It's a bug-eat-bug world out there

Shortly after returning from a recent expedition to seek out the fantastic Amorpha Borer Beetle in Scioto County (click the LINK if you missed my report of the successful mission), I was talking to my mom, who asked, "So, when did you get so into bugs? I thought you were into birds. What happened to the birds?" A perfectly legitimate line of questioning for a girl who started out interested in "just birds and flowers, thank you very much." In answer to my mom, and to the rest of you, if you care to know: a number of things have contributed to my burgeoning interest in insects. Having macro capabilities on my camera has probably been the most direct influence. My macro methods are a bit crude, but they do the job for me. Once you start photographing flowers at a macro level, you see things you've never noticed before, and it's only a matter of time before you start appreciating insects from a whole new perspective. Having friends who are into insects helps, too.

I should also mention that studying birds and botany has been a gateway to so many other aspects of the natural world for me. At the upcoming Midwest Birding Symposium, I look forward to hearing my friend Jim McCormac's presentation, "Birders Going Beyond Birds," which will address this very topic!

So, let's take a look at how I view insects as a birder. From a birding perspective, I think about insects as being food for birds: worms for robins, caterpillars for cuckoos, vireos, and warblers, cicadas for Mississippi kites, and those are just a few of many examples I could give. Part of the reason so many birds migrate is because once bugs die off for the year in the northern climes, their food source has dried up, so they better go somewhere else where the eatin's good if they want to survive.

Up until recently, I haven't really thought about bugs from a much broader perspective. So it has been a slow realization to me over the last 6 months or so that, while birds are serious insect predators, perhaps the bigger threat to insects are... other insects. Whether it's falling into the waiting jaws of a praying mantis, getting caught in a spider web, or perhaps the more gruesome fate of having some other insect larva eat you from the inside out (that's what parasitism is all about folks), it's tough to make it as an insect! The following snap-shots were taken during the beetle expedition in Scioto and Adams Counties. Obviously, we saw lots more than just the Amorpha Borer Beetle.


This is a very tiny (think size of a fingernail tiny) robber fly, commonly known as a gnat-ogre. They stalk their prey by hanging out on the tip of a blade of grass or the very edge of a leaf. This gnat-ogre looks to have just gotten started on a meal, and didn't seem to mind having some cameras shoved in its face.

Next up we have a grasshopper-hunting wasp, which is to say a species of wasp that specializes in hunting grasshoppers. The grasshopper blends in pretty well with its surroundings, but the camouflage apparently was no match for the keen eye of the wasp.

Since the grasshopper blends in so well, I thought it might be helpful to isolate the two actors in this scene: wasp is circled in pink/purple, grasshopper is circled in green.

Here you can see that the grasshopper is almost twice as large as the wasp, but she carried it with relative ease, at least to our eyes. We watched her haul this grasshopper several yards toward her burrow in the dirt.

She repeatedly stopped on top of the grass in an effort to locate her burrow, which she eventually found. We watched her excavate the burrow in preparation for the grasshopper (which she presumably would bury inside, where her young would eventually hatch and have a feast waiting for them). After observing that she had trouble finding her burrow, we also noticed she had difficulty relocating her prey after she had excavated the burrow. We finally surmised that our presence may have been the thing that was throwing her tracking off. We had originally hypothesized that she was using some kind of scent queues to help her find burrow and prey, but perhaps she was using visual cues instead, and our movements kept throwing off her bearings (i.e. her landmarks kept changing). At this point we backed off and left her to her job in peace. (Our apologies to you, Mrs. Wasp.)

Here, a praying mantis looks on innocently after it has just caught some species of ambush bug. We watched the ambush bug walk right into the mantis's well-camouflaged trap.

A face that only a mother could love. I've never seen mantis mandibles up close until now.

Chomp! Once again, a very cooperative subject, busy with its meal and obviously not feeling threatened by all the big creatures looming toward it with cameras.
I have some other buggy stuff to share, but we'll take a break and deal with birds for the foreseeable future. Stay tuned for reports from the Midwest Birding Symposium!

Field marks of an MBS-er

Most days of the week find me outside with my binoculars at some point, even if it's just around our house and on our property. Ninety-nine percent of the time I'm checking out birds, but sometimes I also spy on butterflies, dragonflies, squirrels, and chipmunks.

This evening had me looking at some other things though. I had some strange sightings on the property that I had to check out.

For one thing, there were some odd markings on my car that were puzzling me.

Unfortunately, my field guides were of no help.

But then I remembered something. I had seen similar field marks on a publication I got in the mail earlier in the week. It was all becoming clear.

These were the field marks of a car that has been to the Midwest Birding Symposium before! How appropriate that my Ohio Ornithological Society sticker is right next to my MBS sticker, especially since the OOS is one of the hosts of this year's symposium, along with Bird Watcher's Digest and the Lakeside Association. If you're not already a member of the OOS, they can get you signed up right at the symposium. You ARE coming to the symposium, aren't you?

MBS-er field marks can also be found on people, like my husband. There's a great marketplace at the symposium, where you can get cool hats and t-shirts, ogle over optics, buy your next birdfeeder, plan your next birding vacation, or maybe even pick up a cool binocular harness, as modeled here by Dave along with his MBS hat (the harness helps reduce the strain caused by the weight of heavy bins around your neck).

But wait, Dave has his sights on something, too. When I asked him what he was looking for, he had to whisper his response, as he didn't want to spook his quarry. He was looking at the mysterious Blogger Bird.

Okay, maybe she's not SO mysterious, but she was hard at work. Oh wait - that's me! And I'm in the middle of crafting this very post.
Speaking of bloggers, there will be ten Official Bloggers at the symposium. They are as follows:

• Yours truly, Heather of the Hills
• Wren of Wrenaissance Reflections
• Nancy Castillo of The Zen Birdfeeder
• Corey Finger of 10000 Birds
• Nina Harfmann of Nature Remains
• Ruthie Johnson of Nature Knitter Blog
• Robert Mortensen of Birding is Fun
• Greg Neise of NA Birding
• John Riutta of The Well-read Naturalist
• Lynne Schoenborn of Hasty Brook
• Julie Zickefoose of Julie Zickefoose on Blogspot

Many of these will be "life" bird blogger sightings for me, as I've only met a handful of these folks in person, and some of these blogs I am not familiar with at all (looks like I've got a little homework to do!). For those of you coming to the symposium (and I'm talking to YOU, right?!), us blog-folk will have our own special blogging spot in the north end of Wesley Lodge. Be sure to stop by and say "hi!" This is, after all, the World's Friendliest Birding Event!

Other cool things going on at the symposium include a Lake Erie Island sunset boat cruise, multiple screenings of the documentary film "Ghost Bird" about the search for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, songbird banding demonstrations, an exhibit of birds of prey by Back to the Wild, and so much more! Not to mention that there will be over 20 amazing speakers addressing all kinds of birding topics.

Oh, and let's not forget the birds themselves. This area of Ohio is a magnet for birds in both spring and fall migration. Great birding can be had right from the lovely town of Lakeside, but there are also other wonderful designated birding areas within driving distance of Lakeside, including the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, Magee Marsh, Black Swamp Observatory, Marblehead Lighthouse State Park, and Meadowbrook Marsh (a new birding sight for the area). When I attended the symposium in '09, I had to learn the hard way that there's just not enough time to see all these places during the course of the symposium itself, so this year we're gonna get there a little early to leave time for exploring on our own!


If you can swing it, bring someone you love, be it spouse, family, or friend. Birding is best when it's shared with someone special.

I really hope to see you there!

The kindness of birders

Thanks to the kindness of birders, I was lucky enough to be able to see a family of nesting Mississippi Kites within easy driving distance of my home in southeast Ohio this weekend. Birders, in case you haven't already heard, tend to have a reputation for being extremely nice, and helpful, and will do just about anything to help you see a bird. There is a very gracious couple of birders who lives in a small gated community nestled near the Hocking Hills area, and their graciousness was extended out through this community when they opened their gates to approximately 100 outsiders this past Sunday. They opened their arms and welcomed us to see this fantastic spectacle of nature.


Juvenile Mississippi Kite from behind. You'll get a better view in a minute.
The thing that makes this bird species special is that this is currently the only known breeding location in the state of Ohio. Luckily, the birders in this community had a hunch at what they were looking at when a pair of Mississippi Kites raised a family there last year, and word got around in the Ohio birding community. Some other kind birders handled the logistics and arranged a special day to view the kite family last year, and then again this year. I am so grateful for this kindness.


From this angle it may look like jr. kite is eating something, but it's actually just preening.
To give you an idea of how spectacular it is to see this bird breeding in Ohio, I checked the first Breeding Bird Atlas done in the state back in 1982-1987, and it was not even on our radar at that time. Now, that's not definitive proof that it wasn't breeding in Ohio at that time, but in blocks where birders were surveying, they were not even observed. What has changed and brought them to Ohio since then? I don't know. Is it by luck that for two years now these kites have decided to nest in a woody area populated by people who would notice it? Maybe.

This is a reminder that conservation starts right in your own yard. These kites took up residence in a community that, from what I observed, seems to believe in disturbing the land as little as possible, so there is a lot of wonderful, suitable habitat for them to use. Great habitat = great biodiversity. And great biodiversity means you never know what might show up! (And with that in mind, it means you've got to keep your eyes open all the time, just in case something unexpected drops in to stay for a while. Well, I feel that's MY duty, anyway...)


Parental unit coming in with a juicy morsel for the youngster. Look how poised and ready that juvenile is to receive its meal!
The Mississippi Kite's diet is mainly comprised of insects like cicadas and dragonflies. They leave the exoskeleton (or outer shell) behind, only picking out the meat from within. I was amazed to watch bits of cicada wing flutter to the ground as the young one picked its way to the meat of its meal.


Getting ready for the hand-off. As soon as the juvenile kite demonstrates that it's able to feed itself, the family will begin their migration south toward their wintering grounds in central South America.

Birding and blogging friends Susan Gets Native (sitting) and KatDoc (with camera snapping) enjoying the view. This was a life bird for all 3 of us!

The adult takes off after dropping off a bite to eat. It's hard to get an idea of size in these photos, but the average wing span of this raptor is 3 feet (smaller than a Red-tailed Hawk, but larger than a Kestrel, for those keeping track). Notice the rufous, or rust-colored, primary feathers (the "finger tips") that are so nicely back lit by the sun here.

Here the juvenile is begging for food, calling to an adult in the vicinity. One theory being tossed around was that the youngster didn't actually start vocalizing until it had one of the parents within visual range. Speaking of begging behavior, when I was there watching the bird, I noticed it wasn't exhibiting the type of begging behavior I'm used to seeing in songbirds. Songbird youngsters, once out of the nest, will sit on a branch or a wire and peep almost continuously, with their wings puffed out and rapidly fluttering. This is an obvious visual cue to the parents, most likely to gain an upper hand over a nearby sibling who is also exhibiting similar behavior.

"I hear ya, kid. Just hold your horses, dinner's comin'!

Once I started looking at my pictures, though, I realized that while the begging is not as prolonged as a juvenile songbird's, the concept is still the same, as seen here: "I must make myself as large as possible so you know that you are supposed to feed ME!!" There was only one mouth to feed this year (last year's brood consisted of two young), but the instinct remains despite that fact.

This was one of the longer feeding sessions that we got to observe, and it made for great photo opportunities, thus giving me a chance to study field marks in-depth after I got home. Here you can really see the differences in appearance between the adult on the left and immature on the right. Notice the clean white breast and underside of the wings on the adult. Compare this to a chest and underwing area that is very dappled on the juvenile. Also, notice that the tail of the adult is completely dark with no banding (again, we've got a little but of rufous coloring peeking through at the tail tip). By contrast, the immature's tail has very distinct banding.

Once again, my sincere thanks goes out to the kind folks who brought this kite family to the attention of the Ohio birding community, and to those who arranged this get-together for us. It was a very special treat that made my day.

The weekend birder

After a weekend of intense nature play, whether it be birding, botanizing, or simply investigating what's going on in my back yard, the reality of going back to work can often be a shock to my system. The world that I was so deeply immersed in for a day or two seems like a distant memory after plunging back into the world of customer service and problem solving that is my day job. This is not to say that I don't like my job, but there are times when making that transition can be difficult and almost painful. A little bit of my own Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I suppose.

Was it a dream that I saw more Rough-legged Hawks in one day than I'll probably ever see again in a year? Was it my imagination that I watched them soar and hover, glide and hang, showing off their magnificent hunting prowess? Raptors that were tiny blips in my binoculars, invisible to the naked eye, became clear within the focus of a borrowed spotting scope*. Will I be able to retain the memory of these beauties, so that if perchance I see one again I will be able to identify it? Yes, I and my birding friends watched these hawks steer with their wings and stall with their tails, their heads constantly in motion, scanning the ground below for prey. Yes, I pondered the fact that we needed high-powered magnification devices to be able to see them well from afar, to make out their field marks and their coloring, all the while knowing that the eyesight of these avian masterpieces was probably far better than any of our scopes.

Light-morph Rough-legged Hawk hunting over open field near the Wilds in Cumberland, Ohio. Black "wrist" patches are the diagnostic field mark of this raptor.
The wind and the cold of the day was real - yes, I remember that. And we all stood outside and endured it, dashing from one location to the next, hopping in and out of our cars, all for the chance to see something as wonderful as a Bald Eagle, for the faintest hope of seeing a Golden Eagle. Being that it was my second Bald Eagle sighting in a week, it made up for missing out on the Golden. Sweet little Bluebirds brightened the dreary landscape, of that I am sure. Later, a Northern Shrike echoed the slate gray sky. How gratifying that the last bird seen on this trip was an addition to my life list, a wonderful way to close out the day.

Birders braving the cold - hardy souls, every one of them. A total of 120 such hardy souls gathered together on this day.
Birding Saturday morphed into Birding Sunday when I awoke to fill the feeders and stood outside for thirty-plus minutes, listening to the birds wake up. The songs of Tufted Titmice and Eastern Towhees rang clear and strong, and White-breasted Nuthatches surrounded me on all sides. It had the faintest feel of a summer dawn chorus, and reminded me that I should get up early more often. A Carolina Wren approached me cautiously, curiously, wanting to sample the bird dough that I had just put out, but not quite trusting enough to come to it while I was standing so close at hand.

Out the door I went after lunch, down the road to help a friend with his work at banding his feeder birds*. We recorded data that will contribute to his ongoing research, and I got to learn about aging and sexing Goldfinches, the proper way to release a bird, and how cranky birds can get when they get caught in a mist net, among other things.

The crankiest of them all still seems like a figment of my imagination. Her high-pitched squeals of displeasure echo in my mind, a sound I'll not soon forget.

Getting toes untangled. Who's foot could this be?

One unhappy Pileated Woodpecker, cursing the net that caught her
One thing I already knew to be true, without anyone having to teach it to me - the experience of a bird in the hand is priceless, no matter how fleeting.

American Goldfinch and Dark-eyed Junco being held in "photographer's pose."

* My heartfelt thanks go out to Julie Z. for letting me use her extra scope whilst birding at the Wilds, and to Bob P. for letting me observe and participate in his weekly banding effort. And thanks to ALL of my birding friends who are helping nature become a bigger and better part of my life.

Ringing in the New Year with birds

As cliché as it may sound, I can't believe the first week of 2011 is over. It got off to a great start on January 2nd as I participated in my first-ever Christmas Bird Count. Probably the oldest citizen science project out there, Christmas Bird Counts have been taking place since the year 1900. Isn't that amazing? I keep hearing that birding as a hobby has been gaining in popularity in recent years, but it's obviously been of interest to a lot of people for a long time for such a project to be entering its 111th year.

Counts happen all over the Americas during a period from mid-December to early January. I participated in the Hocking Hills count, where I met up with friends Jim McCormac and Nina Harfmann, and two new birding acquaintances, Peter and Gabe. We had so much fun during the 6-1/2 hours or so that we scoured the hollers of the Hocking Hills.

Nina, Peter, Gabe and Jim. Trust me, there really are 4 people in this picture.
The day just flew by, too. Overall, we tallied 54 species seen and heard for the day. Unfortunately, I missed the 2 Bald Eagles that flew over the parking lot where we all met (I was the last to arrive), but I made up for that today when I saw one fly across the highway.

We were there mainly for the birds, but it's not too hard for me to get distracted by other things, especially when the scenery is so lovely.

I could have taken pictures of frozen puddles forever, but there were birds to be counted!

The sun shines down upon us on this quiet country road. Some spots were very birdy, others were remarkably quiet.

Dilapidated old barns abound, begging to be appreciated for their beauty. Maybe Barn Swallows live here in the summer.
No birding trip with Jim would be complete without a little bit of botany on the side. Myself, Nina and Peter were all in for a special treat when Jim shared with us the endangered Appalachian Filmy Fern, one of only two known colonies of said fern in the state of Ohio. Given its fragile status, we were all sworn to secrecy as to its location. My photos don't do justice to the delicate nature of this fern, which Jim says is merely 1 cell thick. I would be interested in trying to get photos that capture their translucent quality, but I don't want to disturb the site more than necessary.

"Baby" fronds of Appalachian Filmy Fern

It puts me a little in the mind of parsley, this special fern. For more information about the Appalachian Filmy Fern, check out Jim's blog.

Happy Birdy (and ferny) New Year to you!

OCVN Killdeer Plains workshop

I have learned by blogging that there are lots of folks out there who are interested in the natural world, and that they engage themselves with the natural world in many different ways.  Some do it through art (painting, writing, photography, etc.), some do it through their day job (paid naturalists, wildlife rehabbers, etc.), some do it on the side as a hobby (bird watching, butterfly watching, vernal pool monitoring, etc.).  Regardless of how we each choose to connect with nature, it inevitably leads to us learn more about our particular interests.  Usually one little tidbit of knowledge hooks us, and we feel the need to keep the learning going and going.

This past weekend I kept up my end of that bargain by surrounding myself with 35 other Ohio Certified Volunteer Natruralists and 4 expert guides at Killdeer Plains Wildlife Area in Wyandot and Marion Counties.  We split our time between presentations and field work, spending 2 hours in the field to each hour of classroom-style background presentations.  The topics covered were plants, birds, beetles and butterflies.



Out in the field learning about plants from expert David Brandenburg (2nd from right).
Here in Ohio we are very lucky to have wonderful and talented experts in a wide variety of natural history topics who are willing to share what they know with those of us who still have a lot to learn.  David Brandenburg is the staff botanist at the Dawes Arboretum, and previously worked as a field botanist for the ODNR Division of Natural Areas and Preserves.  In April of this year his book, National Wildlife Federation Field Guide to Wildflowers of North America, was published.  The layout is unique in that plants are grouped by family rather than by color, and range maps are included along with color plates and descriptions.  I find the grouping by family to be especially helpful since I am finally getting a grasp on what types of flowers belong to what families - I would prefer to narrow a flower down to a particular family right off the bat rather than flipping through endless white flower color plates, for example.  Needless to say, I was very excited to purchase my own autographed copy directly from David himself.

Bob Placier lives in my neck of the woods and is an instructor of various natural science courses at nearby Hocking College.  He talked to us about birds, but he also he also teaches about ecology, conservation biology and environmental science.  Bob is a licensed bird bander and is a board member of the Ohio Ornithological society.  I hope to spend some of my volunteer hours in October and November working with Bob and his team when they conduct banding and research on Northern Saw-Whet Owls.

George Keeney opened up the world of beetles to many of us.  He manages the Insectary at Ohio State University, and is a research associate at the Department of Entomology at the university.  He has played an important role in the recent reintroduction of the federally endangered American burying beetle in such southeast Ohio forests as Wayne National Forest, Zaleski State Forest and Waterloo Wildlife Area and Research Station.  He told us a number of anecdotes that illustrated that researching and collecting beetles is not a glamorous job, but definitely one that is never boring (one such story involved exploding fermented raw chicken!).

Jim Davidson was our butterfly expert, and he went "old school" on us by using a slide projector to illustrate his presentation.  In this age of PowerPoint talks, it was a bit refreshing to see the slides.  Jim is a retired pathologist, and is the current vice president of the Ohio Lepidopterists.  We learned that the Franklin County Metroparks now owns one of his former properties and that this site is specifically protected as a butterfly preserve, one of few sites like it anywhere.  Jim sure knows his butterflies, and is able to identify many of them by sight from quite a distance.  (I will admit, though, to being distracted greatly by the birds during our butterfly walk... no disrespect to Jim.)

Jim McCormac, with whom many of you are probably already familiar, talked to us about a successful wetland restoration project that is located just a bit northwest of Killdeer Plains. The wetland has seen a dramatic increase in biological diversity since it was completed in 2005, and he showed us how many of the species that either breed or migrate through this wetland connect a small 500-acre portion of Ohio to points north in Canada and to locations almost to the southern tip of South America.  Jim also took us out for a night walk and helped us make some sense of all the singing insects.


When you attend workshops like this, you don't have to worry about looking silly when you tuck your pants into your socks in an effort to keep ticks at bay because everyone else is doing it, too.  And you don't feel at all odd for foraging for deer dung or a raccoon carcass in search of beetles because that's what you're there for!  Only the most hardy (or foolish) nature lovers would offer themselves to the mosquitoes and deer flies (because you can't possibly douse every square inch with enough bug spray to deter them) in order to attend a night "prowl" to bear witness to the vast array of night-singing insects and frogs.  We were all in it together, and I must admit the the sense of community that was present at this event was just as wonderful as all the knowledge gleaned.  I had a chance to see some friends from the blogosphere as well as a number of my classmates from the Hocking Hills region OCVN.

I should also mention that Rae Johnson and the Licking County OCVN were amazing hosts to us all, and I have to thank them for putting on such an amazing weekend!  Next up I'll show you how we went from classroom to field with plants.

Looking back...

It's hard to believe 2009 is in its last days. We all say it: where does the time go?!

Here are some random highlights from 2009

Birding by ear at the Wilds, May 2009
-16 birds added to my life list, including the Bobolink (aka Dennis Rodman bird) and Grasshopper Sparrow (my first bird in the hand - SUCH an amazing experience!). Not to mention the learning of lots of new bird songs.




Oops - I incorrectly identified this as a Savannah Sparrow on my post about the Birding by Ear weekend back in May (it's a Grasshopper Sparrow)!


Making friends with a Grasshopper Sparrow
Met fellow bloggers.
I had the good fortune to meet up with several of my blogging friends in person throughout the year. I met Jim McCormac during the aforementioned birding weekend at the Wilds. Then I met Kelly (aka Peanut) of Red and the Peanut, with whom I spent a whole day birding in the beautiful Hocking Hills region in July. Several days later I met Shelley of Birding in Michigan on our way to vacation in northern Michigan. I almost met Tom of the Ohio Nature Blog while he was working at the ODNR Natural Resources Park at the Ohio State Fair, but our timing didn't quite work out. Maybe in '10, Tom! In September, Dave and I made our way up to Lakeside, OH, for the Midwest Birding Symposium. There I met Nina (Nature Remains), Julie Zickefoose, Bill of the Birds, and Mike Bergin, founder of 10,000 Birds and creator of the Nature Blog Network. It was really good to make face-to-face contact with all these folks with whom I had only had virtual conversations for so long.

Added Athens County to the state map
...for the presence of several moths (Polyphemus and Hummingbird Clearwing) to Butterflies and Moths of North America. Hooray for citizen science!


Polyphemus moth


Hummingbird Clearwing moth
Took a record number of flora photos.
I took more pictures of flowers in 2009 than in any other year since I got my Nikon D50 (653 flower photos in 2006, 131 in 2007, 784 in 2008, and 4,117 in 2009). Among them, new finds on the property, such as...


Lily-leafed Twayblade and Jack-in-the-Pulpit.
Started another blog
Yes, in a fit of madness I decided that I needed another blog by which to convey my photographs. Thus, Photography of the Hills was born. No descriptions or writing there, just images meant to evoke some emotion. That blog has been languishing a bit as of late, but I hope to revive it in the new year. It's possible that I will discuss photography a bit on that blog in the future, but we'll see how it develops. I'm crafting in my mind a "Looking back" post for that blog as I write this, so check it out. Also, as a part of the creation of the photo blog, I learned just enough HTML to enable me to jazz up both of the blogs a little beyond the simple Blogger-provided templates.


Midwest Birding Symposium, September 2009
I knew the MBS would be interesting and educational, but who knew it would be so much fun, too? I went into it knowing I would see quite a few of my blogging friends, most for the first time, which made it that much more special.

Whilst attending the symposium I got to attend a bird banding demo, where I saw so many birds up close and personal, like the Swainson's Thrush (lifer!) and Brown Thrasher.




One thing I learned while at the symposium: when going to a new, interesting location that has lots of natural attractions around, try to add a few extra days to the trip outside of the scheduled symposium/festival/workshop days. I did NOT do that, and I really feel like I missed out on seeing lots of cool stuff in this area of northwest Ohio.

In my next post, I'll tell you what I'm looking forward to in 2010!