A Return to Fostoria

When I realized that it was probably too late in the morning to see any more eagles and I needed to go back to the park at sunset, I decided to head down to Fostoria for a bit. 

 It wasn't too long before the first train appeared.  It was a westbound CSX mixed cargo train.

 I saw some pretty cool graffiti

 I kind of liked this one.

 I think I liked this one a little more.

 I didn't get over to a good spot for this train soon enough.  But I kind of like this shot with all the fences in it.

 Then I went over to the north side of the park.  I like the pictures from this side the best.  You can usually get a decent head on shot.

 the side shots aren't too bad either.

 It didn't take long for the train to pass.

 For some reason, this reminded me of one of the Operation Lifesaver pictures.

 With the empty container cars, this gave me the opportunity to get a shot with a full train wrapping around the park.

And a shot of a CSX engine passing the Fostoria Tower.

A Trip to Magee Marsh Wildlife Area

I was going to head down to the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge yesterday but the driving trail was closed and it wont reopen until March 18th.  Apparently the driving trail is only open one weekend per month.  Then I remembered that there was an Ohio Wildlife Refuge a little further east on Ohio Route Two.

 Magee Marsh Wildlife area is right on the shores of Lake Erie and it looks very similar to the Ottawa Marsh Area.  Well except for this part because it's the Lake Erie shore.

 Looking to the east.  It was a pretty nice looking day yesterday but cold.

 You can even see a little bit of ice on the branches.  It was also pretty windy yesterday.

 In fact, I think it's normally pretty windy on Lake Erie and it made some interesting patterns on the sands.

 I was looking at a map of the bird migration patterns and Ohio is on the way large portions of two of the main migration patterns.  Pretty large branches of the Mississipi River and Atlantic paths fly over Ohio.  During the 1960s, a small flock of geese was released at Magee as part of the Canada Goose Re-introduction program.  Between 9,000 to 11,000 goslings are born in this area making Ohio's program one of the more successful.

Since the marshes are a good stopping point before crossing Lake Erie and Lake Huron as the birds continue into Canada, you can see several species of different birds here.  This particular bird is a Northern Shoveler.

 It didn't take to long before it took to flight.  I think it has a pretty neat pattern.

 But what I didn't realize, there were a couple of eagle nests here.  you can see her peaking out every so often.  I think we got there too late to see too much activity.

 In the 1800s, the Lake Marshes gained some degree of fame because of the amount of wildfowl that flew over.  As a result, several hunting clubs sprung up.  By 1951, over 30,000 acres of marshland was in private hands.  The Magee Marsh Wildlife area was bought by the State of Ohio in August of 1951.

 One of the immature eagles flying over.

 The proud father keeping watch over his nest.

 Almost directly to the east is the Besse-Davis nuclear plant.

 The marsh is also home to a bunch of trumpeter swans.

 I think there were 100's of them.

 I managed to get a robin picture.

A pair of swans flying away.

Toledo Rockets At Eastern Michigan - Basketball

So I went to the Eastern Michigan basketball game on Friday night.  If they won, they had a lock on either the 7th or 8th seed which would mean another home game tomorrow night.  If they didn't win, they needed both Northern Illinois and Bowling Green to lose in order to have a home game.  After the pretty impressive wins against Norther Illinois and Central Michigan, I thought they would have a chance against the Rockets.

As usual, I will post pictures other than the game itself.  If you wish to see game shots, go to Hustle Belt.

 Prior to the game, they introduce the team and the cheerleaders do a pyramid of sorts.

 During the game, they also do a few pyramids.

 Swoop during one of the media timeouts.

 One of the cheerleaders during a media timeout.

 The dance team during another media timeout.

 I really like to watch the dance team.  They are pretty cool.

 Coach Murphy giving pointers to the team.

 Raven Lee dishing off the pass.

 James Thompson dunking.

 A shot of one of the dance team members.

Tim Bond going for a layup.

Eastern Michigan would end up losing the game but because both NIU and Bowling Green lost, they will be hosting their first game of the MAC Tournament tomorrow night.

Catching Planes Through the Snow Squalls

As I was looking at the various flight schedules, I saw that I had a chance to catch the Air France A340 and one of the Fed Ex planes tonight.  I was also hoping that I could catch a 757 but I didn't get out of work in time.

As I was leaving work, it was snowing pretty hard and I was thinking that I wouldn't get my chance to catch the above planes.  But as I looked a little closer, I saw that there was signs of sun so I decided to head over to the airport.

 It was snowing as I arrived at the airport but it wasn't snowing so hard that I couldn't get pictures of the planes.  Actually I kind of like shots like this.  Makes me want to get some fog shots someday.

 This particular American Airlines Airbus A319 was arriving from Charlotte, North Carolina.  After roughly 50 minutes on the ground at Metro it was heading back to Charlotte.  After another hour, it was on its way back to Detroit.

 Brickyard 4642 was coming in from LaGuardia Airport.  Brickyard is the call sign for Republic Airlines out of Indianapolis.  And this particular aircraft is an Embrear 170.

 Arriving from Amsterdam was this Airbus A330.  It was serving as Delta Flight 139.  It was an 8 and a half hour flight.

 It was closely following by a 767.

 And this particular 767 was arriving from London, England. 

 Next up was a CRJ-200 that was flying in from Ottawa.  This particular aircraft is operated by Endeavor Air.  After a couple hours at Metro, it was flying off to Scranton, PA.

 As I was watching Flightaware, it dawned on me that the Air France plane was probably going to land at the other runway.  I decided to look for another place and ended up at the McDonalds on Merriman.  It actually seems like a decent spot and I might have to try it again.

Anyway, this is an Airbus A340 that was coming in from Paris, France.

 Next was an Airbus 319 that was arriving from Benito Juarez Airport in Mexico City.  The spot that currently serves as Benito Juarez Airport has served as one since 1910 when Albert Braniff became the first pilot in Mexico.  In 1915, it was opened as a military airport.  In 1943, it would become an International Airport.  In 2006, it would be named after the 19th Century President Benito Juarez.

 And this Spirit Airlines A320 was coming from Atlanta.

 And this 737 was arriving from Atlanta.

 A Boeing 717 arriving from Milwaukee.

The other plane I was waiting for was serving as Fed Ex 505 out of Memphis.  It is an MD-11.  This particular flight is not a daily flight but it is pretty close.