Prairies in Full Bloom

A couple of my prairie photos were used for this Metro Parks article.

The Central Ohio prairies are spectacular. Andrew did a good bit of the restoration work on most of them in the parks.

The Hottest Day of the Summer

Up and out by 8 am to beat the heat and take advantage of prime lighting. 80 degrees at 8 am. Off to the creek and then to a remanent prairie to photograph flowers. An exhausting 80 foot vertical hike up a seep on the side of a bluff with no hand holds followed by a grueling trip back downhill and on to a relief giving dip in the creek to wash off the poison ivy.

Beautiful Morning light

The footwear needs of a photographer on location

Climbing the bluff

Blazing Star

A view from near the top

Touch me not

High in a silver maple over the creek

Mackerel clouds in sight...raining in coming with 24 hours.

Hellgramite egg cases

You can see Andrew just above my hair clip doing photography

Dew on the grass with backlighting

Fishing spider (yes it is that big)

Scaly Blazing Star

A variation of Blazing Star

Rough Blazing Star

Highbush Cranberry

Andrew TV segment on Dragonflies

Every now and then WBNS 10TV calls Andrew to go on an outing.  A couple weeks ago they went to Darby Creek to investigate and learn about dragonflies.

On Location...

On location with WBNS-10TV doing a segment on dragonflies at Darby Creek Metro Park. Will air this fall as park of a tv special on the parks.

Flora and Fauna

Just a couple more things from the yard that are new this year. Our mouse friend is living in one of the garage window wells and it was put back (much to its relief) after the photo session.

A Lesson on Vernal Pools

Science lesson for today. Vernal pools are pools of water that fill in early spring and dry up in mid to late summer. They are teaming with aquatic animals both easy to see and not so easy to see. They are unique because they don't contain fish. They are home to salamanders, frogs and invertebrates. You saw chorus frogs and wood frogs earlier this week. Here are photos of the smaller organisms that require are closer look. In the photo of the leach the tiny things floating around in the water are seed clams. There is also a close up of a seed clam that is greatly magnified, 2 snails, and a fingernail clam. There are also two case maker caddisflys that construct their home, that they carry on their backs, out of leaf litter, sticks, bits of grass in and some cases tiny pebbles. Look close at the photo of the prickly caddisfly and you will see his head sticking out and another caddisfly looking at him from a totally different type of home.Photos by Andrew.

 Leech with pea clams around it

Snail

Seed Clam

Pea Clam

d

 Snail

Leech

Two different caddisflies

Mother Nature Paints the Sky

Last night the sunset was stunning. Probably one of the best I have ever seen. The sky was purple, pink, orange and all kinds of shades in between. The show lasted almost an hour.  Here are some photos:

Last Winter Outing of 2015

Our last winter outing for 2015 definitely yielded signs of spring. First day for wood frogs mating, the skunk cabbage is up and we found a red back salamander. Fifty five degrees and a bright blue sky. 

https://youtu.be/uyLtf5I6KFQ  A video I shot of the wood frogs mating and you can hear the quacking sounds they make.

Skunk cabbage

Andrew is a happy camper because he got to see his wood frogs

Red back salamander

Mating frogs

Selfie with my good boy who didn't squirm in the pack or bark at the frogs.

Written Rock

Wood Frogs competing for mates

Selfie with Nolan-Clear Creek raging behind us

https://youtu.be/uyLtf5I6KFQ

Annual Snowflake

This is a real snowflake that Andrew just photographed. This takes a great deal of patience and keen eyesight. Neither of which I have for this task. The peach color comes from bouncing the flash off of a piece of rose quartz. How cool is this?!

Ice Fishing Adventure

A trip to East Harbor on Lake Erie for an ice fishing adventure made for a fun Saturday on what otherwise would have turned out to be a pretty ho hum weekend.  Although we didn't catch a single fish we had a great time being outside and enjoying the company of our friends.

Making some holes in the ice

Setting the shanty up

 Tracy and Robin

Andrew and Tracy

 Me and Robin keeping warm

 Ice holes

The only fish I handled was this minnow  )-:

One of the assorted and sundry characters that came to visit us on the ice.

Done fishing and goofing off.

A quick trip to the Marblehead Lighthouse after fishing

On the way home the most amazing sunset I have ever seen in my entire life.

Yeah right!

We've got history here!