This morning, Chuck and I were out early to beat the heat again. We headed to Huntington Reservation in Bay Village. I’ve been there many times, but always to go to the beach. I’m not familiar with the trails so I wasn’t sure what to expect.
The beach is beautiful and there are multiple staircases that lead down to the water from the green space at the top of the cliff. Unfortunately, they don’t allow dogs anywhere along the beach so we were unable to get close to the ducks and shorebirds, but we enjoyed the view of the water nonetheless.
As we explored the various trails, I was looking for habitats as well as birds or critters. This helps me memorize the area and gives me ideas for where I might look for things in the future.
We wandered a lovely trail that winds through the woods along the creek and eventually comes out at the beach. At the mouth of the creek, there is a wide shallow pool of water and I know that a lot of herons and fishing birds love this kind of habitat. We loitered there for a bit and it wasn’t too long before we heard a loud chatter and found a belted kingfisher perched above the pool. I love this bird and I have yet to get a really solid photo of one, but I tried a few shots today.
Next, we followed the path back towards the car and emerged at a gorgeous meadow. The grass is golden and bedecked with blue cornflowers. The edge of the meadow is hemmed with tall trees. I know there are a wide variety of birds that like these areas. Smaller birds look for seeds or bugs and larger birds like hawks perch up high to stalk them. We walked slowly and quietly through the grasses, but didn’t see anything.
Near the parking lot is a similar meadow. It was basking in the sun by the time we approached it. We walked around it a few times and took a path through the middle as well. I could see little flecks of yellow as a group of goldfinches came and went. I asked Chuck to sit with me the grass and we waited for quite awhile, but the birds did not come near.
Just as we were about to call it quits, the group of three finches came down to feed on some flowers fairly near us! I checked my camera settings and we moved very slowly towards them. I took a couple shots and then approached more. And then the same again. I managed to get a couple good shots of a pair of them as they were busy with their meal, but finally they noticed us and flew off into the woods.
