found myself at Lake Erie Metropark. Enroute to this venue, I mused that even I may be a bit “marshed out” as the appeal of the Lotus beds held less allure than the first glimpse of them in late July.
I knew I was overdressed as soon as I stepped out of the car; it was already 72 F/22C. There were no clothes I could ditch – perhaps the sunhat? I thought twice about that idea as it was already sunny, so I plunked it on my head and set off.
Sight and hearing – my most valuable senses that day.
Every walk does not yield a Bambi encounter, nor the chance to view a Mama Goose tenderly nuzzling the eggs of her unborn goslings, so, all too often I take many photos that I eventually reject as boring as better photo ops emerge later in that walk.
In the parking lot near the Marshlands Museum, there is a Grow Zone.
Here, I often find bees or butterflies and, if I’m lucky, I’ll see a Goldfinch nibbling on wildflower seeds. So, patiently I paused and perused … no tiny creatures, until, as if on cue, a dainty Viceroy alighted on the grow sign’s wooden post.
I stepped back and zoomed in to avoid having it flit off.
Well surely it could have perched on a more eye-pleasing spot, rather than wood drenched with bird droppings. But there it was, the stark beauty of that Viceroy in contrast to its background.
I chatted with Luc, the resident bald eagle, as I approached his wooden enclosure. He was molting and looked disheveled and was disgruntled as well – no welcoming chirp for me. There were no waterfowl in the marsh near the boathouse, so I headed to the Cherry Island Nature Trail.
It was quiet as I walked along, my head swiveling as I passed the familiar marsh scenes where I usually find Herons, Egrets, or at the very least Mallards and Canada Geese. Nope, nothing made me raise the camera to take a shot, so I looked toward the sky. I have photographed the stand of long-dead trees in the past, but today they appeared stark and somehow out of place in the bright blue sky. I snapped a photo of them which you see as the featured image.
There are a lot of dead trees in this park and I often wonder why they aren’t removed? The resident beaver(s) can only destroy so many trees – perhaps the beavers should strive to aim bigger?
An Eastern Kingbird and a Red-winged Blackbird perched on dead tree branches.
At the boat launch, I searched in vain for a Ring-billed Seagull or two, but the gulls were not where the buoys were and I came up empty.
The boat launch area was surprisingly devoid of boaters and/or anglers.
Suddenly I saw the first humans of the day, a man and a woman. In an excited voice, the man asked me “did you hear that ratchet-like noise?” “Um, no – sorry” was my reply. Well, apparently I had just missed a Kingfisher that finished a fish dinner in mid-flight. He said he had photographed that agile bird as the woman watched through her binoculars. Like some birders I encounter on nature trails, the man was eager to share his sighting and beckoned me to see the image on his camera. “Well that was a bummer” I said and added “now if only I hadn’t stopped to take pictures of the dead trees!”
All three of us laughed and we chatted a little more. I learned they were married retirees and we amiably exchanged favorite venues for nature walks and decided this park’s birds were smarter than us, choosing to stay amidst the trees’ cool leaves, except to venture out for a quick snack, unlike we three, each with beads of sweat on our respective brows.
I said “nice meeting you” and started to leave when suddenly there was movement in the trees and, in an instant, simultaneously the woman peered through her binoculars as the man started focusing his camera. Me, the budding birder saw nothing. Excitedly he asked “do you see it – the Cedar Waxwing – it’s there in the snag?!”
Staring ahead I saw nothing, but that was not my only problem … hmm, what the heck was a “snag” and I sure didn’t want to ask. They were nice folks, so politely I raised my camera, focused on nothing in particular and hoped for more direction. He was clicking away, so I thought I’d best click too – I didn’t want to be rude after all. The man turned around and asked if I saw it and I sheepishly said “well, I’m not sure.” White lies work well in these instances, right? So the couple stood on either side of a bush, bending the branches so I could lean into it to see that elusive bird … he pointed excitedly again, “in the snag, that dead tree – see it?!” (Aha – so a snag is a dead tree. Who knew? I surely didn’t.)
Finally I saw that elusive bird and clicked the shutter button and cried out “got it” rather exuberantly. But I knew it would be blurry and sure enough there was no discernible Cedar Waxwing on that camera card.
I left the couple and continued on my way. At the marsh overlook my protestations about a “dud walk” suddenly turned to admiration for this pair of beautiful birds, a Great Blue Heron and a Great Egret, their stark beauty, surrounded by an abundance of not-ready-for-primetime-yet Lotuses. The huge green leaves covered most of the surface of the marsh, with no flower eruptions in this area yet.
Here is the Great Egret …
… and his buddy, the Great Blue Heron. You are able to see the long feathers of its breeding plumage in these photos.
The simple and stark beauty of these Lotus blooms in a separate Lotus patch, which I had seemed to tire of earlier were not lost on me either.
Nor were the occasional Pond Lilies, also simply stunning.
I finished crossing the overlook with its Phragmites reeds blowing slightly in a sudden welcome breeze and …
… arrived just in time to spot a Barn Swallow flitting from atop a Phragmites.
I finished up this August 22nd walk, noting the pretty, but invasive, Purple Loosestrife growing in this dead tree cavity, a pop of color in still another dead tree.
There was a splash of color from these wild Black-eyed Susans.
Someone, not me, had picked one flower and placed it on the park bench, which made for this simple shot.
Who doesn’t find beauty in flowers, especially wildflowers? This artist of beautiful sunflowers and beyond tells it like it is:
“If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere. -Vincent Van Gogh
I am joining Terri’s Sunday Stills Photo Challenge: Stark.
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
I don’t have sharp distance vision so I often don’t see what someone is trying to point out. Your photos always make me miss my pond — the lilies and even the big blue heron trying snag my fish.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Same with me Kate – I swear I saw nothing (besides not knowing what I was supposed to be looking for). That’s not the first time someone has pointed out something and I didn’t see it. I have a photo to share for Wordless Wednesday from Emily Frank Gardens of their Koi pond with some Pond Lilies and with flowers and some statuary all around – you will really be missing your pond when you see it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
😒
LikeLiked by 1 person
The Van Gogh quote sums it up. The park bench gives me pause. My mind understands that it’s sturdy but without four legs it looks suspicious to me.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree Ally – Van Gogh was a wise man (despite that unfortunate ear incident). I went back and looked at the photo – I never noticed that. That was a funny angle that I used to shoot the bench. I’d pass on sitting down – splinters waiting to happen. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
What a great post, Linda. Those trees are indeed stark but I had to giggle as you described your encounter with the birders, and if you hadn’t stopped to take the picture, you might have seen the other bird. 😁
I’ve always thought egrets are stark in their reptilian unmoving stances, with their sharp bills and odd angles The heron is lovely and great capture of the barn swallow! I’m enjoying everyone’s version of stark today. Love the creativity!
Hoping for some spring-like weather your way.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Thank you Terri! I’ve got some Fall photos with those same dead trees but with pretty red and orange trees near them, so I’m going to use that for the Spring/Fall Challenge. Those birders were really nice and we were chattin’ it up for a while. Egrets and herons look almost prehistoric sometimes – the Sandhill Cranes too. I miss the Barn Swallows. I always catch them sitting on some dead tree branches near the marsh – they won’t be back for another month or so. Winter has been brutal – Woody the Woodchuck gets a bad grade for her forecast.
LikeLiked by 1 person
A good walk never the less Linda. I use snag as something in the water which is a hazard or obstacle, something that can catch clothing like a branch or as the person SNAG Sensitive New Age Guy or Australian slang for a sausage.
Lovely bird photos. Nice to encounter people who enjoy what you do
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, it turned out to be a wonderful walk Brian. I’m glad you liked the bird photos. The Heron and Egret really looked stunning in the marsh with green Lotus leaves only. I enjoy those Barn Swallows and I have one spot I go where they rest on a small dead tree near the marsh. Otherwise, they are in motion constantly catching insects in mid-air and live/nest beneath the wooden overlooks. I had never heard of that term “snag” in nature and Googled it that night. You have your versions of “snag” which are similar except for the last two which are more regional I guess. Birder lingo … 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wonderful colours Linda, just what the Doctor ordered for this time of year!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Wayne! A colorful sight for sore eyes on these gloomy Winter days, even where you live. It was a great walking day in the end, though off to a slow start. Had you heard of that expression “snag” meaning a dead tree before?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, I have heard of that term. Out here it’s any tree that has fallen down but to me It should mean a tree that has fallen and gotten hung up on other trees.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It was new to me Wayne and when I Googled it, the info said any dead, upright tree. Well Lake Erie Metropark has a lot of those dead, upright trees. In fact, I took some more pictures of these same trees, which have been like that for years, to use in another post about Fall in a couple of weeks. I would think a cavity in a tree would be a “snag” more than an upright tree? A few years ago, there was a beaver that was munching on tree after tree – it was amazing to see its handiwork and what damage it had done in one area near its dam.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Out here, any tree that has fallen to the ground is called a snag. I could never understand the logic? Back east, any tree that tried to fall but got hung up on another tree was called a snag.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think your second version (back East) sounds more like what a “snag” could be defined as, not like when I Googled and learned a snag is a “dead or dying standing tree” – there are plenty of those at this park. I’m surprised they don’t take them down. We had a young boy killed at a nature park last Fall when his class was on a field trip and a 20-foot tall dead tree suddenly toppled over on him. It started cracking and the other kids and their chaperones moved quickly but he was pinned underneath.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You had some clever puns in this one, as well as the lovely butterfly and bird pics.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Eilene! It ended up being a wonderful walk. Thanks about the puns too. I am glad someone recognized “the gulls were not where the buoys were”. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lovely to see summer photos at this bleak time of year! 😃 The butterfly is beautiful, especially on that stark bird poop background. I’m surprised they didn’t remove the dead trees. Egrets and Blue Herons are such interesting birds! The lilies are gorgeous and that’s a great shot of the barn swallow.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Debbie! I am glad I have so many Summer-y walks photos to share to get us through the rest of this Winter. I thought that butterfly was beautiful too, especially against the background. I don’t understand why they have all these dead trees – it is a mystery to me. I have some photos of the same trees taken in the Fall when the leaves finally were turning color, so I am going to use that walk for the Spring/Fall Challenge coming up in a few weeks. There are some colorful leaves around the dead trees, so it looks interesting. This turned out to be a great walk, after having my doubts early on. I like the Egrets and Herons too and usually I only get them from afar. I thought the Barn Swallow had the same color underwings as the Phragmites (that was just lucky).
LikeLike
Lovely bird photos.The butterfly is beautiful, especially on that stark bird poop background.The heron is lovely and great capture of the barn swallow! I’m enjoying. Beautiful you sharing your Walk.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Raj – I am glad you enjoyed the post and the photos.
LikeLiked by 1 person
welcome!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I loved reading this post. The photos are very nice and so is your writing. 😊
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Fatima – I appreciate your comment very much. (I’m sorry for the delay in responding to you and unfortunately your comment went to my SPAM folder.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh okay . Thanks for letting me know… ☺️
LikeLiked by 1 person
That butterfly shot was stunning (sans bird-mess). You are so lucky. Whenever I see butterflies (which are my favourites) they are always flitting and the moment they land… even if I am on the far side of the path using zoom the moment I lift the camera off they go.
It becomes a kind of game to snap a picture of each different breed in a year. It can take months to get a good shot 🙂
The Egret shot was lovely, so proud and striking. Whereas the Heron looked all bundled up. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Ari! This ended up being an amazing walk, though off to a slow start. Those Viceroy butterflies are very beautiful and look just like Monarchs, except for the black line along the hind wings. I feel lucky to even see a butterfly anymore because they are so scarce, especially the Monarchs. I know what you mean about the butterflies. Whether you stand in place or try to follow them while they are dipping into flowers then flitting about, it is hard to get a photo of them. I like the Egrets – they look so graceful when they move, whereas I found the Heron is often still like a statue and with its head pulled in, which is usually because they are standing looking for fish, but in this case, it was just standing there motionless.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Few things are as frustrating as someone pointing at something and going “it’s there, do you see it? See it? Right there!” when you don’t see it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I know it JP and I usually say “I guess I need stronger glasses” to try to blame it on the spectacles, rather than myself. 🙂 At least they were around my age, so it wasn’t that they both had “younger” eyes than me.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Loved taking this August walk with you, Linda–even if it wasn’t filled with spectacular sightings. You know the names of so many birds and plants! Won’t be long and we may catch glimpses of migrating birds who don’t live in our locales, but are heading further north. We once had a small flock of indigo buntings come through and feed under our neighbor’s tree. They’re such a gorgeous, brilliant blue!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m glad you liked my August walk Nancy! I can hardly wait for Spring and warmer weather plus some needed color in the landscape to begin the long walks at this park again. We have migrating birds at this park too, but only raptors going through the boat launch area (which I happened to show in this post). This is where the birders and raptor counters set up for three months, from September through November to see them come through, especially on the very windy days when they see more than usual as they ride the current. I have never seen indigo buntings except in photos and they are gorgeous. Finally the ice and water have disappeared at Council Point Park and I heard my first Red-winged Blackbird today. That is always exciting for me as it signals Spring is on the way.
LikeLike
Wonderful post, Linda, you truly made me giggle and smile. Fantastic photo of the Barn Swallow in flight! Pretty composition with the dead tree stump and pop of color. BTW, I do love a good snag! 😍 I’ve got me some good ones behind my house, I’m always glancing to see who’s on which one possibly. And I had to have explained to me what a snag was the first time I heard it.
Oh Viceroy, that’s not a good perch to be inspecting! lol 😉
P.S. Hope you don’t mind, your ‘starling’ photo is a Red-winged Blackbird. 😍 I bet he was belting out a song every so often sittin’ up there!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Donna! I am glad to give you a giggle and whew, I’m not the only one who thought a snag was a catch on your wool sweater or an obstacle in the way. 🙂 This couple was so nice and I wish I’d asked their names or gotten their picture to add to the post, but my blog never came up in the conversation and things were happening fast with the Cedar Waxwing sighting!
I was amazed the Barn Swallow’s underwing was the same shade of pink as the Phragmites since they are rust and cobalt blue. I love seeing them and get photos of them by the marsh sitting on a dead tree.
That Viceroy could’ve picked a nicer spot to land.
I will never-ever mind if someone corrects me. Thank you – a Red-winged Blackbird – wow, I would not have guessed. I heard my very first Red-winged Blackbird yesterday at the Park which is always a first sign of Spring. We get loads of them there and at all the marshes I visit.
This Sunday’s post will have a bird that you’ll probably be able to identify – my Michigan bird book and Google images tell me it’s a Bank Swallow. I’ve never heard of a Bank Swallow here in Michigan. I think it’s an Eastern Kingbird, so I’ll just write these cute birds sitting on the dead tree.
In last week’s post with the frog pictures, after years of traipsing around bogs and vernal pools, I came upon the small frogs singing their hearts out where heavy rains saturated the grass and made pools of water. I listened, I took a lot of photos and excitedly did a Wordless Wednesday post with my “Spring Peepers” I found and a fellow blogger corrected me and said Spring Peepers are much smaller, those are just small frogs singing for potential mates!” So, once again my quest for the REAL “Spring Peepers” will begin in earnest next month!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Linda, please if you ever want to reach out to me for help with a bird ID, I would be more than happy! You can send a photo to donna.wadsley@gmail.com. Twelve years ago when I started birding & blogging, I had a couple bloggers that I would get help from for ID and I am still so appreciative of them.
I can give you another suggestion that will help with ID on almost anything nature. If you register with iNaturalist and upload a decent photo, it will ID the bird, animal, plant, insect, etc for you OR if you try to ID yourself, someone will confirm you’re correct or tell you the correct ID. It might take a day or so. It’s a fabulous world-wide database that I have been using and adding to since last fall. I am hooked! You may have heard about it. You can search my name and my observations should come up. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much for offering to do this Donna! That is so nice of you and I will send you several shots I took of them – a profile and the head turned toward me. There is a Swallow-like tail, yet the colors of an Eastern Kingbird. I have heard of the iNaturalist site on the Soundbytes radio show which gives interesting websites to visit, but I’ve never tried it out. I will try what you have suggested. I usually have luck with Google Reverse Image Search but for this bird and the one I mis-identified in this post, Google was no help at all. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
You got quite a variety of beautiful photos, Linda. I think we always remember the ones that got away. I have many. I’ve been hoping to get some photos of cedar waxwings this season with no luck yet.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Rebecca! It turned out to be a great walk after a slow start. That couple was so nice and I hated that I didn’t get to see the Cedar Waxwing, or the Kingfisher either … it’s all in the timing sometimes as you say. I hope you get to see some of those beauties with such distinctive features.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The tone of the first half of your post is likely how I’ll feel come mid-July in the South. And that Grow Zone sign has certain seen better days!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, I’m sure you will be feeling that hot and humid weather Dave. Every long walk that I take, I do a draft summary the same day to remember the details and it seems as I go through my summaries, every one of those long walks I was dealing with heat and humidity. Of course, now this Winter has been so brutal with cold, snow and ice that I have said I won’t complain about the heat and humidity once Summer arrives … well, we shall see. The volatile weather also comes along with those heat spikes and that is worrisome. That sign is so faded, it is difficult to read the words! I hope you are staying safe and out of harm’s way with any nasty weather and wildfires.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Cedar waxwings are so pretty, I don’t see them very often. We were in Costa Rica last week and people were staring at a snake on a tree. I did not see it, people kept pointing and telling me where to look but nope, still didn’t see it !
LikeLiked by 1 person
That would have been my first Cedar Waxwing. A friend of mine lives in New York and she has Serviceberry trees, a tree which I’d never heard of until she took photos of the Cedar Waxwings sitting in them. Funny – I am glad I’m not the only one who totally misses things sometimes. 🙂 Costa Rica sounds fun – I hope you took lots of photos. Did you see a lot of exotic birds there?
LikeLiked by 1 person
No we didn’t and it was disappointing. We saw egrets, herons,pelicans but we see them in Canada. I thought I would see the Fruit Loops cereal bird lol
LikeLiked by 1 person
A fellow blogger and her husband went to Costa Rica last year. Laurie no longer blogs, but still follows everyone she followed while actively blogging. She mentioned going and how excited she was to see all the many types of exotic birds there as she is a birder. That’s disappointing but I am sure you were able to see some other unique flora and fauna … yes, the old egrets and herons show up everywhere. I’m still waiting to see a pelican.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Beautiful photos. I’ve been thinking recently that I need to hit our local wildlife refuge.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Kirstin! I can hardly wait for the weather to get better here. This has been a brutal Winter here in Southeast Michigan, not so much for snow, but more for ice and very cold temps.
LikeLike
I didn’t know what a snag was either. I wonder if it’s a British word….or a Southern word…or something. Cedar waxwings so often are in groups, lots of them swooping around catching bugs in mid-air or a bunch on a shrub eating berries. Odd to only see one. But I guess every breed has it’s rouge members! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m glad I’m not the only one and I was trying to pretend I knew albeit unsuccessfully. 🙂 I have a friend who lives in New York and has a Serviceberry Tree and she often photographs them from inside the house – they are in groups and are just beautiful.
LikeLike
I cringe when Kenn tells me, “Look at that!” because he doesn’t give me anything to work with. Am I supposed to be looking at the sky, the ground, or something else? Invariably, I miss whatever it was I was supposed to be looking at.🤦♀️
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s funny Linda because that’s exactly how I felt. I had to laugh when they parted the bush and stood on either side of it in an effort for me to try to see what they both saw. Oh well. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I chuckled and smiled about you wishing the Viceroy had not chosen a spot on the wood drenched with bird droppings. Don’t worry about the dead trees, though, they are essential to a healthy forest. Decomposing wood returns nutrients to the earth and helps new plants to grow. (Part of Mother Nature doing her own gardening!) And lots of creatures use dead wood for food (insects) and shelter. But I am sorry you missed the kingfisher, who might have started his hunting flight from one of those dead trees. Too bad you didn’t get a discernible picture of the cedar waxwing. But the great blue heron and the great egret were “great” consolation prizes! The barn swallow in flight was amazing!!! I also love the purple flowers growing out of that stump. You certainly made the best out of the snag in your hot day’s nature walk.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Glad to give you a smile about that Viceroy’s inopportune perching place Barbara. There should be some good soil enrichment going on at Lake Erie Metropark because there are many, many dead trees there. Plus, there was a whole area awhile back where the resident beaver was methodically whittling down, one tree after the other. I was amazed to see this and some look precariously close to toppling over.
I see Kingfishers and Cedar Waxwings on a Metropark Photographers site I follow on Facebook and they are such beautiful birds. I think Jocelyn Anderson photographs them as well. I do hope to see both one day. I’m glad you liked my “consolation prizes” – it sure was my day with the up-close images of both of those birds. That barn swallow looked so much larger and its wings had pink undertones which surprised me. It ended up being a great nature walk in spite of how the day began, which, as you know often happens in our woodsy walks.
LikeLiked by 1 person