Ah-ha! A Great Blue Heron peers from behind a fallen tree.

Today we revisited a couple of places favored by birders: Sheldon Marsh Nature Preserve, and Old Woman Creek Nature Preserve, both near Huron, Ohio. Sheldon Marsh was quiet, with Northern Cardinals peeping about, and a Great Blue Heron, nearly invisible as it stalked through tall reeds. The place was lovely to visit and gave us pleasant, green, shady wooded walking, but a bit too quiet. Later, we visited Old Woman Creek and a wonderful vantage point over a wide, open wetland. After some patient waiting, Great Blue Herons and a Great Egret provided some photo ops. Of course there are always the “ones that got away.” Still, I got a couple of “keepers.”

According to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources website, “Old Woman Creek is one of the state’s few remaining examples of a natural estuary. As a transition zone between land and water, the site contains a variety of habitats including marshes and swamps, upland forests, open water, tributary streams, barrier beach and near shore Lake Erie. The Reserve supports a diverse assemblage of native plants and animals representative of freshwater estuaries. Old Woman Creek Reserve is managed as a cooperative partnership between NOAA and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife. Old Woman Creek is also an Ohio State Nature Preserve.”

Too quick for me was a Kingfisher’s dive into the open water to emerge and shoot into flight with a good sized fish in its beak. I got a couple of shots of the little guy speeding off with his lunch but nothing good enough to show here. The heron shown above also managed to make good its escape without my properly documenting it. Dang! Must… go… back! Will do so in another month or so.

A Great Egret seeking Better Fishing.