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Hocking Hills: Photo ops galore!
The gorgeous upper falls at Old Man's Cave in the picturesque Hocking Hills of Hocking County, Ohio. This image was created on February 20, 2018. I shot it with my landscape workhorse, the...
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A photographic amble through a prairie marsh
Battelle Darby Metro Park, as seen from Google Earth. This is just a snippet of the sprawling 7,000 acre park, but this patch is my favorite spot. It is a recently restored wet prairie, and the...
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Nature: Giant swans make yearly visit on long migration
A pair of adult tundra swans against a frosty November sky/Jim McCormacColumbus DispatchDecember 3, 2018NATUREJim McCormacLike avian clockwork, the first icy northern winds of late November and early...
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A jaunt through the Wilds, bird-seeking
This is my 1,832nd post over this blog's history (I had two previous iterations), for whatever that's worth. The first entry dates to July 22, 2007, and covered the Ohio Dragonfly Conference (see that...
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Starry Skies
Last Friday was an interesting and diverse day. Here I am in the Art Loft, a gallery in downtown Zanesville, Ohio, surrounded by thirty-one of my natural history photos. I was invited to exhibit by one...
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A gray day trip to the Moonville Tunnel
The legendary Moonville Tunnel, carved through a remote wooded hillside in southeastern Ohio's Vinton County.Occasionally I get the yen to photograph WEIRD THINGS and November 30th (2018) was just such...
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Nature: Songbird northern shrike possesses homicidal tendencies
A young northern shrike on the hunt in Muskingum County/Jim McCormacColumbus DispatchDecember 16, 2018NATUREJim McCormacVlad III ruled the medieval kingdom of Wallachia, since subsumed into Romania,...
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Eastern bluebird, eating holly berries
A male eastern bluebird plunders the fruit of an American holly, Ilex opaca, in the ornamental holly garden at Dawes Arboretum. The numerous hollies are richly fruited, and frugivorous...
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Northern cardinal, eating holly berries
A bright male northern cardinal, its plumage rivaling that of the colorful winterberry holly (Ilex verticillata) drupes that it sits among. As stated in the previous post, the holly garden at Dawes...
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Native plants, animals thrive at Dawes Arboretum
An ancient tractor overlooks a wintry landscape at Dawes Arboretum/Jim McCormacColumbus DispatchDecember 30, 2018NATUREJim McCormacNative plants, animals thrive at Dawes ArboretumThe night of April 18,...
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Northern mockingbird defends multiflora rose bush!
Yesterday marked the date of the Hocking Hills Christmas Bird Count (CBC), and as for the past many years, I was there. It was my fifth and final CBC of the season, which is about an annual average for...
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And now for something completely different... light-painting!
A friend of mine has recently become fascinated with various forms of photographic light-painting, and after seeing some of her work, I asked for tutelage. That led to several hours of practice in an...
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Giant sycamore
A gargantuan sycamore arches over the black waters of the Olentangy River, its gnarled boughs scraping the sky. This section of the river is a watery avenue of the giants, lined with many massive...
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"Winter Wonderland" photo workshop produces some wonders!
Debbie DiCarlo and I just concluded our 2nd annual "Winter Wonderland" photo workshop (more on our workshops RIGHT HERE) in southeastern Ohio's gorgeous Hocking Hills. Last year's event was more...
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Nature: Sycamore tree is a towering presence in nature
A gargantuan sycamore arches over the Olentangy River at Highbanks Metro Park/Jim McCormacColumbus DispatchJanuary 20, 2019NATUREJim McCormac... just as we came to the hills, we met with a sycamore ......
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Country cemetery, in fog and rain
A meeting took me to The Wilds in Muskingum County, Ohio, the other day, a landscape that I always enjoy spending time in. After the work was over, I set out on a photographic expedition, naturally. It...
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Northern harrier, hunting voles
A long abandoned farmstead haunts the Pickaway Plains, a former swath of prairie that covered parts of Pickaway and Ross counties in central Ohio. A meeting today took me to southern Ohio's Adams...
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John W. McCormac, 1926 - 2019
My father, John McCormac, speaking about his war experiences at a veteran's event on August 18, 2017. He was 90 at the time, but as always his thoughts were organized and his recall of those events of...
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Nature: Common northern mockingbird is overlooked marvel
A northern mockingbird guards a nearby cache of rose hips/Jim McCormacColumbus DispatchFebruary 3, 2019NATUREJim McCormacNote: This column is a bit dated. What with all that's been going on, it's been...
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Skunk-cabbage and an icy waterfall
I hadn't tripped the shutter on a real camera for several weeks, due to lots of more important things taking place, so getting out a bit last Monday was very photographically therapeutic. Time was...
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