Bright green pine needles catch the late winter sun with the brown bark of the trees and dead leaves blanketing the ground in brown offering contrast to the mossy green wood of a foot bridge.
The path to Spring. A beautiful sunny day for a walk at Oak Openings Preserve Metropark, until the snow came. #nature #hiking #trees #oakopenings
Through a thick forest of trees large and small, a light brown deer peers at a moving shape in the distance that has suddenly stopped. The gray trees catch the low angled sunlight. Some bend to the right, other rise in straight lines from the forest floor that’s covered in brown dead leaves.
Deer friends. Can you see both deer? Today in the Oak Openings Preserve Metropark near Swanton, OH. #nature #deer #fall #autumn #trees #hiking #oakopenings #ohio
Bright red leaves on a small tree in the foreground frame a few with bright red leaves in the background. The underbrush is yellow, light green, and brown between them.
Really red. Trees in the foreground and background are really red at Oak Openings Preserve Metropark near Swanton, OH. #fall #leaves #nature #hiking #autumn #oakopenings #ohio
Bright leaves of orange that fade to red decorate a small Sassafras tree that’s growing in dark red underbrush. Beyond it are older tree trunks with a forest farther off with trees dappled in green, yellow, and orange leaves.
Sassy Sassafras. A very young Sassafras tree shows off its fall color at Oak Openings Preserve Metropark, near Swanton, OH. #trees #fall #sassafras #nature #oakopenings #ohio
We went mushroom hunting today in oak openings of north west Ohio. Wanted to find some ghost pipes to get pictures of but unfortunately we only found dead pipes(We do not pick anything) #mushroom #fungi #hiking #greenlife #oakopenings #moss
Rising from a forest floor of brown and black soil and detritus, a bright green fern head has started to unfurl. Tiny fronds are still wrapped in a spiral with a beautiful delicate pattern.
Fern and friend. Hiking today and saw this fern head about to fully unfurl. An insect I can’t readily identify was perched on top. I was amazed at the tiny details. #nature #hiking #plants #oakopenings #ohio
Signs of two seasons: some green, some lingering ice on a 54 degree day Friday. This is the Springbrook Area, a park within a park. Before there was Oak Openings Preserve, there was Springbrook Park. - Oak Openings Preserve Metropark, Swanton OH
#nature #oakopenings #toledo #ohio #winter
Had a nice time today, sharing stories of some of the development of my Big Woods.
#OakOpenings
Good morning from one of the most unique and important ecosystems. Not many places you can look to the right and see sand dunes, to the left swamps, behind you woodlands, and facing forward Oak Savana's. #OakOpenings Region
Evergreen Lake pine trees in Ohio on a Saturday afternoon in November. #ToledoMetroparks #OakOpenings
A small songbird with bright yellow coloring on neck and breast with what looks like yellow spectacles around their eyes.
Unlike warblers, you can find Yellow-throated vireo concentrating on bare branches in midsection of trees-hunting for insects.
During breeding season, the male starts building the nest. When females arrive, she gives the go ahead and together they finish building it.
Both sexes incubate the nest and raise the young.
When a Yellow-throated Viero stops by for a visit, you must take their photo... you simply must. #Birds #BirdingOH #OakOpenings #YellowthroatedVireo
Eastern Towhee giving great looks on a Friyay! afternoon. #FeatheredFridays #OakOpenings #BirdingOH #Birds
