Slate Run Historical Farm

Slate Run Living Historical Farm is one of my favorite Columbus Metro Parks! It's actually the first Metro Park Kenneth and I ever visited. We drove up one afternoon from Athens when we were still students at Ohio University. On that visit we were able to watch horse powered grain threshing. 

Highbanks

Highbanks Metro Park is where I recently had my favorite bird watching moment (to date). Kenneth and I got a really close up look at a Pileated Woodpecker. The bird was about thirty feet from the path. We stood and watched the woodpecker for about ten minutes while I frantically snapped photos (which Google+ turned into a GIF!) and pointed the bird out to other hikers. Some of my other favorite birding moments have been seeing Sandhill Cranes for the first time, getting a really close look at a Northern Saw-whet Owl, watching Carolina Wrens on our apartment balcony and correctly identifying Blue-Winged Warblers the first time I encountered them on a hike. What made seeing the Pileated Woodpecker so special was how long we were able to observe the bird, and how close it was to the pathway. We didn't even need binoculars!

I really enjoy birdwatching - it's a fun and relatively inexpensive hobby. All you need is a bird book, a pair of binoculars and a place to watch birds. This could be a metro park, or your backyard - just throw out some bird seed (or set up a feeder). You might be surprised by what birds show up!

Happy Draw a Bird Day

Happy Draw A Bird Day! This special holiday is in memory of a special girl, Dorie Cooper. To try and cheer up her uncle, who was in an English hospital after being injured in WWII, Dorie asked him to draw her a bird. He drew a picture of a robin (which wouldn't be the robin we'd think of in the US, this is an English robin), which Dorie laughingly told him wasn't very good, but she would hang it up in her room anyway. Her honesty and cheerfulness encouraged her uncle and every time Dorie came to visit, he and the other wounded soldiers had bird drawing contests. 

Sadly, Dorie died at a very young age. She was struck and killed by a car at age 10, just three years after starting the bird drawing contests with her uncle. Soldiers, nurses and doctors from the ward her uncle had been in filled Dorie's coffin with drawings of birds. Dorie is now remembered by those she touched on her birthday, April 8th. They honor her memory by drawing birds. 

I was deeply struck by this story. What Dorie started was so simple, but it made such a difference in the lives of so many. 

I celebrated Draw A Bird Day by drawing a burrowing owl in the journal, 642 Things to Draw, that I share with my sister. I love owls - they're beautiful birds! 

Did you draw a bird for Draw A Bird Day? If you did, please share it with DABDAY.com! 

Pileated Woodpecker!

Kenneth and I spotted this gorgeous Pileated Woodpecker today at Highbanks Metro Park. He was about thirty feet from the path on the Dripping Rock Trail. I think he was looking for food as he pecked away at the tree. He kept shifting his weight and turning to look in the hole he was creating. 

Ermahgerd - It's a Bird!

I am so excited about this photo I took this morning! This little guy (a Northern Cardinal) looks so surprised! I was using Kenneth's camera and was having difficulty getting it to focus on the bird instead of the large tree branch behind him - luckily the camera was focused on the cardinal at the moment he opened his mouth!

Some Birds Are Jerks

American Robin

I really like birds. I was obsessed with birdwatching in junior high and high school and went on a lot of birding trips with my mom and our local Audubon Nature Center (the fabulous Aullwood Audubon Center and Farm, where I have interned, worked and where Kenneth and I got married!). 

Birds are fascinating - they're also gorgeous and much more challenging to spot and identify in the field than trees or wildflowers, which I also really like (in case you haven't realized this already, blog reader, I am a big nerd, I love trees, birds and the fungus among us, also, corny nature puns).