Sunday, May 11, 2025 was a gorgeous day and I took advantage of the sunny morning when I set out on a very long walk at Lake Erie Metropark. It was picture-perfect, not only for me, but also for all the mothers who would be celebrating their special day, i.e. Mother’s Day. Before I would return to the car in the early afternoon, I had crisscrossed this 1,607-acre Metropark on foot, seeking to enjoy nature and fill up my camera card.
Today will be part one of that long walk; next week will be part two and will focus on all the birdies and their babies, even a few expectant moms, I saw along the Cherry Island Trail with a nod to Mother’s Day 2026. I was my shutter-happy self with a spring in my step on that Spring-y day.
Well, I didn’t know where to start and, when it is not hot and humid, I always park once and crisscross the park on foot, lingering in all my favorite spots. I took a left to make my first stop at the overlook where the Barn Swallows hang out. Oops – too early for them I guessed as I saw no Swallows zooming around. I wasn’t happy to find the scraggly dead tree was gone, the only place I ever see those Swallows perch and pause to catch their breath from their endless efforts to catch insects in flight. I peered over the side of the overlook as if I might see their raggedy perch sticking out of the water. I spun around and headed the opposite way muttering to myself “I hope they have a Plan B for R&R.”
Meandering along Cove Point.
I decided to walk along beautiful Cove Point – perhaps I’d glimpse a freighter, but there were none. Unbelievably, just like that (snapping fingers), the breeze picked up. It was calm when I left the house – heck, it was calm when I left the car some 15 minutes earlier. Grrr! It was windy and wavy now as you can see in these photos below, some waves encroaching onto the boulders along the shoreline.
As I walked along the path that runs parallel to the shoreline, I was on the lookout for any inhabitants in the Bluebird nesting boxes. When I got my first Metropark pass in 2018, I took several guided walks led by Metropark interpreters. I also took a few boat trips, that unfortunately ceased running after the pandemic began and never started back up again. I learned that a slew of bird enthusiasts had volunteered to construct and erect Bluebird nesting boxes all along Cove Point – they look like these pictured below.
While that volunteer work was admirable, the guide explained that the Tree Swallows have overtaken those nesting boxes, a fact I will attest to. Every year, Tree Swallow males stake out a nesting box and soon thereafter the female disappears inside to lay eggs and tend to the young. I see this every Spring, but I’ve never seen their offspring, nor a Bluebird, anywhere in the park. Here is one of those nesting boxes with a male claiming “first dibs” on it.
I continued on the path toward the marina. I didn’t see any pleasure boats out, likely because of the holiday and, when I when I rounded the corner at Marina Point to head down Lee Road, there was no activity at any of the 100 wells at the Marina.
The waterfowl and waders were out and about.
To the left is the Marina and to the right is a wetland area that runs alongside Lee Road. It was here, enroute to the Osprey platform/nest that I paused and took all these photos. The reeds were just starting to green up, but even with the blah, straw-colored landscape, unlike the windy conditions on the open waters at Cove Point, the water was not choppy, the wind was manageable and the calm waters made nice reflections.
This trio of Canada Geese was sedate until they were spooked by Yours Truly.
They left behind a buddy who was content to take in the peaceful morning by him/herself as you see in the featured image and below.
The Great Egret was busy fishing and paid me no mind, so …
… I zoomed in for some close-up shots.
I think he/she liked the attention and waded over closer to me. 🙂
The Great Blue Heron, was wading through what I figured was still very chilly water, peering occasionally for its breakfast, with no luck, so it flew away – perhaps it would have better luck there.
A pair of Mallards paddled in and out of the reeds.
A Mute Swan studied this patch of dried-up grass like it was something it had never seen before.
Two old tree branches, each filled with sunbathing turtles, were tucked in a corner away from all the waterfowl. With no room to spare, the turtles made the most of minimum space didn’t they? One fell backward, plopping into the marsh water just after I took the first picture.
The walk was peaceful and culminated with me craning my neck upward to watch the Osprey nest and its surly occupants that glared down at me. What stage of the nesting process were we on May 11th: were we still gathering sticks and tidying up the nest, sitting on the eggs, or just taking it easy on this lazy Sunday morn? You’ll see those pictures of the Osprey pair in next week’s post.
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
Always a pleasure to see your wildlife photos, Linda! 🙂 The Egret, Heron in flight, and the sunning turtles are my favourites. Here’s hoping we get some decent spring weather soon. Have a good week!
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Thank you Debbie! That was a long and peaceful walk that day. I know I should have savored it more than I did at the time as nice walks like that were few and far between last Summer. The sunning turtles are always my favorites too; they are nice to photograph until they see you and slowly plop off the log one by one. We had a very warm day today, 78F/25C, but potential severe weather tonight, then we have freeze warnings again. You have a good week too!
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Looks and sounds wonderful, Linda. I look forward to part 2 and hope to get to Elizabeth Park soon. 😊
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Thanks Pepper – it was a gorgeous May day to spend out in nature. I probably could have split it into three posts as I saw/photographed so much, but I wanted to lead up to next week’s Mother’s Day post.
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Sounds like a perfect plan. 😊
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Those birds who have taken over the bluebird boxes demonstrate a universal truth – what we plan and what actually happens are often two different things.
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Yes, it is inevitable sometimes JP. Unfortunately, with no official claim to the birdhouse, the Bluebirds are out of luck and the Tree Swallows are opportunistic. Maybe they ought to put a spin on the old phrase “it’s a dog-eat-dog world”.
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The turtles are funny. I can imagine them saying, “move over I need a little room here!”
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Yes, the turtles are funny because sometimes one will just stretch its leg out and kick one of its buddies right off the log. I’ve never been able to figure out if it was just a big stretch, a cramp in its leg or it kicked him off on purpose! 🙂
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Lovely photos, as always!
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Thank you Anne! It was a perfect Spring day to go on this long walk!
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I am really missing my trips to assorted parks to see the spring arriving. It’s nice to look at other people’s pictures and remember when. 🙂
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Dawn, I know it must be difficult for you itching to take your camera out. I have not been to any big parks yet this year – my car has been in the shop for almost two weeks. I had a small leak, which was fixed in one morning, but it has been at the body shop now for 10 days. I came out of a store to find a huge scrape on one fender, so I am having that fixed, plus some little chips from stones, etc. I walked to Council Point Park to see three families of goslings yesterday. They made my day. All very young, born within the last week.
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I hope that hummer drops by to say hi! Mine are all gone. I think one came over last night.
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I hope so too Wayne – I’ve not put the feeders out yet because we keep having frost warnings, but today we got to almost 80 and because of the heat spike have possible severe weather tonight. It depends if the storm comes in after dark – hoping that happens. Then it gets cold again until mid-May. It can stay cold if it will elminate the storms! I’m sure you miss your crowd of hummers and I’m glad you got to get a video for you and us to remember them by!
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What a lovely walk you had that day, Linda. So many waterbirds and turtles to enjoy. Marshes are magical places, a wetland world unlike any other. Way back in 2017 I got a couple of pictures of a tree swallow looking out of a bluebird box, so I can also attest to them overtaking nesting boxes intended for other birds. https://ingebrita.net/2017/06/blossoms-bluebird-baby-orbs/
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Hi Barbara – Yes, it was a lovely walk, the first Spring walk where there was lots to see, wildflower buds starting to form and some magical moments in the marsh with the wading birds. So, next Sunday will be those Mamas, expectant or otherwise. 🙂 Thank you for sharing this link. Comments are closed so I’ll have to comment here instead. So, it looks like it is not just in SE Michigan that we have tree swallows overtaking bluebird nesting boxes. That is a shame. Marge bought some small bird houses hoping to see wrens take up residence and she saw wrens going in and out, so she was happy they might be nesting there, then the sparrows overtook the nesting box and Marge said she saw them destroying the nesting materials that were there (which surprised me unless they use different types of materials). That was a nice walk you and Beverly had that day. I’m looking forward to June walks since the April and May walks in 2026 have been pitifully scarce.
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You must be very organized to be able to write a post on a walk from a year ago, Linda. Do you jot down notes immediately after the walk or do your photos jog your memory all these months later? I’m curious about your mention of “Cherry Island” Trail. I see no island on Google Maps and wondered whether there are cherry trees nearby (now or in the past). On the barn swallows’ “scraggly dead tree”, I misread your comment “Plan B for R&R” as “Plan R for B&B” and it still kind of worked – ha. Finally, I’ve said it before but it still fascinates me: the long, curvy neck on herons. A full-on capital S! One of nature’s many wonders…
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Dave, I do indeed write a extensive recap after every long walk I take because I sometimes don’t post for a while. As soon as I go online, on the same day I walk, I type up a document in Word and I even put in my “markers” which are asterisks identifying everywhere I’ll want to put my photos to go along with the commentary. However, as organized as this may seem, in this post and this coming Sunday’s post, I walked on Mother’s Day *2025* and fully intended to use the photos/commentary for this Mother’s Day *2026*. Because I knew I wouldn’t use the photos for a year, I took my sweet time going through all the photos from that day (a couple of 100 as it was a long walk). That’s why I didn’t recall seeing the nesting swan, which you’ll see this Sunday – I saw her and her cygnets several times throughout the Summer. It didn’t “click” in my mind I had seen them in May on Mother’s Day.
I think swans are beautiful and I hope one day to get a photo of a mated pair, bill to bill with their “S” necks arched like a heart. A UK photographer I follow got such a photo a while ago.
I had to look up the Cherry Island trail info. I didn’t know if I wrote about it before, but the interpretive guide told us the story on a guided walk once. I tried searching for “Cherry Island” in my blog, but it pulled up every time I wrote about the 1.25 mile Cherry Island Trail, so I resorted to Google which told me: “Lake Erie Metropark used to be called Cherry Island and there were at least 19 homes there for many years. The Huron Clinton Metroparks, 13 in all, changed the name when they acquired the land to Cherry Island.” I remember learning before that it was all wetlands and flooded horribly. It is not as bad as it used to be – they have put pea gravel on much of the Cherry Island Trail. I bought some rubber ankle boots about five years ago so I wouldn’t muddy up my walking shoes, but clomping along and sinking in the mud just wasn’t worth it. They are improving some areas prone to flooding – that’s a good thing. They planted wildflowers in the big ditches last year and that attracted the pollinators, so that was a plus. I’ve not even been there this year due to the weather, mostly rain and my car is in the shop now almost two weeks after someone scraped up my fender in a parking lot and I’ve having it repaired. Look what I’m missing, but I got a slew of gosling shots on Sunday (three families)!
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Wow, so you’re even more organized than I thought with your blog prep. Sometimes I crank out an entire post in the morning hours before I publish. I admire your documentation system – less stressful! I’m surprised to hear about Cherry Island/Trail. I had visions of Washington D.C. in springtime. Obviously your locale has been anything but cherries over the years. Oh well, it was a nice thought. I love cherries 🙂
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Dave, I forgot to mention that I also keep a grid of all my walks and photos, so I know what I’ve got. I just started doing that in 2023 when a fellow blogger asked me to join her blog Challenges. I had never done Challenges before, so to keep straight what I could contribute, I started keeping a grid – before that I just rolled out the posts in chronological order, interrupting that order for holidays, year-end recaps, etc. Before I retired, I was often still sorting through Summer and Fall photos in the heart of Winter. I do not have as many photos left from last year, so it’s a good thing I will have two personal posts coming up in June and then the Bicentennial memories post on July 4th.
It would be nice if the Cherry Island Trail looked like Washington, D.C. at Cherry Blossom time, but no such luck. One of the Metroparks has a whole area of Redbud trees that bloom in early May – one day I hope to get there and see them. Traverse City, Michigan is nicknamed “Cherry Capital of the World” – they have a huge cherry festival every 4th of July. You can find anything and everything made with cherries and they are famous for their cherry pit spitting contest. 🙂 I love cherries too!
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Miss Linda…………………………………..I’ve never seen the inside or underside of a GBH’s wings……………………………..they’re beautiful…………………………….that was a nice walk through the park………………..Thank You
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You’re welcome Ann Marie and what amazes me always is the wingspan on these birds, especially the large birds like GBHs and Egrets, but even Seagulls as you’d never guess the length of their wings when they are just perched or walking along the boardwalk railing.
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Lovely walk and adventure, I love all your photos, Linda! Looking forward to the Osprey shots! 😉
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Thank you Donna! It sure was a birder’s paradise that entire walk. The Osprey platform is so high up, there is nowhere to see inside the nest, no matter how far you back up and they sure don’t give you a clue as to their offspring.
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I didn’t remember it being that nice for Mother’s Day and I didn’t post about it so I’m happy you did. I enjoyed the walk and look forward to part two. I don’t think we are going to have such nice weather for Mother’s Day this year. We had two broods of baby killdeer hatch this week. I never even saw their nests. I also discovered a Northern Bobwhite is nesting in our back field. I started her off the nest as I drove buy on the tractor. I think she had 4 or 5 eggs. I have not seen one before and hope she is able to raise a brood as I think they are rare in this area.
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Ruth, I think most of May was nice last year. I always write a draft of my longer walks the same day I take them, otherwise I’d forget what happened, especially since I planned to use the walk/photos for this year’s Mother’s Day. No, it sounds like rain off and on for Mother’s Day which is too bad, especially if people had outdoor plans. At least the killdeer didn’t nest by the driveway this year. They must have nested in an out-of-the-way spot if you missed both nests. I had to Google to see what a Northern Bobwhite looked like – that’s a big bird. I hope she is successful raising her brood and that you get a photo of them if possible. How are your pansies holding up with these chilly overnights?
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These pansies are not as hardy as the ones we have had in years past. We have lost some but not all.
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That’s too bad Ruth – but we don’t usually have such cool temps usually either. Coolish weather most of May – hope it doesn’t become crazy hot then.
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What surprises while walking about. You must be very pleased
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Yes, you’re right Teresa. When I start a long walk like this one, I always wonder what I will encounter that day. I do like the surprises along the way (especially when I don’t see them in real time, but on the screen later). Thank you for your comment.
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