Clouds Building over Lake Erie
This was the scene midday over Lake Erie off Bay Village, Ohio: clouds building over the water and a tiny boat heading in to dock. A few hours later the sky became overcast and a compact thunderstorm drenched the area. It looks like it will be a stormy and wet weekend. We shall see what the next couple of days bring but we hope to get out and enjoy.
Lovely Barn Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) posing for his picture!
On a lark (impending pun intended) we set off to visit the Magee Marsh Wildlife Area today. It was a gorgeous, sunny day making travel, then walking the trail, a pleasure. Magee Marsh is a birder’s hot-spot due to the large protected wooded wetland set along the south shores of Lake Erie. It is a perfect spot for migratory birds to rest and refuel before or after their non-stop flights over the Great Lake. In the wildlife area, through bird songs were delightfully the dominant sounds around, we saw no exotic avian visitors. We caught a glimpse of a large bird, possibly an immature Bald Eagle, as it winged past — too much of a surprise for me to catch via camera. We did enjoy the color and the amazing aerobatics of the colorful resident Barn Swallows. One posed for a portrait, shown here. Most beautiful, though not pictured, were the many, many Great Egrets we saw in wet areas all around the area. We do admire our fine feathered friends!
Earth Day: All living things on Earth are part of the continuum of layers that make up the planet. The survival of entire species (including humans) depends upon at least one,
usually more,of those layers remaining intact, viable.
It is a beautiful planet, a beautiful system. Let’s keep it that way.
At the base of steps leading to the sands of Huntington Beach.
Steaming West
Snow pellets appear as powdered sugar on an otherwise-smooth sheet of ice.
I took a little midday trip to the Lake Erie shore at Huntington Beach Friday. It was cold but at least the wind was not hard. Still, by the end of my brief session my fingers were stiff and red from holding my Canon PowerShot G11 bare-handed. I could have spent a couple of hours there exploring the scene; the light was gradually changing and there were so many interesting shapes and patterns to discover. My schedule and cold-hurting hands forced me to leave all too soon. The lake was frozen over for as far as I could see. Mounds of ice had piled along the sands, apparently from previous thaws followed by freezing. Ice and snow, recently deposited, gave texture to open areas of ice. Spring comes soon, ice will merge with the waters it hides, and the lake will emerge again.
Plates of broken ice pile over one-another on the sandy beach.
View to the east, along Huntington Beach, with Downtown Cleveland in the distance and a wine bottle on sandy ice.
A little jaunt to the Lake Erie shoreline this morning gave us dramatic vistas of sky and ice! The lake is only partly frozen and great plates of ice have been driven into piles near-shore off Huntington Beach in Bay Village, Ohio. Lighting conditions were constantly changing with the sky. Clouds overhead were white while those low to the horizon took on a brownish hue. Temperatures hovering in the upper-30s (F) allowed me to explore the area a bit and take it all in. By afternoon our overcast had returned. We have, still, memories of the ice-jammed beach.
Shattered ice piles off-shore from Huntington Beach.
There May Yet be Hope
Snow drifts around breakwall stones as waves crash ashore
Today was the winter solstice. In Northeastern Ohio the season arrived with howling predawn winds and snow. Around midday I took a little trip to the Lake Erie shore to see what those winds had stirred up. Unabated, the wind fiercely drove across the lake from the northwest at about 32 MPH picking up the waters and piling them on to the beach. Sand-tinted whitecaps rolled ashore and crashed on breakwalls. Whisps of snow snaked across the beach sand while spray was blown off the wave tops offshore. As I stood, freezing, icy bits of snow stung my face, my hands hurt from the cold. I watched and wondered at the awe-inspiring and frightening maelstrom and worked to capture the scene. After 15 minutes I fled to the shelter of my car. Yes, it was winter’s first day here and there was no doubt about it.
Waves crash ashore on the day of winter solstice.
I made a hurried stop at Huntington Beach park on Lake Erie around noon today. The sky and the water are in a constant state of change there. Today sky and water were shades of gray and the water birds black. I have some beach shots but will process and post them later.
PhotonStopper 