On Route 2 going west from Cleveland there are Howard Metro Park #1 and #2.
Also there is Magee Marsh and in Oregon Ohio there is Maumee Bay State Park. Howard Metro #2 has Black-necked Stilts, Grebes and immature and adult Eagles are seen often.

Check out Kensington Metro Park

Here are the results of my yearly exercise with fireworks photography. I used my D810 with a 24~120 set around 35mm, my shutter ranged between 3 and 17 seconds. At 17 sec I'm multiple exposing by covering the lens front with my hand. My aperture was between F:11 and F:22 and my ISO was 100. I used my small CF tripod. I was on a bridge that's about 100' up over the river that divides my city.

Its a 1st year juvenile Eagle which was too close to the blackbirds nest. He just learned to fly and still depends both adult eagles for food.

I think he must have a death wish

2023 was the worst I've seen in over 20 years of going there. Here are the few images that I've been able the catch.

These are from the nest that is in the parking lot at Magee Marsh the other day and a Common Loon from last week

Bent pins on CF cards is caused by not being too careful in reinserting the into the camera or reader. One time this has happened to me and I quit using a card reader. I plug the camera into the computer and use (free) Nikon Transfer 2 and I've had no problem for at least 20 years. When you are in a hurry to download your images and your not paying full attention that's when something going to go wrong. Plug your camera into the computer.

Here is what I got this morning at a new "park" named Sandhill Crane Wetland. I used my 21 year old Sigma 800mm F5.6 AF lens and my 17 year old D2Xs Nikon camara.

Here are a few of the images I got so far in two visits to Howard Metro Park.

OK How do you perform maintainance on a photographic lens?

I had my 600mm F:4 G VR and my 200-500mm F:5.6 g VR covered on my homeowners policy. When the 200-500 became stuck and was unuseable I asked my insurance company about what was the procedure. They told me it wasn't covered because it was a maintainance issue. I told them we do NOT perform maintainance on photographic lenses. It cost me $506.00 to have Nikon fix the 200-500. I cancelled the photographic portion of the policy. In shopping around for other policies I've found that this is a common practice.

Here are the Foxes that were at a city park for a couple of years. I used my Sigma 800mm F:5.6 AF and mt Nikon D600. while sitting in the car.

You will need very good light to work with a 1.4 TC on your camera. I have problems with aquiiring focus with the 200-500 lower light levels or lower contrast levels. In good light the 200 500 is a great lens.

Here are the images I got 2 day ago. The eagle was at the Magee causeway in the tree. The Ring-billed Gull was at Metzger Marsh and the Snow Bunting was at Maumee Bay, The ducks was at Castalia Ohio.