Posted on : By : Michelle Posted in : Uncategorized

Staying Put (for a while)

Hello friends – I’m back! I landed in Cleveland last night after spending a week in Connecticut. It was a lovely visit. You would think that by now I would be used to missing my loved ones – I moved to Colorado at age 22 (Air Force training) and since then have lived in six different states, never any closer than 500 miles from my parents. Never close enough to “pop over” for a visit or a Sunday dinner or even a quick weekend catch-up.  Most of the time I am so caught up in my own life that the “missing” is well in the background, but then a visit like this one brings it to the forefront and heightens the feelings, making me wish that everyone I love could live close by.

Lest I get too maudlin, let’s switch to the subject of this post’s photos. 

On Friday my sister Paula brought Mom and me to Harkness Memorial State Park and she and Mom waited in the car while I walked the marshland trail looking for birds. There were two man-made nesting platforms for ospreys at the park, and both of them appeared to be in use. As I was walking along, I saw three large birds having an altercation of some kind whilst airborne – I was too far away to be able to see much detail, but it seemed like one of the birds was holding a fish. I just assumed that they were all ospreys and clicked away. 

It wasn’t until we returned to my sister’s house and I downloaded the photos to my laptop that I realized one of the birds was a bald eagle! Amazing. I feel like I was given an incredible gift to have been there to see it, even if I didn’t quite know in the moment what exactly I was seeing!

Tomorrow I am back to work and my normal routines. I’m staying put for a few months, concentrating on my photography (I’m starting to learn how to use the photo editing software Affinity), this blog, getting our garden looking neat and tidy, and some other projects that have been on the back burner. 

My next few posts will look back on my New Zealand trip. I still have so many photos and experiences I want to share with you!

Happy Easter to those who observe the holiday!

Love,

Michelle xoxo

Posted on : By : Michelle Posted in : Uncategorized

The Next Level

One of my 23 for 2023 goals was to get a new zoom-ier lens for my camera. I did a good amount of research before buying this lens – I wanted something that would give me further reach than the zoom lens that came with my camera; I wanted a high quality lens, but I did not want to spend more than $1,000. My price range filtered out major brand names like Canon, but there are some very good third party lens manufacturers out there, and I chose Sigma for their excellent reviews. 

This weekend was the first chance I had to take it out into the field, and I am so happy with my purchase. I visited three different areas in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park – the Bath Road Heronry, the Beaver Marsh, and Station Road Bridge. The great blue herons are due back very soon, with the males beginning to prepare the nests sometime in mid-February. I didn’t see much action there, but one pair did circle around a while, and a single heron landed in one of the trees and hung out for a while. Beaver Marsh is a place I have also seen great blue herons in the past, but this time I only saw Canada geese and mallard ducks. 

I have visited the Station Road Bridge trail several times since mid-January and while I had seen the eagles’ nest, I didn’t see any eagles. I was thrilled to see a nesting pair both yesterday and today. They apparently have some eggs, because they appear to be taking turns sitting on the nest (the nest is very large and very deep so you can’t actually see an eagle when they are sitting on the nest, only when they pop their head up or leave the nest). The nest is across the Cuyahoga River from the best viewing area, which I am happy about because it means that I could take my photos and not bother the birds. 

I’m finding that wildlife photography is mainly just waiting around for something to show up, and I did have to wait several hours both days to get the photos I’m sharing here. What was really lovely is the fact that I met some other birders/photographers while we waited and heard some of their stories/tips.  I still have an enormous learning curve, but I’m so excited to go to the next level with my photos – I hope you enjoy them!

Love,

Michelle xoxo