Marsh Beaches

When I was in my early twenties and working for an organization with campus ministers in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, I didn’t want to move to Ohio because they had such boring license plates. Yea, I was shallow, but thankfully God was not and eventually I landed here.

Ohio is a great mix of urban and rural. Our cities may be rusting around the edges, but our countryside is in full bloom. We may be in the top 10 states for obesity rates, but we also have miles and miles of bike paths and a national park. Once upon a time a squirrel would have been able to cross the state without ever touching the ground. Not so any more, but we can fish for steelhead trout in the rivers off of Lake Erie and we have a dune eco system where humans have actually preserved wetlands and marshes. Living in suburbia, I forget this sometimes. It’s good for me to escape to Lake Erie a couple of times a year to be reminded of the habitat diversity found here. Ohio isn’t only about the river that once caught on fire or boring license plates. 

I took one of my infrequent trips up to Lake Erie the other day.  Julie had a rare weekday of vacation and off we went to the appropriately named “Old Woman Estuary.” Birds, plants and other creatures like estuaries, no just old women. We always have our eyes to the sky as occasional birders – unlikely we will ever get our official khaki birding vests or a high powered spotting scope or pursue a Big Year. But, occasional birding is like a little treasure hunt and we happily go on those as often as we can. Lake Erie, especially during migration, has some of the Great Lakes Best birding spots.

I counted 8 hawks along the high way en route, a nice way to start the day. Overall, the day’s bird list was short and boring, but it was refreshing to walk along the lake, feel the breeze and have sand fill my shoes. I don’t do beaches when it’s hot outside or requires swimming or contains the scantily clad of Ohio’s obese population. The marsh beach with scattered dead fish, and flotsam and jetsam on a 70 degree day is fine with me. And this trip there was also an added bonus: I heard the waves. You might not be able to hear them as you see a few of my photos, but you can pretend (just like I’ve been doing for years!)