If you ever wanted to challenge yourself as a photographer then I recommend spending time photographing in harsh weather. I specifically went out on this day fully knowing it was going to be that cold because I knew on the Lake Erie shoreline there would be at least a good chance I would see big flocks of gulls. Test yourself in conditions that are rainy, extremely cold, extremely hot or whatever else mother nature can throw at you; Especially if you are aspiring a wildlife or nature photographer. Wildlife doesn’t have the option of going inside when it's cold or when it's hot like we do and they will always be out there in those conditions. That can lead to amazing images or something very different than something you could capture on a "perfect" day. I would also argue that any conditions spent out in nature, minus the life-threatening variety, are amazing for your improvement as a photographer AND a person.
Recently weather in northeastern Ohio was in the low teens and with the windchill, it was in the negative digits. Now that sounds like an absolutely horrible time for most people and everyone I told about this adventure confirmed that it sounded absolutely horrible. I consider myself a polar bear since I love the cold, so I don't mind the fact that it was arctic conditions and would have been miserable for most people.
The lake presents itself is an unusual challenge because of the wind more so than the cold. The wind saps your energy and body heat reducing the time your body can endure that environment. You can handle the cold if you plan properly and wear the right clothing. I wore two layers of pants, two pairs of socks, five upper layers, gloves, and two hats. The wind will cut right through your layers without a windbreaker or even a rain jacket. Both can stop the wind to different degrees and are lifesavers. Proper planning and layering mean you can be warm even in the harshest conditions.
For this adventure, I drove to the Lakefront Nature Preserve just outside of Cleveland on Lake Erie. The 91-acre preserve is a small square peninsula that is heavily forested with a few large fields dotting the landscape. The woods are a mix of oaks, maples, pines, and other hardy trees. The shoreline around the peninsula is rocky and barren from the continuous crashing of the waves. Animals inside this area aren’t really afraid of humans; whether from isolation, lack of hunting or being accustomed to humans over multiple generations. I spent about four hours in the preserve and I saw a few dozen deer, a few thousand gulls and an assortment of other other birds that stay throughout the winter.
Winter diversity in Ohio is fairly limited compared to spring and summer so there weren’t too many species but seeing anything is always a joy. A confused looking Robin, two Bald Eagles, and a Barred Owl were notable sightings for me that day. Not to mention, the thousands of gulls from multiple species flying overhead, and just offshore on the pack ice. The deer surprised me by letting me get within 10 to 15 yards of some of the herd, seemingly without a care in the world. I saw two herds: one in the morning and one towards the afternoon. The first herd was mostly females with young, about 10 individuals mostly feeding on what undergrowth hadn’t frozen or been buried by snow. They wandered away from me but not at a pace that told me they cared I was there; although they still gave me a healthy distance. The second herd was comprised of all males with antlers and probably over a year old based on their size. This group was a tad smaller with only 8 or so individuals but they let me get even closer than the females.
An adult male White-Tailed deer.
That made the sighting all the more amazing since it was the largest herd of males I have ever seen in the wild traveling together. Prior to this, the most I had seen together was TWO while I was hiking within the boundaries of my old boy scout camp in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park almost a decade ago. Males are usually solitary and much harder to spot in other parts of Ohio since they are hunted but this herd had eight males all totally unafraid of me. They would have been mounted on someone's wall by autumn if they ever had the desire to move south. Deer were not my reason for coming to the preserve, they were more like an icing on the cake kind of sighting for me. The entire reason for braving the arctic conditions was to find gulls.
A little backstory prior to this adventure. I had been in the downtown area of Cleveland and had spotted a huge flock of gulls swarming around the lakeshore area. So I figured the dedicated lakeshore preserve just northwest of the city would have just as large concentration in a more natural, less disturbed setting. The preserve definitely had the numbers but not in the same concentrated space. It's rare that the lake will completely freeze over but due to the cold snap a fair chunk of pack forms on the shoreline and two about a few hundred yards out into the lake. Most of the gulls were spread out over an area that was about a mile long on or flying above the ice that had formed along the shore and outward into the lake.
Once in a while, the sun would peek out from the clouds and I could get a few well-lit shots but for the most part, it was a gray and overcast day with a sky and horizon that were still an icy blue. The entire scene was like something out of an Antarctic documentary with the pack ice, high winds, bitter cold, and blue-gray waters as far as the eye could see. Photographing nature and trying to film me doing so was quite the challenge. Every battery I had for both microphones and both phones I use for vlogging kicked out on me. I was forced to use an unorthodox method of capturing my audio by juggling my phone, which I had to continuously charge via battery pack while it tried to die from cold exposure, and a small handheld recorder.
It was definitely a rewarding trip at the end of the day. I got multiple pictures of Whitetail deer which I was happy with and more than a few photos of the gulls that I was happy with. I also saw a few life birds, which if you don't know, life birds are a birding term which means a species of bird you have not yet seen in your life; specifically a barred owl in the wooded area of the reserve and 8 Red-Breasted Merganser who I photographed at the far range of my longest lens. Identification came later that day from a friend and was an awesome little catch. Needless to say, the images captured of the Merganser were not the best images, nor even that good to be perfectly honest. They serve a different purpose. Documentation is a personal goal of mine and capturing new photos of the same species is something in more interesting ways will always be a challenge for myself.
It seems unlikely that Northeast Ohio will get another cold snap like the polar vortex that swept south by the end of winter. But if we do then I will definitely head back up to Lake Erie to a spot along the shore to see what else I can find, to see what kind of animals have been able to survive this brutal winter and to challenge myself photographically one more time in the worst conditions Ohio can throw at me.
