It’s the Seasons Flow photography roundup from last year- with a change. The photos will center on birds, but I am expanding the subjects to any nature-related pictures that I took. I hope you like the wider range of images!

As a reminder, I live in west-central Ohio in Clark County and take many of my photos in this general area though I do get out and about around Ohio occasionally.

Here’s bird photo highlights from 2015 , 2016 , 2017 , 2018 , 2019 and 2020 if you’d like to take a look.

There’s a lot of photos as usual so let’s get started.

Here’s a few pictures from February 2021 showing cold birds. The first is a Tufted Titmouse in mid-call, followed by a Carolina Chickadee- it looks cold!- and a Pileated Woodpecker who’s looking ahead to having a nesting cavity for spring- or is that a roosting hole to avoid the ferocious weather?

Here’s another cold-weather bird, a Brown Creeper. I have a hard time getting good shots of these quiet unassuming things, so I thought this decent view of one was worthwhile. They spiral up treetrunks peering and poking into bark crevices to find insects or their eggs.

And to prove that I’ve expanded my photo selection horizons, here’s a (again cold) Red Squirrel along a greenway trail. I call these small squirrels ‘little devils’ because they often race at breakneck speed through the trees and raise Hades by squawking and making various awful noises at me, the large intruder into their domain. Every so often I wonder what a certain noise is, and yeah, it’s a little devil!

Back to birds. This is a Bonaparte’s Gull on the beach at Buck Creek State Park. The bright orange-red legs stand out on this smaller gull.

I like these little powerhouse birds, Carolina Wrens. They are amazingly loud singers for such small birds. And they overwinter year-round. They have a lot of character in their posturings.

Here’s a Red-Shouldered Hawk surveying its domain.

I like this image of Mallards in the spillway of Buck Creek within the state park of the same name.

A Great Blue Heron fishing.

Three cold-weather sparrows, a White-Throated, American Tree, and a White-Crowned. The latter sat still cooperatively for me along the Simon Kenton Trail near Cedar Bog. I got fairly close and it seemed not to mind. Thank you little bird!

This is a fortunate image I captured showing both of Ohio’s vultures on the same tree branch- a Black Vulture (left) and a Turkey Vulture (right). The photo was taken at Old Reid Park across the road from Buck Creek. I did a blog post about them a couple of years ago.

Another non-bird picture to wrap up our cold-weather experience. This handsome 8 (10?)-point buck (and the doe in the background) seemed to be interested in the calls I was playing from a birding app on my phone.

Then there was this Coyote that watched me approaching on a greenway trail. I looked away for a moment and it was gone.

Hermit Thrushes will overwinter if there’s enough berries for them to eat.

On to the warmer-weather birds! This House Wren was singing vigorously when I got this shot.

Here’s a female Indigo Bunting. The males get a lot of attention for their deep blue plumage, but the females have a striking appearance with small blue highlights on a unique butter-brown coloration.

This Mink played peek-a-boo with me along Buck Creek.

Also along Buck Creek, in Springfield near the Art Center. It’s easy to forget that streams, creeks and rivers have been diverted and ‘tamed’ by humanity for a long time now, for farming and property reasons.

It’s nesting season and this Tree Swallow has picked her nest!

A Rue Anemone, one of the beautiful spring ephemeral wildflowers that can be seen in April. I’ve done various blog posts on these blooms.

April is a big month for flowering trees as well. I believe this is a Flowering Dogwood.

This Red-Eyed Vireo seemed curious about me.

Baltimore Orioles are gorgeous birds. There aren’t a lot of orange birds in Ohio.

Common Yellowthroats are a numerous Ohio breeding warbler that enjoy field habitat. In my experience they can be rather secretive, scolding you from cover, or barge right out into the open to sing and scold.

One of my favorite pictures of a young Yellow Warbler. There’s something about how birds move and posture that you can often tell when a bird is adult and when a bird is young. I saw this bird a few times and it wasn’t shy of me getting near.

And keeping with the warbler theme, here’s a Blackburnian Warbler.

A photo roundup wouldn’t be complete without a Song Sparrow image.

A WIllow Flycatcher in a field.

A Yellow-Bellied Flycatcher.

I try to get pictures of butterflies when I can. This is a type of Checkerspot whose numbers are increasing in Ohio.

A Scarlet Tanager.

Ohio’s other tanager, a male Summer Tanager.

I saw the above bird in the Davey Woods Nature Preserve, a great woodland habitat in Champaign County.

There are a lot of interesting barnyard pets out in the country!

A male Ring-Necked Duck has a striking appearance.

A couple of views of Buck Creek State Park. Buck Creek is one of my favorite parks.

This is my rental car in Conkle’s Hollow in the Lake Hope State Park area of hilly wooded southeast Ohio. Miles of dirt roads and hardly anyone in sight. I’d get out of the car and walk around getting photos of nearby birds.

Who could forget the Brood X cicadas emerging? If you were in their territory, that is.

A Ring-Billed Gull in a parking lot looking for some handouts. It seems to be having trouble with one of its legs. I’ve seen birds missing a leg or having a broken leg and they seem to soldier on just fine.

Moving into autumn now-

Goldenrod, the common Ohio wildflower of autumn. I enjoy seeing it’s golden color.

A Monarch Butterfly migrating through.

Here’s a Northern Mockingbird with a Pokeberry in its beak. It was defending a berry area in the autumn near Gallagher Fen.

Some limestone formations in Springfield.

Little Darby Preserve in Madison County, where I grew up.

Backroads are my favorite ways to travel.

Peanut Gallery

And now, the Peanut Gallery, where I take pictures of the creatures around my domicile! I had a bigger variety of birds showing up last year, including some winter visitors.

House Sparrows, a male in the snow, a female dustbathing and another is feeding her children.

A Starling. Lots of people dislike them but I find them interesting. They are messy in flocks, however.

A Mourning Dove- the above 3 birds are the most numerous feeder visitors.

A male House Finch.

A female Northern Cardinal.

A Blue Jay- maybe a young one, maybe starting to molt.

A male American Goldfinch.

An uncommon visitor- a male Red-Winged Blackbird. He’s probably from the nearby field where he sings. Another blackbird occasional visitor was Brown-Headed Cowbirds.

I have a family of Crows stopping by, especially in the cold weather. There seems to be 5 of them total, but I may see anywhere from 1 to 5. I swear one caws outside my window on purpose, either to get me to give them food or to call the other family members in.

A Song Sparrow. Generally they avoid other birds, but when the weather is bad they stand their ground to get the food they need!

Now the winter visitors- here’s a Dark-Eyed Junco.

A Carolina Wren.

A White-Throated Sparrow.

An American Tree Sparrow- uncommon at the feeder.

The rarest visitor for last year- a White-Crowned Sparrow (immature plumage). Harsh winter weather brings rarities in.

And now, for some other visitors in my yard-

Unfortunately the squirrels are very sparse here, but a Rabbit is a neighbor. It comes at night to check out what is around the feeder.

We have frogs that sing in the spring in nearby wet areas. Occasionally they stray into the yard, especially in wet weather- here’s a Toad (American or Fowler’s) and a Western Chorus Frog.

And there you have it, another year gone by. They go so fast now.