I last went to Mentor Headlands with Chuck and we were unable to walk the marsh trails as pets are prohibited. This time, I went with my mom; she is not prohibited. At the end of the beach, a trail winds through the grassy dunes. We walked towards the lake and the lighthouse. To our right, waves crashed against a stone break wall. To the left, a sea of grass undulated over the dunes. Huge vultures soared over our heads, swooping down on to the beach one after another to feast on some unseen carrion.
It feels more like the seashore than a lakeside habitat. The wind was brisk and large waves crashed onto the sand. A flock of gulls preened themselves at the water’s edge. We crept up to them slowly and they let us approach until we were standing among them. They are really so beautiful! The ring billed gulls are mostly white with bright yellow feet and eyes. Another larger variety of gull stood among the ring-billed. Their feet and bills were a delicate pink. I think they were glaucous gulls, but I’m not entirely sure – they may have been herring gulls.
From the beach, we walked to Zimmerman Trail. It’s a stretch of the Buckeye Trail that runs through the woods along a huge marsh. We could hear birds and other wildlife in the tall grasses, but the trail didn’t allow us to approach close enough to see anything. The woods were also teeming with mosquitos. We donned long sleeves and traipsed along for a mile or so before we decided we’d had enough.
We took a short drive to a lovely birding trail maintained by the Cleveland Museum of Natural history. The boardwalk took us out into the middle of a marsh where we spotted snapping turtles gaping from a small pond, a sand piper admiring his reflection and a yellow bird that led us through the grasses. I think it’s a bobolink, but I’m not positive.
All our hiking stirred up our appetites and we stopped for brunch at The Spot On Lakeshore. What a great restaurant! The food was amazing and the service was great too. I highly recommended if you’re in the area.
