Goodbye Ohio, Goodbye Eastern U.S.

Lots of things have happened in the weeks since I last made a post! I finished up my job in Ohio, got an offer for a new job, and then planned and executed a whirlwind move... across the country. I'm currently settling into my strange and exotic new location (more on that later). All throughout these past few hectic weeks, I was wandering around our wonderful Ohio yard and taking pictures of creatures, but I never got a chance to sit down and say a proper goodbye to this amazing place where I've lived for the past 10 months. More than that, I need to say goodbye (at least for now) to the entire northeastern U.S., which has been my home all my life, and to most of the animals and plants (and seasons and environments) that I've become so familiar with over the years.

So here are some of the creatures I met in our Ohio yard in late May and early June. I guess this is a final hurrah for these fields and woods!

Butterflies were becoming more and more common in the past few weeks. Several Red Admirals were chasing each other around, perhaps staking out territories:

In between the chasing, there was a lot of sunning:

Zabulon Skippers were also chasing each other around and posing on leaves:

A pretty Silver-spotted Skipper was feasting on Red Clover nectar:

And a Question Mark Butterfly chose our house as a sunning spot one afternoon:

When it saw me at the window, it closed its wings, hiding all that orange (but showing the two white spots that give this butterfly its name):

A hefty Green Frog sat at the bottom of the creek, watching lots of little fish swim by:

In the woods, a Groundhog helpfully munched on the Garlic Mustard growing on the slope near its burrow:

After a few minutes of munching, it went on to dig up some more food from the forest floor; I guess I've never seen a Groundhog eating in such a squirrel-like way before:

Almost every day, I'd see this tiny Ruby-throated Hummingbird perched at the top of this bare tree. I kept thinking how weird (and awesome) this little creature looked up there, especially next to a more "normal" perched bird like the Brown-headed Cowbird that also often chose this tree as a lookout point:

A couple of Northern Rough-winged Swallows showed up on a power line above our driveway one afternoon; I love those super long feathers under this bird's tail:

Swallows can make such interesting shapes:

I'm already starting to feel a little homesick for eastern environments (especially deciduous woods). Change is exciting but also disorienting. In any case, I can't believe how lucky we were to get to have this as our home for a little while:

 

And now, on to new things. Stay tuned!