Hebron, Ohio State Fish Hatchery

 Day one of our month long cross country road trip found us taking a lovely detour from I-70 to the Hebron, Ohio State Fish Hatchery. 

 We arrived mid-afternoon and the sun was bright and the air not too humid. We explored some of the trails around the ponds where the fishes are kept at different life stages. 

 Paddle wheel aerators positioned at the edges of the ponds attracted Double-crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, and a lone Great Egret who showed us what adept fisherman he was. This seemed to be to the chagrin of two Belted Kingfishers who strafed the ponds chattering nosily. The Great Egret would not be deterred. We watched him within the span of five minuted deftly remove three small fish from the pond's edge.

 

 

Other birds we saw were two Bald Eagles lazily circling above the drained fish ponds, a noisy Kildeer in one of the drained ponds, Cedar Waxwing,  Eastern Phoebe, American Goldfich, and 40 Canada Geese including a half-dozen goslings by and in one of the full ponds. We saw quite a lot of insects and photographed a few but our identification skills are pretty much nil. Even though we don't know their names, we were happy to observe them on this beautiful day.