Deer Creek

After the beautiful day on Tuesday, the weather had changed.  This is typical for Ohio!  Today is still warm but storms came thru.  Rain, wind advisories, tornado warnings, just an awful start to the day.  I was sitting in my room making my felt birds....

Watching reruns of McMillian and Wife on Netflix...a really exciting day.  My dear Cecil came in with his jacket on and asked me if I wanted to drive to Deer Creek....I jumped up and said ''YES"

So I grabbed my camera and off we went.....

We decided to have lunch at the lodge first...(Cecil's first time there)...we had the entire dining room to ourselves with the view of the lake.

I had the chicken salad...

Cecil had chicken noodle soup and french fries....

The waitress came over and asked me if I had just taken a picture of the french fries?  I said "Yes, this is his first time and I just wanted to remember it"  (didn't want her to think I was totally crazy and tell her I was writing a blog and needed pictures...blah blah blah....LOL

While we were eating and looking out on the lake we saw 3 Blue Herons fly by. It was windy and they were flying low to the water and then into the trees along the bank.  Then the Vultures flew into a near tree....

One can always expect to see Vultures in this area.

I told Cecil I would show him my "secret places" just in case I have to call him to come rescue us and he would know where to go....

This is the road leaving the lodge...the clouds were amazing...

The area that had been dry for a long time had lots of water flowing .....

No one was on the roads...was like we were the only people left in the world...I just couldn't get over the beautiful clouds.

This is the Osprey nest.  There was more water there too.

We didn't see many birds, I had thought the 3 Herons would have been over where the picture above was taken, usually find them there...but no..on to the next "secret" spot"....

Here we ran into a "murder of crows".  They can always be found at Deer Creek too.  They are very camera shy and after many tries, I finally got this picture before he flew off.

We saw hundreds of ducks out on the water....

 

Can you see all those tiny dotes on the water?  Those are Mallards and I think maybe a couple of others but they were too far away to tell.

A closer look....

Also saw a few Sea Gulls...finally....usually they are easy to find

Another picture of how low the water is during the winter. The water is let out to keep spring flooding from happening.  It is amazing to see how full Deer Creek becomes during a very wet winter and spring.

This area had been  dry all summer too...but was thrilled to see water.....

We walked down to the water edge and thought we saw something in the water!

 It was just far enough away to be hard to tell what it was and I left my binocs in the car...So I took pictures...it was moving and changing, like something either trapped or trying to carry something heavy...we watched and then studied my pictures on the small camera screen

Then finally, we decided it was a log with mud and grasses stuck to it...faking us out!!!!!  LOL

It sure looked like something...the overcast day and the way it was moving...really fooled us!

It was very pretty looking around the area.....

But didn't see a bird or a duck...guess the water is back but not the fish...We found signs that ducks had been there...

But these might have been left from yesterday when the day was so beautiful....???

A bird nest from last summer...wonder what little bird used it?

Walking back to the car the sky had gotten really dark....

We had had a wonderful visit and it never rained but this sky made us decide to head for home.

Was good to get home and hunker down for the night and the cold that was on it's way...

January Walk in the Park in 70 degrees

The day today couldn't have been anything like January...more like May...Sunny, warm, 70 degrees... So knowing that the snow is on the way....we took a walk to the Park....
We ran into a bunch of Pigeons hanging out on the wire!!!!

Then we saw that the Veterans wall has the sidewalks in.....

We kept walking down the hill into the park.....


My second favorite tree in the park...The lake was covered with Canadian Geese and Mallards. The noise was unbelievable....It was like they were all singing about how wonderful the day was and that the ice had melted!

Of course, it isn't right if you don't see a squirrel or two and we saw ours, eating something up in a tree.

The view of the bridge is always a good shot!

So just enjoy some of the other views of the park....

 

The geese were pruning themselves...each had his own rock!

These two families were enjoying the swim....

Then the star of the Park appeared .......

There are only 3 Swans in the park right now and I noticed the other day that 2 were showing off for the lone female...Today it looks like she has made her choice...and He is beautiful.

She was following close behind him as he let everyone know he was in charge!

His feathers were beautiful!  The display was amazing.....

Then...he saw the other swan.....and

He chased him to the other side of the lake...It is so amazing to see them fly!  I feel sorry for the lone one...hope he finds a mate soon.

Everything looked like it was ready for sping too....The air smelled fresh and when you closed your eyes, you could believe it was April or May.....

This is from the bridge looking north...

During the last big storm...a big branch broke off this tree and blocked the road and took out one of the Pear trees.....

You can see the pool through the trees here....

I also noticed that the workers had been doing some park grooming....bushes trimmed and trees cut down....

 Sad to see the big trees go....but I understand when they are sick or rotten...just hope they replace them....

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View from the YMCA ....

Looking down Mill into the park...YMCA on right

And on the way home after walking all around the Park....we had to stop .....at the DAIRY QUEEN

I got the Peppermint Blizzard....

And Cecil got the Reeses Pieces Blizzard...

Made out walk back home very enjoyable!!!!