Welcome to my Ohiostatebugeyes web site. Don't let the name fool you. I grew up in Pennsylvania but I joined the Air Force and eventually retired here in Ohio and stayed for the associated military work. I'm still a PA boy at heart, but PAStatebugeyes didn't make any sense, so I went with Ohio as a play on the Buckeyes theme.
My wife (also a PA-er) takes pretty good photos too, especially considering the subject matter on the right! She did have to replace her camera not too long afterward. Hmmm.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the site and the photos. I'm no professional (as if I needed to actually say that) but I do enjoy using good equipment and there's never a lack of interesting subjects when you are shooting nature in all its glory.
Cetain groups of photos can be viewed as slideshows by clicking on the named links in the left-side menu. These should open a page of thumbnail images. To view larger versions, simply click one of the thumbnails and then use the arrows at the bottom left and right to move forward and backward through the larger images. Clicking a large image takes you to the thumbnail page for that image. The old slideshows that ran on their own no longer function so I've removed them. I hope to replace many of them with newer photos and with this current format.
Under DOWNLOADS, the links are mostly for videos. Just right click the link and select Save Target As... Choose the location where you would like to save the file. The videos are anywhere from 8-500 MBytes for 40 seconds to several minutes. There are small and medium-sized versions of high-definition originals as well as QuickTime videos from my older Dimage-Z2 at 640x480 resolution.
When you've finished each slide show, just close that browser window. There are many photos still to be added to the existing categories and there are a few hundred insect and spider photos to add as well. But, one thing at a time.
September Ark Encounter and Creation Museum trip. Use these links for a PDF file containing a variety of photos from the Ark Encounter and the Creation Museum. This link is for a zipped file you can download to obtain copies of the actual photos so you can see them on screen at much higher resolution than the PDF file.
24 Aug2024: Today was another scorcher! But I was deteremined to spend some of my Saturday outside rather than in front of the computer. So I headed out for Cedar Bog in search of a new flower, Parnassus Grass. In all my visits, I had never seen this. But, on the way, I planned to stop at my favorite church lake, where the green heron appeared a couple weeks ago, and take some more dragonflies in flight photos. Once again, I almost didn't make it to Cedar Bog. This time, 7 great white egrets appeared on this small lake. The dragonflies were abundant as well. In this PDF file, you'll see the black saddle bag, a few 12-spotted skimmers, the orange dragonfly that I think is the flame skimmer, as well as my favorite green darner. I'll add the Cedar Bog shots, including the best shot of the Parnassus Grass in my next posting. That will give you time to look for it online. Dragonflies, egrets, geese, and a duck.
20Aug2024: This morning, between 6:15 and 6:22 AM, the International Space Station was visible from the Dayton, Ohio area. As the ISS appeared, in the west, the full moon was brightening the early morning sky. The ISS swept by just to the left of the moon and I started taking photos. The first couple of shots are from that early sequence. Eventually, the ISS rose from 10 degrees off the western horizon, to 79 degrees, almost directly overhead, then faded off to the east and disappeared at roughly 10 degrees above that horizon. The last few couple of shots show that fading and the tremendous difference in the ISS's size between horizons and overhead. These are the first successful shots of the ISS I've managed to take with the Canon R5. They are also the first I've taken in the morning in many years. With the size and resolution of those middle shots, I'm highly motivated to get back out there and shoot again. Here is a PDF of the sampling from the 900+ shots I took that glorious morning. ISS 20 August 2024
July 20/21, 2024: This weekend was filled with dragonflies, shorebirds, an osprey, a blue heron, and two green herons! I never expected to see a single green heron at the church lake. But one appeared and hung around for most of my time at this small lake. Then another showed up at Carriage Hill lake on Sunday afternoon. What a great weekend! Here is the download page for two zipped files of sample photos from each location. WILD WEEKEND!
May 25th provided this year's first real opportunity for capturing dragonflies in flight. A few other interesting subjects made appearances throughout the early afternoon, but dragonflies were my primary target. The large snapper was a surprise along with the damselflies in its face and above its back, as well as a katydid that made a brief landing on top of the turtle's shell. Here's the PDF file link.
April 8th, 2024 brought a total solar eclipse to our part of Ohio. Thankfully, that was the one clear day we enjoyed the entire week! For a sampling of photos, as a PDF file, and a timelapse video, unstabilized at this point, with a couple of minutes of real-time corona footage, follow this link. ECLIPSE 2024.
2-3 February, 2024: For the first time since well before Covid hit, I returned to a great birding area, in north-central Ohio, called Killdeer Plains. The park is criss-crossed with dirt and gravel roads with the occassional hard-surfaced road, but none is in great condition, so travel is fairly slow throughout. Killdeer Plains was the site of our first birding adventure with a group and my first birding adventure period. Prior to this, birds were of only mild interest, and I didn't really know much about them. In fact, at the time of our trip, I was still sporting my first digital point-and-shoot camera, a little 4 megapixl Konica Minolta Dimage Z2. My only other camera was a film-based camera, so you can imaging how long ago this trip occurred.
Well, my return trip didn't reveal nearly as many hawks or the variety of hawks and owls as that initial trip, but I was also in the park a few weeks later than that trip, and it seems most of the hawks and all of the owls may have already departed. I saw no owls at all. But, I did have a close encounter with a light-morph rough-legged hawk. I shot it initially sitting in a very twisty-branched tree. It was the only hawk that allowed me to get within a hundred feet or so without flying off. I soon realized why. It was apparently stalking a rodent. After a few minutes of shooting through the hazy and distortion-heavy evening air, the hawk flew out over a grassy area, on the opposite side of my car, and began hovering for a few seconds before diving down and disappearing into the tall grasses. It reappeared and flew up the road, to a raised bank, where it landed just on the other side of the crest. From that point on, all I could see was the upper 2/3rds of the hunter. It kept a close eye on me, but it didn't seem to be making any "eating" progress. A couple of times, it lifted the rodent enough for me to see its face, but I never saw it actually eating it. When I returned home, and began processing my photos, I soon realized why there was no sign of the hawk eating its prey. It seems it had broken its beak. There are a few photos where you can see a black crack about half-way back the beak. It wasn't there in the original photos in the tree, so I think it must have somehow damaged its beak during the strike on the rodent. What a shame. I wish I had seen that crack while I was there, I might have been able to contact the park headquarters to see if a rescue operation could be mounted.
Two other surprises greeted me in the park on Saturday morning. Throughout the morning, I must have seen almost 1,000 tundra swans. They were everywhere there was any water. Even flooded fields had swans in them. One of the smaller groups had a swan with a tracking transmitter fastened around its neck. The second surprise, and a life bird, was a leucistic horned lark. This small bird is usually a mix of browns, black, white, and yellow; quite a striking bird. At first I thought I was seeing a snow bunting. But, when I finally zoomed in on the camera's viewing screen, I realized it was a horned lark but one that was lacking much of its feathers' pigmentation. That's the leucistic part; the lack of pigment. It's not albino. It's just unusually lacking in color.
Finally, I saw several female northern harriers, one of which flew by with another rodent pulled close to its underside and close enough for a couple of good photos. It was just such a dark morning, that I left the photo dark because that's how it actually looked as I shot it. Kestrels also abounded but were mostly very skiddish and wouldn't let me anywhere near them. Red tailed hawks were everywhere but also wouldn't let me approach, even in the car, to get anything decent. Only one immature sat still long enough for me to get anything decent. Eagles also appeared in the distance or far overhead, so I didn't manage anything too impressive on that front. So, finally, here is the PDF file with some samples of my Friday evening and Saturday morning at Killdeer Plains. Next year, I hope to scan the park in the middle of January when there might be more birds of interest including owls. PDF Link
Happy New Year! Well it certainly started out very happy around here. A visitor from the far western US made an appearance here south of Dayton. A western grebe was spotted on the Great Miami River in West Carrollton. Once we knew about this very unusual visitor, we decided to brave the cold, windy, spritzy weather and drive south to hopefully get a glance at a bird we never expected to see. Western Grebes tend to live on large, deep, fresh-water lakes in breeding season from western Wisconsin to the Pacific coast and migrate to the Pacific coast during the non-breeding season. Although an occasional specimen finds its way to the eastern half of the country, I had never heard of one in this area, and was thrilled at having an opportunity to see one in the local area. Much to our great joy, this rare migrant was still on the river and seemingly oblivious to all the attention it was getting from the photographers and birders with spotting scopes. So here is a link to a PDF file containing about a dozen shots of the grebe and another link to a 4-minute video of the grebe bouncing around on the choppy waters and doing some preening. With the significant distance between us, the photos are a bit smaller even with the 800mm lens. I returned on the 2nd, after work, with the P1000 super-zoom to do the video. It was again windy, cold, and the water was still turbulent, so the video isn't smooth and pretty, but it is a decent look at this bird as it bobs around and seems to have developed an affinity with the buoy in the middle of the river. PDF file || Video Link || Download Zip File
December 9th, 2023; Despite the dreary, rainy day, I knew I wouldn't be able to get out Sunday afternoon, so I decided to head over to Huffman Prairie to see if any of the winter migrating birds had arrived.
Before I arrived at the prairie, I began passing by Eastwood Lake Metropark. Many years, merlins overwinter in this park and on the prairie as well. So, I decided to take a brief detour to see if any of those merlins had returned. Not only did I find an immature merlin sitting on top of the electric pole, where I see it almost every year, I spotted a mature merlin on the other side of the road, closer to the lake shore. But, as I tried to maneuver the car into a position to shoot that merlin, it shot off into the distance.
Disappointed, I turned my attention back to the young merlin on the pole. This patient bird gave me many opportunities to get a decent shot, but the lighting was so poor, due to the impending heavy rain, that I had to shoot very slowly. Fortunately, several shots worked out sharp enough to keep.
I drove around the rest of the park for a while hoping to spot the mature merlin. Eventually I found it at the far end of the lake shore sitting in a dead tree limb. It was a long shot from the car, so I decided to risk an attempt to sneak up for a closer look using a couple small cedars along the bank to mask my approach. Thankfully that worked.
I slowly approached the wary falcon and even more slowly crept sideways to clear the last cedar so I could hopefully snap a few photos before the merlin flew off. About 10 shots later I decided I must have managed at least one good one and hoped to retreat without spooking the bird any longer. After a few receding steps, I slowly turned around to see if the merlin had remained on its perch, but it had fled the scene.
As I drove away, back toward the immature merlin, I noticed a single ring-billed gull perched on a large boulder right next to the road. So, I rolled down my window, pointed my lens at the gull, and took a head shot. It was that close.
I almost forgot, shortly after taking my first set of photos of the immature merlin, I headed to the north end of the lake. As I arrived at that edge, I caught sight of a mature bald eagle heading my way. I yanked the car off the road, shut off the ignition, grabbed my lens and popped out of the car hoping to be able to snap a few quick shots before the eagle passed by and all I would see would be tail feathers and wings. Thankfully, it made a couple of passes, so I've included a couple of those as well.
As I was leaving the park, after finding the mature merlin and the ring-billed gull, I spotted another eagle flying across the lake at a much greater distance than the mature eagle had passed by. But, I hate to miss any opportunity to shoot eagles in flight, so I repeated my earlier yank, shut off, grab, and hop out scenario to get a few shots of this latest specimen. So you get a couple of those added in as well.
I eventually made it to Huffman Prairie and didn't see a single bird to shoot. So I was happy that I had taken the earlier detour. This slide show is in the form of a PDF file. Whether you download the file or simply click the lin, you can scroll down through the included photos. Magic Merlin PDF
October 14th, 2023; partial solar eclipse from the Enon Applebutter Festival. While "working" the Honor Flight Dayton booth, at the Enon Applebutter Festival, I was blessed to have several moments of thinning clouds so I could video and photograph various phases of today's partial solar eclipse. These two links take you to a photo slide show and an MPEG-4 video file. The video should play directly in a new browser window. I muted the audio track as there were some "private" conversations ongoing that should be kept private. The slideshow opens in a new browser window. The first page is a page of thumbnail images. Clicking on a thumbnail image opens a larger version and provides navigation arrows at the bottom to move to the next or previous "large" image. Clicking a large image takes you back to that image's thumbnail page. There are two thumbnail pages and, I believe 24 large images in all. You may also notice a couple of large sunspots and many smaller ones as well. The original images are considerably larger, 3-4x larger, than the posted "large" images. If you have an interest in any of the "full-size" images, please email me at: stanmarste@aol.com, and I will send them to you.
September 21st, 2023: I just realized I missed a whole bunch of photos that were on a different computer. So, this is more bugs, shrooms, and a few birds. The most interesting butterfly is on the second page of thumbnails. It is a small butterfly, called a Harvester, but it is interesting because of its larval (caterpillar) stage. This is the only "carniverous" butterfly caterpillar! It feasts on aphids! So it's a good caterpillar; maybe even better than a ladybug or lacewing. I had never heard of it and had definitely never taken a picture of it. On one of our walks, we saw two little, orange butterflies flitting around each other, in a small patch of sunlight, deep in the woods. One was obviously "duller" in color than the other, so we figured we had a male and female. Eventually we managed to get close enough, without scaring them away, to take a few photos. Wish I had had my macro lens, but I didn't. So, I had to shoot the 70-200mm from at least 4 feet away. That makes for a small picture of a small butterfly. But, you shoot what you have at the time. Hope you enjoy this second series of "bugs and shrooms." The colorful yellow bird is a female Northern Parula. The other yellow and black is a goldfinch. I should also mention the monarch with the circular "sticker" attached to its wing. This was the first I had ever seen a "tagged" butterfly. This is part of a migration study on Monarch butterflies. So, I reported the tag number, the requested details, and sent in the photo. You just never know what you're going to see when you get out in the world.
September 20th, 2023: I'm playing catch up for the past month's photos. While I haven't been out and about as much as I would have liked, the bugs were plentiful, except for butterflies, and the mushroom variety was pretty good as well. The last outing, to Stillwater Reserve, provided a couple of monarchs and lots of large and small spiders! So, if you don't like spiders, this may not be the set of photos you would most enjoy! But, if you aren't too squeamish, try this series of photos. August/Septermber Slideshow.
July 4th, 2023 firework "art" photos are now accessible in the left-hand menu, under Galleries. Click any thumbnail image to view a larger version. Click any large image to return to that image's thumbnail page. Navigation arrows appear at the bottom of both thumbnail and large-image pages. I'm including two download links here if you wish to download and view the full-size images, larger than the "large" images in the slideshows. Those have all been reduced for better fit in browser windows. Right-click a download link, and select the "save as" or "save target as" option that appears. Once downloaded to your computer, right-click each .zip file, and select the extract all option. Be sure you know where the extracted files will be saved. The options/navigation should appear in the extraction selection window. Fireworks-1 download. Fireworks-2 download.
May 29-30: We missed our normal May birding weekend at Magee Marsh this year but ended up going a couple of weeks later than usual. While we didn't see a lot of warblers, we did get to see a Virginia Rail family that included five chicks. Of course they and the adult birds stayed down in the shadows among the roots and water plants. Our small crowd of photographers kept looking for holes through which to try to snap as many pictures of these babies as possible. Though there were few open opportunities, I heard a lot of happy comments about the successes. The little, black fuzz balls are those chicks. We also saw blue-gray gnatcatchers building nests along with yellow warblers doing the same. A green heron couple had made their nest of stick on the other side of a small pond from the boardwalk where we birders "migrated" through the marsh looking for life birds (ones we had not previously seen.)
After Magee Marsh, we also visited Howard Marsh. One of the birders at Magee told us about baby black-necked Stilts at Howard Marsh. The only black-necked stilt we had previously seen was in the Florida Everglades! But we did manage to get a lot of looks at the two babies and both adults, who were constantly chasing away other birds who approached too close to the chicks. Saturday morning, we headed east to Sandy Ridge, near Elyria, Ohio. Mary had learned of a pair of sandhill cranes that had a surviving baby. That was a lot of fun as the threesome stood in the shallows fairly close to the shoreline where all of the birders were gathered for another set of close-up bird photos. At one point, the waterfowl all over the lake erupted as a mature bald eagle swooped down to snag a nice bass. I managed only a single shot as he flew by enroute to his nest of young eagles. The white-winged pelican flock was another surprise, but they only flew by as we were getting out of the car. They didn't land for close-up photos, so I have only flying shots as they moved away. Hope you enjoy the slideshow.
May 14th: This entry is one that would typically show a few dozen photos from the thousand or so I shot of the spring warbler migration through our area. But, this year, the birds have been few, and the weather has not exactly cooperated, with dreary weekends and occasional rain. So, this is just a small sampling from 2 days of excursions to Englewood Metropark. Early May Slideshow
May 8th: This morning, Mary learned of a bittern at a local park. This is a rare bird that Mary and I have wanted to see for a long time. Actually, the American Bittern is what we've been hoping to see someday. I had seen a pair of least bitterns during one of my TDYs to Georgia. But both were flying away from me at significant distance when I saw them. As we headed for the park where an American Bittern had been reported, we expected to arrive to find a mass of photographers and big lenses. Instead, to our surprise, we found two guys fishing and no photographers. We figured that meant the bird had departed, and we would once again be disappointed. Moments after we arrived, the bittern popped up out of hiding and clumsily fluttered into some heavy brush near the water's edge. We could just barely see it through the branches. When I saw it flying, I knew it wasn't an American Bittern but a least bittern. Even so, it was a great bird to see at such close range. Over the course of the next half hour, we patienly waited for this visitor to regain its confidence, or to simply get hungry, so it would emerge from the brush and give us a better look. Our persistence was rewarded as the bird slowly crept from its hiding place and moved to various settings on the water and the reeds and wood that was strewn around this backwater. These photos show some of those locations including our initial look into the brushy hiding spot and starts off with a blue-gray gnatcatcher working on its nest. Least Bittern Slideshow.
April 15th saw probably our warmest-feeling day of the year. It also found me treking through one of my favorite parks for birds and other wildlife. The raccoon continues to appear in the same tree, almost always sleeping with one or more appendages hanging out of one of the many three holes in the tree. Yellow-rumped warblers appeared in growing numbers along with ruby-crowned and golden-crowned kinglets. The ever-present red-shouldered hawk nest must have been excessively hot as momma hawk was spreading her wings and her tail out over the entire nest to shade it from the intense sunshine of the afternoon. She was hot too as evidenced by her near-constant panting. I have yet to see any young, but, either the young are very small or the eggs have still not hatched. We must be very close to that time of new life in the nest. But, my favorite find of the day was my first tree frog discovery. I hear there little critters, most days that I have a chance to spend some time in the park, but I had previously never managed to find any of the frogs despite them sounding like they were right next to me. I have seen one tree frog previously, but it was at a different park and was pointed out to me by a staff member of the park. It had found its way into the grip of a ramp handrail and was grey just like the grip's color. But, this frog, I found because it kept on singing when I was within a very few feet of its perch. I didn't see the frog so much as I saw its bulging and vibrating throat pouch. Once it realized I had found it, it stopped singing and decided to go to sleep instead. About two hours later, after completing my circuitous hike around the park, I returned to find the frog still asleep in the same perch. So I pointed it out to about a half-dozen other walkers and birders I thought might be interested. They were. Most had also heard these tree frogs but had likewise never managed to find one. It was a fun afternoon all around. Birds and Frog Link
March and early April have seen the start of the spring migration of ducks, fly catchers, the emergence of early wildflowers, and the nesting of owls, and even a mink at one of my favorite parks. This slideshow is playing catchup on these spring wonders as I just can't stop going out to the parks and taking in all that I see. Just click the spring link to open the slideshow in a new pop-up window.
February Birds and Blooms: Over the last couple of weeks, we've bounced around between temps in the 20s to the lower 70s, setting or tying four record highs during that period. On those few occasions when the weather was "acceptable", on a weekend or holiday, I managed to find bluebirds, several hawks, a nice, female belted Kingfisher, and, not surprisingly, visited a local park with a carpet of yellow and white flowers along with another early bloomer; the hellebor. I've managed to hone down the hundreds of photos to 27. Well, I still have about 60, but I'll only subject you to 27 at this link. Birds and Blooms.
February 4th, 2023: This was the nicest Saturday we've seen pretty much all winter. While it was cold and windy, the sun shone all day long, and we spent most of our "outing" inside the car. But, it was a beautiful day with two great discoveries. Our first "winter" bird of the day was a merlin, which we typically see only in the winter. The only unfortunate part of our "relationship" was that the sun was always behind the merlin so color and detail are a bit lacking. But, the bird is still one of our favorite subjects. The second discovery occurred as we left our final park and headed for home. As we drove to a point about half was up the hill, Mary spotted an immature bald eagle in a dead tree off the right side of the road. After turning around to go back to an area where we could pull off the roadside, the eagle gave us about 5 minutes to get our shots before departing. I think it would have flown much sooner had it not been in the company of a small flock of crows. Naturally, when the eagle flew off, the crows followed close behind to harrass it. Here is the link to the merlin and eagle slideshow.
II don't know where the time has gone, but it's now January 2023 and I've only managed to get out to a few local parks on two occasions. While it was sunny, it was cold, and there was a lot of distortion in the air. So, here are the shots worthy of keeping from those outings. Just click the link to access the slideshow. JanuaryWildlife
September 2022: Labor Day saw a very long and rewarding trip take shape as Mom and I travelled to West Virginia, Ohio, Missouri, Las Vegas (for the airport and rental car), Lake Meade, the Grand Canyon, Meteor Crater, the Petrified Forest, and the Painted Desert. Exquisite "Desserts" also found their way into the itinerary! Check the left-hand menu for the Grand Canyon Link. Warning: Be prepared for a lot of photos! I just can't delete anything...ever! And this isn't even 1/4 of the total.
23 August 2022: With my recent acquisition of the Nikon 400mm f/2.8 GED lens, from a good friend, I was compelled to take it out to a couple of parks to shoot dragonflies and whatever else I might find. The New Dragons link, in the left menu, under Galleries, contains images from several local parks and includes an orange spider shot with a macro lens, in the garage, just before my latest venture to Cedar Bog. Most of the other photos are of dragonflies both sitting and in flight. My favorites are the large blue dasher and the bluet damselfly in flight with its reflection in the water.
18 August 2022: I finally finished processing more than 3,000 photos from the 2022 Dayton Airshow. Many that survived the process can be viewed using the Dayton Airshow 2022 link in the left-side menu. The odd plane for this year's show was a British plane developed at the end of WWII. It's called the Vampire. It was an interesting plane to watch zipping around the sky. This would likely have been the fastest plane at the time of its development, but I don't believe it ever went into general production or was weaponized. It would certainly have been one of, if not the first, jet engines. While the F-15s were zipping around, the air was very humid and made it difficult to obtain really clear images, almost like shooting through a light fog. The Blue Angels took center stage both days of the airshow and put on great performances in the new F-18 Superhornets! In one shot of a large formation, I managed to get a clear enough photo that each of the pilots' names was legible in the full -size image. About the best you'll see here is the close-cropped versions of other, individual planes where I could crop into the cockpit area so the names might be legible in these smaller versions.
24 July 2022: After only 10 minutes of sitting in the back yard, I was greeted by a hummingbird and a hummingbird hawk moth (a member of the sphynx moth family.) Two slow-motion videos later, I returned to the awesome air conditioning of our home! The two videos can be found in the left-side menu under the Videos and downloads section. Both videos have been cropped to 1280x720 pixels but not reduced in overall size of the subjects. When played, these videos should not fill your screen. If they do, the video player is enlarging the playback, which will make the video quality much worse than it already is. At 960 frames-per-second recording, Sony achieves that speed by sacrificing video quality. Still, being able to see a hummingbird's individual wing flaps is pretty amazing regardless of overall sharpness.
19 July 2022: While inspecting the ant explosion in the back yard, I noticed a young, male hummingbird persistently perusing the perennials (or the butterfly bush) and other flowers. Check the "Hummers July 2022" link in the left-hand menu, under Galleries, for an over-abundance of views of this little cutie.
12 July 2022: Select firework images are now in a short video set to the soundtrack, "Evolution", from Bensound.com. Check out the video link "2022 Fireworks Video" in the left menu under Videos and Downloads.
4 July 2022: It's time for celebrating our nation's birthday once more. Here is another fireworks display using my long-exposure and movement techniques. Check the Firework Art 2022 link on the left.
22 June 2022: Today's challenge was slow motion video of dragonflies in flight. Of roughly 30 segments I shot this afternoon, in 90+ degree heat, I've uploaded a single short video of a very active four seconds of flight. The entire encounter only lasted those few seconds. In super-slow-motion format, it seems the event should have taken much longer. Hope you enjoy it. Check the left-side menu, far down, under downloads/videos. The link is SlowMoDragons.
21 June 2022: A couple more trips to Cedar Bog, Taylorsville Sledding Hill pond, and Carriage Hill Metropark yielded about 1,000 photos of bugs, dragonflies, flowers, and immature barred owls-the real surprise. I tried my hand, and my R5 camera, at flying shots of dragonflies with very mixed results. In some cases, the shots were dramatic. In the vast majority, they were just dramatically aweful! A selection of the results can be viewed from the left-side menu, under Dragons Fly, in the Galleries sections.
11 June 2022: On my return excursion to Cedar Bog, this morning, I had the pleasure of meeting a lot of nice people. But, I was there for the bugs, skinks, and a few plants. The sun dews seemed to spring up in small colonies rather than a scattered individual or two. The skinks made many appearances throughout the day, and the showy lady slippers were past their prime but were still plentiful and many people were there to see them even at this later stage in the bloom. Look for the Cedar Bog-2 link in the left-hand menu under Galleries.
4 June 2022: Another afternoon shooting bugs after a mostly fruitless morning searching for birds of interest. Somehow a field sparrow managed to get into my macro photo presentation. But it was the only reasonably close bird from the morning excursion, so I felt compelled to allow its participation. Look for the R5 Macro 6-4-2022 link in the left-side menu under Galleries.
2 June 2022: Here are some samples of my first macro photos with the new R5 mirrorless camera and the old Canon EF-180mm f/3.5 macro lens. All I can say is, welcome back ol' 180. I've missed you but you're looking marvelous! Check out the R5 Macro link under Galleries in the left-hand menu.
28 May 2022: A beautiful Saturday morning found us exploring Cedar Bog hoping for a glance at a "showy lady slipper." We knew we were a week or two early for these rare beauties, but we were blessed to find on in full bloom and close to the boardwalk. We also discovered many bristling carniverous sun dew plants. There are the only native carniverous plants in the U.S. They are very small but are spectacular to see with the macro lens. Each was only about 2 inches across at the largest. The other strange plant was called a green dragon. It is related to the jack-in-the-pulpit but looks quite different. The J-i-t-P's had mostly all bloomed and died off already, but the green dragon was only beginning to show signs of bloom preparation. I expect I'll be back in a couple of weeks to see more of the lady slippers and the green dragon. I also hope to find some of the elfin skimmer dragonflies. We were stalked by a hover fly for a short time and I managed to get a photo of it as it "hovered" between us. At the end of the walk, I thought I heard at least two different baby barred owls crying for attention. We didn't find them but ran into a couple of people who saw two and probably one adult near the edge of the woods at the same time as I was hearing them. At least that confirmed I wasn't just hearing things! Many of the trees and bushes were in bloom as well as the lady slippers. Raspberries are in full bloom and they are beautiful and emit a wonderful aroma. The bog is also home to many wildflowers, such as irises, marsh marigolds, sneeze weed, and common night shade. That was one of the most striking flowers, very tiny purple with yellow stamen hangning down. It is apparently rather poisonous or toxic if ingested. I quickly spit it out! At the end of our visit, we were blessed to learn where the owl nest was located so we know where to look next springtime before the babies leave the nest. Now I just have to remember that next year. Look for the Cedar Bog 5-28-2022 link in the left menu under Galleries to view the photos from Cedar Bog and other parks we also visited later in the day.
24 May 2022: The past couple of weeks have seen many new baby birds and other birds preparing for their future young, and owls whose young have already moved on. Among these May attractions are bluebirds, wood ducks, and great crested flycatchers. The summer tanagers seem to be still figuring out who will be pairing with whom. One oddly-colored King bird is still confusing to me. I don't know if it's a young one or a discolored one with some white head feathers that are typically dark gray or black. See Birds of May link in the Galleries section of the left-side menu. The link for a short video of a barred owl I found Tuesday evening is directly below that. The slideshow and video should open in new windows.
9 May 2022: Yesterday, after work, I stopped off at my favorite springtime park, Englewood, and was greeted by some warblers, baby barred owls, two bald eagles, and many great blue herons. It was a very pleasant way to spend a late afternoon. I hope you enjoy the photos. Look for Eagles & Herons under the Galleries section of the left menu.
23 April 2022: Far from being snowy, today was sunny and hot! But it was a great day! A former co-worker emailed me about a fox family living under his mother's shed...and he had cell-phone pix to prove it. He and his mom were gracious enough to allow us to drop by to take photos for ourselves. What a wonderful afternoon! With my inability to select only a few favorites from the more than 400 photos I shot, with various lenses, check out the Fox Family link in the left-side menu, under Galleries.
9 April 2022: Hopefully this will be our last snowy day until next winter! With the cold, sleet, and spring migration, I thought I should at least get out for a couple of hours to my favorite local park. Even though I never left the car, the birds gave me plenty of opportunities to take pictures. I figured someone would put out bird food in the normal location at the park. That always draws in a good variety of my little feathered friends. The only unusual bird today was a single ruby-crowned kinglet. Otherwise, cow birds and white-throated sparrows were the only migrants. I've loaded another slideshow, 'feedthebirds', in the left-side menu showing the nice variety of birds I was able to enjoy until I ran out of drinking water. Before leaving for the park, we had a visitor in the back yard. A red squirrel appeared under the bird feeders and spent a lot of time here. Finally, the giant oppossum that appeared on our back-yard fence a couple months ago, made another appearance Thursday evening. It seemed to have gotten itself stuck in the bush in the neighbor's back yard. Their dog wouldn't let it come down. Once the dog was taken back into the house, the oppossum disappeared.
2 April 2022: During a brief excursion to Caesar Creek, not far from Waynesville, Ohio, my wife spotted a red-tailed hawk sitting on the ground just off the side of the path. At that moment, I was standing less than 10 feet from the hawk but was faced away from it. When I turned to take in this marvelous bird, it was sitting with its wings spread out to its side with its mouth open and its hooked tongue clearly visible as if it was panting. We thought the hawk must have been injured or stunned as it didn't move even when another woman walked by unsuspecting and momentarily stood less than 5 feet in front of the bird. Upon closer inspection, I noted it had killed a snake and was still standing over it. After retuning to the visitor center to report the sighting, we returned to the sighting area to await the ranger's arrival. To our surprise, the hawk was gone. The ranger eventually spotted the hawk up in a nearby tree. As we watched, this predator hopped from limb to limb but wouldn't fly. We though it might still be a little stunned or maybe too heavy to fly after devouring its snake. We continued our hike along the well-groomed path, eventually returning to find the hawk once more on the ground but climbing and hopping up the hillside. Eventually it pounced on and ate another snake. Then it worked its way along the ground apparently looking for more of these delicacies. The hawk didn't tear up the snake to eat it. It simply killed it and swallowed it whole! Look for the slideshow link in the left menu under the Galleries heading: Red-tailed Grounded.
21 March 2022: The past few days have brought warmer termperatures and a few opportunities to be out in the parks after work and between rain showers. Check out the Englewood March link, under the Galleries section, in the left-side menu. My favorites from this weekend were multiple sightings of a hermit thrush and the brilliant, orange flash of color from a male golden-crowned kinglet. The ducks and eagles have also made appearances but, while the variety of ducks was pretty good, the numbers are still fairly low. Unfortunately, the distances at which these waterfowl have been found have been very long so there are no good photos of them. The species for which we've seen at least one pair (male and female) included: mallard, blue-winged teal, green-winged teal, northern shoveler, gadwall, American widgeon, wood duck, ring-necked, common merganser, hooded merganser, buffle head, and red-headed. A couple pied-billed and small flocks of horned grebes have also been present but were likewise at great distance.
26 February 2022: Just posted a new slideshow of bluebirds, a female pileated woodpecker, and some photos of the results of the icy weather we experienced during the last 48 hours. A full day after the ice hit and coated everything, the ice is still hanging from a lot of the trees and still coating much of the meadows and undergrowth in our local parks. Look for the slideshow, Icy Blue, in the left-hand menu under Galleries.
I've added a new link for Carriage Hill Ice Harvest into the left-side menu, under Galleries, on January 31st. I've also added a slow-motion video to the Timeline page of backyard birds vying for food during the 3-4 February snowstorm. Watch out for those female cardinals and the territorial junco.
Much of the content for this site has been temporarily removed due to exceeding the number of files limit. I will likely have to rebuild my entire site to remain under the file limitation. I hope to have this site up and running again by sometime in February. It is going to take a lot of work and I don't have enough time to devote to that process right now. Many of the links are not going to function until I have completed the site revision. If you try to access a link and get an error, it is because that content has been deleted...at least temporarily. My apologies. I was surprised by this entire scenario.