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 blob 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.
Linda Schaub
OOH I’m so glad to have a name for this “Thing”!!!! I have some great ones that have showed up in my photos.
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Vero, I knew I was not crazy seeing a whale with a big eye in that sunken log. 🙂 A few years ago, a fellow blogger did some tree pictures with “faces” and used this word (a word or a “thing” I’d never heard of before). It’s fascinating isn’t it? Now, they can put that word in a Connections puzzle. I’ve got a three-day streak going … I’m glad you told me to go back!
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Hahaha! I’ve gotten behind on Connections. Things have really been busy here in real life and I have some catching up to do. I have some great “things” that I will post as soon as I get the time.
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That was a very pretty walk! I loved the heron/ egret image.
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Yes, it was Dawn and it was kind of a spur of the moment thing as I’d already been running around Gibralter all morning taking pics of their DIA art installments. I hadn’t been there since I was a teenager. I liked the heron/egret image too with all the green reflections. This may be one of my favorite posts this year.
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I always love these tours of flora and fauna. That you can identify all of them is impressive!
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Thank you JP! When I first started walking at the Metroparks, I bought a bird guide and wildflower guide to take along with me, then I stuffed them into a drawer and now, if I don’t know the name of any flora or fauna already, I do a Google image search. My secret’s out.
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Beautiful! Those lily pads were ginormous!
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Thanks Kate! I’ve never seen lily pads that large and perfect before. Usually they are torn, or have “nibble marks” on them or have brown rot somewhere on them.
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I bet most of the critters you encounter on your walks have become familiar enough with you not to fly away!
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I was lucky on this walk Wayne because none of the critters bolted, like they usually do. I wish you could have seen the look on my face when I turned around from photographing at that one marsh to find all the Barn Swallows lined up in a row and looking at me. That never happens as they are always in motion. I got some up-close shots which you’ll see Wednesday. They were all juveniles so they didn’t have to be swooping and diving to catch insects in mid-air for themselves or their offspring.
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Yep, I saw what looked like the eye of a whale in the log, Linda! The egrets really posed for you! Crazy to see poplar leaves yellowed and fallen already. Your poplar are much like our Quaking Aspens. I think they’re related.
My last Flower Hour publishes tomorrow. Then Pam will take the challenge for two weeks while we visit Europe!
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Thank you for saying that you saw the whale eye too Terri! I did a double take when I saw it and thought “well it may look that way here, but in a photograph too?” So, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the images on the computer screen. Amazingly, none of these creatures bolted which was very unusual, as the egrets and herons are always quick to take off. The Poplars do resemble your Quaking Aspens and they do “rattle” some in the wind, if you’re lucky to hear them. I will link to your Flower Hour tomorrow – I love those Swamp Roses. They are just gorgeous!
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OH MY GOODNESS, Linda! I used the idea of pareidolia to introduce my blog post just last Thursday!! I had never heard of the word before, and here it is again the very next week. Such fun! / I’m surprised you have Great Egrets in Michigan. We used to see them a lot when we lived in Florida. I didn’t realize that some migrate so far north in summer!
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What a coincidence that is Nancy! It has to be three years ago or so that a fellow blogger did a post about walk in the woods and showed several trees which natural marks on them that resembled a face. So, I learned that word then and I hoped I would see some oddity one day to be able to use it. We do have lots of Great Egrets in our marshy areas and I just saw one yesterday at Elizabeth Park. The Great Egrets don’t often hang around there as it’s not a marshy area, but it was in the canal with some Mallards. They do migrate as soon as it gets cold. The Great Blue Herons stick around though. I guess they tolerate the cold better, though they are just as scrawny as an Egret, weighing in at only about five pounds.
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When I read the first part of this post I thought about Nancy’s post that I had just read and how I had never heard the word pareidolia before. Now twice in a few days. I will tell you both that I am happy to know that it is a thing, and I am not crazy when I think I see faces when looking at the wood grain patters in our floor. (I haven’t told anyone else about this because I didn’t want people to think I had lost my mind. LOL)
Love the post, Linda. The swallow picture is wonderful!
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That’s really a coincidence isn’t it Ruth? A few years ago a fellow blogger did a post on trees she saw on her walk in the woods and the natural marks on the trunks looked like faces – that’s where I first heard the word. I did a double-take when I saw the “whale” and its “eye”. 🙂 Now you can go ahead and tell people about the wood grain patterns and share the word with them because it is a “thing”. I’m glad you liked the post. I had fun on this walk, especially seeing the Barn Swallows who rarely stop to pose. I have a few more for Wednesday.
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This was a marvelously whimsical post!!
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A whale with a flat face was what first came to my mind. It’s fun to look for faces in an inanimate objects. How lucky were you to get a double reflection photo with the blue heron and great egret. Sometimes photo bombing certainly works to our advantage. Love the Barn Swallows sitting in a row photo. I’ve never seen them do that before. You got some beautiful flowers and butterfly photos. I’d say you had a very successful walk. 🙂
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What a beautiful place to hike. It’s amazing how beautiful and amazing nature is and being able to enjoy it is to me one of the luxury of life.🥰
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