Since my last post on an Ambush Predator in a Flower, I've started keeping an eye out for crab spiders when doing macro shots of wildflowers. Yesterday I not only photographed two more crab spiders, but I've captured the moment immediately after the spider has seized its prey.
The bottom photo is a little harder to make out, so let me describe what's going in that one. The crab spider is to the left of the flower's center. The small insect the spider is eating is identical to the one Read more ➜ Score Two for Team Crab Spider!
Since my last post on an Ambush Predator in a Flower, I've started keeping an eye out for crab spiders when doing macro shots of wildflowers. Yesterday I not only photographed two more crab spiders, but I've captured the moment immediately after the spider has seized its prey.
The bottom photo is a little harder to make out, so let me describe what's going in that one. The crab spider is to the left of the flower's center. The small insect the spider is eating is identical to the one Read more ➜ 
Yesterday I was exploring Knox Woods State Nature Preserve when I encountered the little creature pictured above. To be honest, I didn't even know I had encountered him at first. I was on my way out of the woods because the sun was setting. On a whim I casually took a quick photo of a trillium just because it was adjacent to the trail. I hadn't been looking at any of my shots after taking them since I was trying to conserve my battery power, but on another whim I looked at this one anyway.
As 
Brandywine Falls is in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The falls is named after the village of Brandywine that no longer exists.
The village of Brandywine boomed in the early 1800s because of the waterpower which the falls provided. Here's a vintage photo of the mill associated with the falls.
As transportation technology advanced, first with the Erie Canal, then later with railways, the village of Brandywine was bypassed and their economy gradually deteriorated. 
These scarecrows are part of a display at Dawes Arboretum that explores alternative energy, such as producing fuel from switch grass. However they appear here because I think scarecrows are adorable. I also like rusty relics, so I particularly liked the scarecrow on the tractor.
I had no idea how to tell whether a green frog was male or female, but now I do. And if you check out one of the off-site posts below, you'll know too. 🙂
See either:
https://naturallycuriouswithmaryholland.wordpress.com/2013/08/15/a-frogs-tympanum/, orhttps://sillyfrogsusan.wordpress.com/2012/04/20/nature-knowledge-frog-gender-id/
If I were a professional photographer, I guess this would be a very ordinary event. However since I'm not a professional photographer, this is kind of exciting! A while back I was contacted by someone from a graphic design firm, Bluestone + Associates. The firm had been contracted to do a project for Klehm Arboretum and Botanic Garden, and as part of this project, they wanted to use one of my photos.
Their plan was to use my photo as the background image for an interpretive sign. It 
Whenever I'm at Inniswood Metro Gardens, I stop by to see what's happening in this tiny, municipal wetland. And right now, tadpoles are what's happening.
These two, very different types of tadpoles were co-existing in the pond. I wonder if they are different species of frog, or the same species born at different times?
Let's take a look at some prospective parents.
The happy threesome above are Eastern American Toads. You can distinguish toads from frogs because the skin 
Although reindeer don't live in Ohio now, it was a different story during the last ice age.
Photo courtesy of Dean Biggins of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, license: Public Domain
Reindeer once lived in Ohio.
About 24,000 years ago the Wisconsinan ice sheet expanded into Ohio. Central Ohio was buried under 1000 feet of ice (305 m). Near Lake Erie, the ice was five times thicker. As the ice sheet expanded southwards, all forests in its path were ground to a pulp. Animals from 
Above you see a little green hill rising above the surrounding plain. This is a man-made structure. The first time I came across anything like this was while reading Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy. There is a dramatic passage in the Fellowship of the Ring when the hobbit heroes are passing through the "Barrow-downs". Tolkien's barrows were mounds like the one above; they had been the final resting place of the ancient men of the first age. In the novel the barrow-downs had been a peaceful place 
My family went for a hike in Ohio's Mohican State Park this weekend, and I noticed a number of flowers that were just beginning to unfurl.
To see more-developed examples of the above flowers, check out my post, Common Spring Wildflowers in Ohio.
Besides the flowers, fiddlehead ferns also were beginning to unfurl.
New life is emerging all over the forests.