Goose update

I got my information back on the tagged goose last night.  I was so excited.  It came back a lot faster than I thought it would.  There were warnings that it could take awhile to get the info back so I had gotten ready for a good long wait.

It was so strange but I was actually proud of my little certificate.  It's like I'm a kid in school lol.  It was a very neat experience.  I kind of feel a closeness with this goose.  I hope he makes it and doesn't meet up with a hunter.  He is just a few months younger than my daughter.

This and That

Not that any of this has to do with hiking the Metroparks it has everything to do with nature and what Annie and I have been doing.  So I decided to include a little of this and that.  I was too excited about it to leave it out even though it didn't have to do wiht our hiking.  We've gone to the 2012 Shreve Migration Sensation and saw some very interesting things.  We went to some lectures which were very interesting and informative.  I liked the one about sparrows probably the best.  They are always hard for me to identify.  They are always so darn hard to identify for me.  I mean I know they are a sparrow but they are so darn fast thats about as far as I get.  Hopefully with my new info I will do better. 
We also got to see some raptors up close thanks to Medina Raptor.  They are a raptor rescue and release group that brought some rehabilitated birds. I chose two favorites here to show you. 

The top picture is a peregrine falcon.  He was malnurished which is why the group acquired him.  He is unable to be released because of the problems from his upbringing.
The second picture is of a Leucistic red-tailed hawk.  He is not albino because he does have melanin to color his legs and eyes.  He was hit by a train and had a partial amputation of his wing tip.  He also is unable to be released back into the wild.  Ever since I had heard of leucistic birds I have wanted to see one so this was quite a treat for me.

The Shreve event was also a bit of a culture shock for me.  I didn't realize how involved in birdwatching the amish community was.   It was nice to see the children and teenagers involved as well.

We also have been watching the amphibian migration. 

This picture was taken by my friend Tamra Harrison.  I thought he looked like he was smiling. 

These spotted salamanders are most likely girls.  The boys were already in the vernal pools. The metroparks close a road so the salamanders and toads can migrate across the road. 
We also saw various toad and frogs.

This is a woodfrog.  Look at the mask on this frog.  Isn't it beautiful. 
None of the other pictures came out unfortunately but there were toads, bullfrogs, green frogs, and peepers. We also heard chorus frogs but didn't see any. 

One day I was sitting by the wet areas aloung the towpath getting frustrated trying to identify ducks.  I was just about ready to leave when I looked next to me and saw this. I guess I had been very still for a long time.

He looked up at me and looked as shocked to see me as I was to see him.  He pulled his head in very fast like maybe I wouldn't see him.  Once he realized I wasn't going to bother him he decided to continue on his way.

Since it has been unseasonably warm here the flowers are starting to bloom.  Daffodils are up and the trees are in bloom. 

Here are some of the early flowers

Spring Beauties

coltsfoot

Bloodroot
I love all the flowers.  I think I'm going to go back to O'neil woods.  That park always has lots of great flowers this time of year but ohh that hill. 

And for our final find a goose with a neck band. 

I submitted the band information.  Hopefully there were no mistakes in the data entry of the original input of information and I will find out where this goose is from.  I will post the info when I receive it.  I spotted this animal on the Ohio and Erie canal between Wilbeth rd and Summit Lake.   Hope you found all of these finds as interseting as we did. 
I this from time to time I will update you on this and that

Quarry Trail

1.2 miles completed today
58.05 miles completed total

Deep Lock Quarry ended up being one of the trails we liked a lot.  It was hilly with lots to looks at and had and interesting history.  In fact, tomorrow we are going to go back and walk along the towpath and look for birds.  Audubon has listed Deep Lock Quarry as an important birding site.  Unfortunately, by the time we got there tonight it was too late and the birds had all gone to bed.  I hope to get there early tomorrow morning and maybe see something I have never seen before.  I will keep my fingers crossed.
Enough about tomorrow, here is what we saw tonight before it got too dark. 

Here is Annie on some of the old mill stones.  Mill stones are scattered throughout the trail.  Look at the size of these things.  They are huge.  I believe these are what were used to mill the oats.

This is lock 28.  It was the deepest lock at 17 feet.  Now it is imhabited by frogs.  I thought it was very fitting to hike this park right after we finished walking the towpath.

This is a stack of stone that is still there when you enter the quarry.  It has been there for as long as I can remember so my guess is it may have been left from when the quarry was used and is not something that the park left. Unless it is left over from some of the early park buildings which is a possibility.

These are the stone walls where the large sandstone blocks were cut from.  Looking around Akron you can spot stones that were cut from this quarry everywhere.  Sometimes they were salvaged from the canal and sometimes they were cut for buildings.  The wall that is at O'Neil Woods that is pictured earlier in my blog is from stones that were salvaged from the original Summit County Jail.  We also saw spring beautys and bloodroot in bloom.  I love that spring is here.  I would have taken pictures of the flowers but since it was dark the blooms had closed up.  Maybe tomorrow.



Deep Lock Quarry

Buckeye Trail


- - This statewide trail circles from the Ohio River (near Cincinnati) to Lake Erie (near Mentor), west to Toledo and then back to the Ohio River. Here ... MORE



Cuyahoga Trail

13.1 miles - Metro Parks and the Boy Scouts of America, Order of the Arrow, created this rustic trail that loops through the Cuyahoga Valley. From Deep Lock Qua ... MORE



Quarry Trail

1.2 miles 2 Discarded mill stones are scattered along Quarry Trail, which takes visitors through the forest to the old quarry.



Within Deep Lock Quarry lies Lock 28, which at 17 feet was the deepest lock on the Ohio & Erie Canal, and an old quarry from which blocks of Berea sandstone were cut for the canal locks and other local structures.



Ferdinand Schumacher, who is credited with introducing oatmeal to America by supplying it to Union troops during the Civil War, purchased a portion of the quarry in 1879. The sandstone found in the quarry was ideal for mill stones, which were used to remove the outer hulls of oats processed at Akron's American Cereal Works (later Quaker Oats). Stone was last taken from the quarry in the 1930s, when the Civilian Conservation Corps used the sandstone to construct several Metro Parks facilities, including Pioneer Shelter in Goodyear Heights Metro Park. Deep Lock Quarry became a Metro Park in 1934.



Today, the park is home to more Ohio buckeye trees than any other Metro Park in Summit County. The old canal bed is home to frogs, turtles and salamanders. A shallow swamp has developed on the quarry floor, where rose pink (an herb) and the invasive narrow-leaved cattail grow.

The rest of the towpath

21.53 miles completed today
56.85 miles completed total

I got behind in my blogging because the weather has been so nice we have just been walking fools.  We have been walking everyday to try to make good use of the weather.  Typically around this area at this time of the year we still have snow.  This weather has been so unusual that I haven't wanted to miss a minute.  Since I'm so behind I'm just going to lump the last 6 days together. 
We have seen so many wonderful things over the past week or so.  Sometimes my camera worked and sometimes it didn't.  I have borrowed both of my daughters' cameras, so hopefully things will improve on the camera front from now on.  Of course with nature it is hard to get close enough so I don't have pictures of everything we saw. 
We saw various frogs, turtles and snakes.  Here are a few of the different species.

So there ya have it.  Pictured and not but we saw green frogs and bullfrogs.  Garder snakes.  Red-eared sliders, painted turtles, snapping turtles and a turtle I couldn't identify.  We got excited every time we saw a new one and I had tons of pictures.  Most were bad but we had fun trying to get them.  We probably saw 300 turtles during our 20 miles.  All sizes too.  They ranged from an inch and a half in diameter to at least 2 foot across for the snapper.  The unidentified one came up and sat right next to me while I was obseving some ducks.  He was as surprised to see me as I was to see him.
Here are some lock pictures.  I had more of these but did have some camera malfunction. So here is what I have left.

The first locks I believe are all the same.  I do know the last one for sure is different.  It is a Guard Lock  A Guard Lock was where a stream or river crossed the canal.  It was used to control the cross flow of water into the canal.  Guard locks were rarer in the north than the south.  In fact, this particular guard lock is the only one between Clinton and Cleveland.   
We saw some interesting birds.  We saw bluebirds
  
and a osprey

and a turkey vulture

and a belted kingfisher

and a killdeer

Plus all your typical feathered friends like woodpeckers, cardinals, jays, crows, robins, chickadees, titmice, hawks, canada geese, mallards, coots, various mutt ducks, and I'm sure many I can't remember.
We saw some flowers.  Lots of skunk cabbage blooms

not sure what it is (3/28/12 found out it's hairy bittercress)

 

and little blue flowers  Don't know what they are either.  I really liked these.  I thought they were really pretty.

and coltsfoot

and pussywillows

We saw a West Virginia White

and a Spring Azure though it seemed early

Let me think..

Oh ...

And a mink.  He was so cute.  He ran all along the bank and was so busy.  Then got in the water and swam a little.  We happened to be sitting on the bank working on some school work or else we probably would have missed him.  We were quietly reading so I don't think he was really paying any attention to us.  I saw the movement out of the corner of my eye and we got to watch all of his antics until he ambled off down the bank.  Here is a picture of what a mink looks like.

Here are some of the landscape pictures from our canal adventures.  Some areas are very picuresque while others were just downright ugly. Here are some of the prettier ones.

and this

and here

here where the Little Cuyahoga River meets the the Cuyahoga River

and here

here for a little light lunch

This bronze statue is in honor of the Indians who portaged their canoes approximately 9 miles between rivers.

This is the bridge in Barberton.

This was the newest section of the towpath that was recently finished but hasn't been dedicated yet.  I called first and they said it was fine to walk through but that there were some areas that weren't quite finished yet.  It did make me feel like we were breaking the law though and in fact I couldn't stop singing that song "Breakin the law breaking the law."  My daughter kept sayin "Mooooommmmm stoooop!"  I felt very rebellious. 

This is what the new trail looked like

I thought this was kind of neat.  This was the solar panel to light the 5 lights that were in the tunnel.

This is my favorite picture

Some parts of the trail were not our favorite but overall we did enjoy the Ohio and Erie Canal Towpath.