Marblehead Lighthouse (SWF)

I promise there are more bird photos to come from our recent trip to the Midwest Birding Symposium, but part of the fun of being in a new place (for me) is going exploring and sightseeing (and photographing!). Marblehead Lighthouse State Park was only about 4 miles away from our Lakeside location, so it was a no-brainer to go down and check it out while we were in the area.


Now owned by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, the lighthouse is the oldest lighthouse in continuous operation on the Great Lakes. The U.S. Coast Guard is responsible for the maintenance and operation of the actual beacon within the tower.


I seem to recall reading somewhere that this is one of the most photographed lighthouses in the U.S., but since I can't find my source on that, don't quote me on it!


I would imagine that some fantastic photos of this lighthouse could be made at sunrise (although when I do a Google image search for it, I don't see any sunrise shots...), but we were there at sunset. The golden hue of the fading light made for some pleasing colors.


The weather was quite nice when we arrived at the lighthouse, but some sort of front blew in seemingly out of nowhere, and the winds picked up to mild but steady gusts. Ominous clouds rolled in, but there was never any precipitation, which was just fine by me...
Ominous skies + no rain = dramatic photos and a dry camera!


I should have stuck around long enough to get at least one photo of the beacon in action, but I had already decided to pack it up by the time the green glow started its 10-flashes-per minute signaling (the light is green to distinguish from the white light coming from air beacons).

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Duck sunset

Unfortunately I do not know the identity of the ducks on this floating dock, but I DO know they dined on crawdads/crayfish that evening because I saw quite a pile of claws on that dock when I paddled past it the next morning.

Photo taken during our vacation in northern Michigan earlier this summer.

Cuckoo!

Dave and I took a walk last night through the woods across the road from our house, and I took my camera along, hoping to photograph some flowers. Well, we got sidetracked by something much more interesting - some large bird flying around from tree to tree. Oh how I wished I had the binoculars with me, in addition to the camera. Always, always take the binoculars along for best views of birds and other things high up in trees!!!!! Luckily the bird came out into a relatively clear branch on a sycamore tree and I was able to snap a few shots. I was pretty sure it was a cuckoo, and sure enough, upon consulting my Peterson's field guide, my ID was verified - a yellow-billed cuckoo. Bet you didn't know we had those in Ohio, huh? This year I learned their call, thanks to a bird call CD. I have heard them calling in this neck of the woods, so I knew they were around, but this is the first time I've ever laid eyes on one. The photo's pretty crappy, at least from the standpoint of the type of bird pictures I like to take, and doesn't really do justice to the size of the bird (they range between 11" and 13" long), but it was the best I could get.

And on the way back to the house, we were treated to a lovely sunset.