As soon as I stepped onto the Cherry Island Trail and saw this oddball “thing” in the murky marsh, I knew it would be my featured image because it reminded me of the word “pareidolia” (seeing faces in objects that don’t have faces). What do you see … a partially submerged, iridescent-looking log, mired in the Duckweed and green algae, with a fisherman’s bobber gravitating toward it, or doesn’t it resemble some creature, maybe even a whale? Check out its “eye” … humor me here please. 🙂

There were a few oddities on my marsh meander.

Seeing this “creature” definitely began a trend for the rest of that trek as I saw things with a slightly whimsical, even offbeat eye.

For example, these very large water lily pads looked like floating green tortillas. Lots of leaves, but no lilies. A frog atop a pad would have been a nice find, just sayin’.

I rounded the bend of the trail and walked in a woodsy area, grateful for the shade, as it was getting warm and I’d already spent about 2.5 hours in Gibralter, walking and driving around that small city before coming here.

On the first overlook, everything was very green. The marsh reeds cast a beautiful reflection and more lily pads dotted the surface. I was so intent on getting the Great Blue Heron’s reflection in my shot, this photobombing Mallard zipped by. Yay, an unintended “twofer” shot!

Moments later, with eyes still watching the marsh through my camera lens, it was another “twofer” shot when this Great Egret suddenly stepped into the frame … hmm, I was seeing doubles, or even quadruples, of my fine-feathered friends!

Well, there is always that one goose, duck or (fill in the blank here … even human works) that dares to be different. In this case it was one feathery butt up in the air, looking for tasty underwater plants.

Across the marsh, pushing the limits of the 12X zoom of my digital compact camera, was a turtle who was eyeing this “ramp” much like a skateboarder would at a skate park. I took its photo and quickly moved on. I could picture the turtle landing on its shell, kicking all four legs and no one to help it flip over.

My trek continued, in and out of woodsy areas, until soon I was at the next, larger wooden overlook, the marsh before me, Lake Erie behind me.

I admired this Great Egret, intent on stretching its neck as far as it could go. Thank you for posing for me.

The Egret, either bored with neck stretching, or annoyed by my presence, made a screech and flew down to this bowed branch in the marsh, then proceeded to study the water. I waited patiently for it to score a fish, but …

… the fishing expedition came up empty, so I turned around, ready to resume my walk and found a row of Barn Swallows sitting every so sweetly on the top railing of the overlook. Hmm – how long were they there and I said “please hold that pose!” Since the old dead tree is gone on the other side of the park, I rarely see Barn Swallows alight – they are always catching insects in flight. I’ll have a few more pics of these Barn Swallows in my Wordless Wednesday post this week.

On the shoreline side of Lake Erie are many fallen trees and the Mallards and turtles use them for snoozing and sunbathing. No matter how quietly I creep up to take photos of them, one sees me and they all bolt, the ducks paddling furiously away and the turtles plopping into the water.

A peek-a-boo Mallard was distracted so I got fairly close to it.

This portion of the Cherry Island Trail ends at the boat launch area. Surprisingly, on this gorgeous Summer day, there were no boats at the docks, nor in the water.

All I saw were the wavy-looking pier “legs” …

… and a gaggle of geese gave me a giggle as they played “Ring-around-the-Rosie”, a childhood game I played many moons ago. No, they did not all flop down, but they saw me and quickly waddled off.

Amazingly, on August 4th, there were Poplar leaves littering the parking lot and grassy areas near the boat launch! Wasn’t I just photographing the Cottonwood fluff a month or so ago? While we had torrential rain many times, we were not in drought mode.

Just as I stepped back onto the nature trail to get on still another wooden overlook, some geese flew overhead, in traditional V-formation … say it isn’t so, Fall migration? Nah, our Canada Geese are hardy and stay put.

Heck, the Lotuses have just begun to bloom!

(Well, most of them anyway.)

Here was an American Lotus, with a leaf as big as an elephant’s ear, along with a bud that reached for the sky with the promise of beauty to come.

There was not much else to see in this marsh – no waterfowl or Lotuses blooming on one side of the overlook and across the road, the reeds blocked out that side of the marsh.

I did appreciate the color along both sides of the wooden overlook, like this pretty Purple Loosestrife …

… and I never get tired of seeing these huge Swamp Rose Mallows.

The swamp reeds are so hardy, they poke up through the slats of the wooden walkway.

From a distance, I thought the darkish blog on the overlook walkway was more reeds poking through the slats, but it was a juvenile Robin.

As I ended my trek, a delicate Eastern Black Swallowtail settled on some Queen Anne’s Lace and spread its wings, nearly covering the plant. There were sticky spider webs and I worried this butterfly would get caught up in them. As it was, it was missing one hindwing tail.

A group of wild Black-eyed Susans, a/k/a Sweet Coneflowers, were the last shots I took, before I headed to the car and the welcome A.C.

Terri’s Challenge is Hometown, so I’ll be joining her Flower Hour instead. I am also enjoying Pepper’s Challenge One Step at a Time.