It was my goal to get my kayak rack mounted on my car, load up the kayak and gear, and get on the water this weekend. It doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. The waters were just starting to get back to good levels and the rain has hit yet again. I don’t know [...]
Read the rest of this entry »Archive for the 'Wildlife' Category
Sunday Morning Service
I got up early this morning and decided to go out for breakfast before heading to my Sunday morning service. It was still dark when I left the house, and frigid. It often gets below freezing during winter in Ohio but seldom gets below zero. Yesterday and today it was -4˚ F to start the day. Thank goodness there was no wind. And thank you to whoever invented heaters in vehicles.
On my way to breakfast, the sun crept above the horizon and lit up the sky in a brilliant display. The sky was mostly clear with a few soft clouds stretched thin here and there. The ground was covered in about three inches of snow. The rainbow of colors was a stark contrast to the dark brown lack-of-vegetation and the white, frosted ground. It was breathtaking.
It wasn’t long before I arrived at one of my favorite breakfast spots – a parking area near a pond at a local wildlife refuge. I poured some hot coffee from my thermos into an insulated mug and broke out the hearty, homemade, honey-banana muffins I’d made the evening before. Tasty. As I sat there eating, the sun slowly rose behind me to unveil the world around me. I began to notice several things I’d missed a few minutes before: a hawk perched on a tree branch about 75 yards away, the flicker of several songbirds as they hop-scotched from branch to branch in the nearby brush, and the sparkle of the dry snow covering the frozen pond. As the area around me came alive, so did I.
Read the rest of this entry »Killdeer Plains Safari
I was out at Killdeer Plains Wildlife Area near Harpster, Ohio this morning. The wildlife area covers several hundred acres and is broken up by perfect north-south and east-west crisscrossing roads. Because there is so much area to cover, I tend map out a zigzag route and drive through the whole wildlife area before getting out to explore on foot.
I saw several deer, dozens of hawks (not the greatest at identifying them so won’t even try), songbirds and woodpeckers here and there, and two bald eagles from the car. I was searching for short-eared owls but didn’t have any luck. They are usually more prevalent in the evening so I wasn’t too disappointed. Then I got out of the car and bushwhacked through the snow, long grasses, and brush to a couple of evergreen stands that often hold long-eared owls and saw-whet owls. I didn’t have any luck at the first stand of pines so I moved onto the next. No luck there either.
As I was leaving, a small birding group from Columbus was heading into the grove. I learned long ago that there is a significant benefit to having extra sets of eyes when searching the dense tops of evergreens so I turned around and followed them back through the stand. I’m glad I did. One of the group had only gone a few yards when she spotted a small saw-whet owl in the middle of one of the branches. Suh-wheeet! My first wild saw-whet owl. And it even stayed put long enough for me to get a few photos as you can see below.
Read the rest of this entry »Frostnip
The pain in my fingers was excruciating. They were so cold that they had gone from tingly to downright painful. However, I was on a mission and determined to succeed so I endured the agony. Besides, I had remembered reading somewhere that the real danger of frostbite doesn’t occur until after your extremities become numb. So I forged ahead through the snow, wind, and cold getting ever closer to my target. I would capture my prey at all costs … then my fingers went numb.
That was when the panic set in and I decided to return to base camp. At this point, I should probably tell you that my base camp was my vehicle that was parked a mere thirty yards away, and that my mission was to get an amazing photo of a short-eared owl. I know, I know. Not near as dramatic as my first paragraph may have initially sounded, but it was exciting to me nonetheless. I enjoy outdoor photography and, at the time, wildlife photography was my emphasis. I had dreams of becoming the next National Geographic photographer and getting the perfect shot was important.
Read the rest of this entry »
