I may not have the most beautiful or interesting commuter route to follow in my daily routine but it does have much to offer. This morning I was treated to trees, many of them with early fall color, brilliantly illuminated by morning sun against a dark, cloudy sky. I stopped in the outskirts of Stongsville to snap a few photos on my way to work. This evening, traveling home via the Cleveland Metropark’s Parkway, I caught a glimpse of a Great Egret I’ve been wanting to photograph. It seemed closer to the shore of Wallace Lake than normal. I swung into a parking space and hiked a short distance to the waters’ edge. My Canon PowerShot G11 is a terrific little camera but didn’t have enough telephoto power to capture the image I wanted but I got something. In fact, I noticed in the distance behind the big white bird, there was also a big gray bird… a Great Blue Heron. I moved closer but, each in its turn, the birds flew off before I could get in good range. Not bad: beautiful scenes at the start and finish!
great egret
All posts tagged great egret
It's my day off (lucky me, I get to work Saturday) so around midday I headed over to the Cleveland Metroparks' Mill Stream Run Reservation in Berea. Recently I'd seen a great egret wading the shallow waters of the Rocky River and I thought I'd see if I could catch a photo. Well, I saw the bird perched high in a tree across the water too far to photograph. Other sites caught my eye, however, including a beautiful feather caught on a stick — the only thing keeping it from floating over a nearby water fall. There was flowing water, rock and water, shade and trees, all-in-all a restful place. The ones that got away: 1) Two great blue herons swooped in together for a landing, low over my head before I'd even removed my camera from its bag. 2) As I stepped stones adjacent to a shallow dam, I spooked a black water snake — it quickly slipped into the water before I even had a chance to lift the camera (now out of its bag). 3) I hope that wide-angle lens gets back, well-tuned, soon…. could have used it! Time for late lunch so I headed home. It happens my little outing was well timed. It had been dark and gloomy all morning, skies brightened a bit while I was out, and not long after I arrived home a noisy thunderstorm rolled in and dropped plentiful rain. Tasha and I sat on the floor at the open patio door listening to and watching the storm. The day provided a much-needed quiet interlude.


