Winter Birds

 Some looks from our drive at Old Reid and Buck Creek State Park yesterday.

Cardinal Palooza! The Cardinals were feasting on Goldenrod seed pods.

Northern Cardinal

Horned lark

Horned Larks

Horned Lark

Great Blue Heron

Immature Bald Eagle

Veterans Day Auroras

So....we met our friends Bert and Mary Ann at CJ Brown hoping to catch a glimpse of the aurora tonight and we weren't disappointed.

When we arrived, the cloud cover was still fairly thick, but even so we were getting peeks at auroras behind them. It was beautiful!

As the clouds moved out, the aurora began to pop...colors were awesome and we watched until our feet were numb from the cold and wind.

Meanwhile, I had set our security cams to record time lapses and one caught this buck in the aurora skies.

November Full Moon

The Full Beaver Moonrise tonight from our upstairs. The full moon is actually at 8am tomorrow, so either tonight or tomorrow night are effectively both full moonrises. Tonight's was partially obscured by clouds on the horizon, but once it cleared the cloud cover the moon was gorgeous. This is a super moon....meaning that the moon it's at the closest to the earth in its orbit. The November Full Moon is most commonly called the Beaver Moon" which refers to the time when beavers were most active in building their dams and lodges before winter. It was also the best time for early colonists and Native Americans to trap beavers for their pelts.

And a couple from moonset this morning.

A Rare Visitor to Ohio: the Striped Saddlebags Dragonfly

The last four days I've been spending time at one of our Clark County Park....Old Reid. Four days ago, while on one of my frequent visits looking for dragonflies, I photographed what I thought was a Carolina Saddlebags dragonfly. While it crossed my mind that it was late in the season to see a Carolina, I captured some pics and entered them as an observation in iNaturalist. 
To my surprise, experts quickly identified it as a Striped Saddlebags. This was a new dragonfly for me and after doing a bit of checking, I found out why it isn't often seen in Ohio.
From the University of Wisconsin:
"Saddlebags are called saddlebags because of the pigmented area on the wings on either side of the abdomen. Red, Black, and Carolina Saddlebags are in the “broadsaddle” group, because their irregularly-shaped “saddles” are wide. 
Striped Saddlebags, named for the conspicuous markings on the thorax, are in the “narrowsaddle” group because the smooth-edged “saddles” don’t extend very far into their wings.
They’re a tropical species that are “vagrants” or “accidentals” here – not regular migrants (only about 15 species of dragonflies are migratory), but unpredictable wanderers. As a result, they’re a “Most Wanted” species among dragonfly-watchers in Wisconsin and elsewhere. There are small, resident populations in far South Florida and along the US-Mexico border, but they’re more at home through Central and South America, the Galapagos, and the Bahamas. Striped Saddlebags wander farther north than other narrowsaddle saddlebags do."
I checked the iNaturalist observation database and found that there were only 31 observations in Ohio going back to 2006....and only 2 prior to mine here so far this year. That's a pretty special visitor!
So, four days later, the Striped Saddlebags is still present at Old Reid. What a treat!
Here's some pics from today....

Late September Walk

Gracie and I took a morning walk at the CJ Beach and the Croft Rd Overflow. Here's some looks....

This Double Crested Cormorant was happy to pose at the CJ Overflow. While their eyes aren't quite as beautiful as they look in the spring, the color is still a lovely turquoise. Cormorants are moving through our area on their way to warmer coastal climes.

A Wood Duck showing off some great colors as well.

A beautiful day to be out and enjoying nature!

Amish School Monarchs

 We visited the Amish School near Plain City tonight to view the Monarch Butterflies. Landowners surrounding the school have planted fields of Clover...which attract the Monarchs as they prepare for their southward migration journey. As evening approaches, the Monarchs cluster together in the pine trees on the school property. Here's some views of the Monarchs and surrounding scenery.

As other Monarchs approach, the perched Monarchs flutter their wings.

The setting sun provided some beautiful backlit lighting.

Increasing numbers of Monarchs as dusk approaches.

Photographing the Monarchs.

Other folks photographing the sunset.

Sunset on the Clover fields.

Scene across the road.

September Aurora

 There were predictions that we could possibly see the Northern Lights last night so we and other several folks headed to the CJ Brown Visitor's Center point hoping to catch some views. The predictions didn't pan out as well as we had hoped...partially due to the very bright Waxing Gibbous Moon. We did catch some color on the horizon with some faint pillars at about 9:20 (visible only with long camera exposures), but that soon faded and concluded the show. Still, you can't beat chatting and sharing stories with like-minded folks under the Big Dipper and the September moonlit sky!