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For #ForestFriday, climbing a steep hill anchored by roots into a lush green landscape at Caesar Creek State Park. #ECK #hiking #ohio #ohiohikes #greenspace #Scape #stateparks

One massive tree anchors a steep hill that a trail follows into the lush green canopy of oaks, elms, beech, and maple above

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 22h

Today's #BirdOfTheDay is #BestBeaks per @helenbennett.bsky.social Celebrating any bird with a beak or bill that has striking colours, bold profiles, or an interesting shape. The chopstick-like shape of an ibis beak is perfect for stabbing and plucking delicacies out of the mud. #birds #ECK

Glossy ibis amid greenery with a morsel plucked from mud in a marsh poised between its beak before a tilt of the head upwards to swallow it

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 01/10/2026

It's a lovely city. The Choo-Choo lives on with a renovation of its gorgeous train station, an engine on display, and some of the rail cars renovated into lodgings behind it.

Steam engine the Chattanooga Choo-Choo on a railroad track adjoining the platform at the station

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 01/10/2026

An urban forest garden at the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga, TN for #palacesandgardens #itsajungleoutthere #ECK #Tennessee #gardens #Chattanooga

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 01/10/2026

Today’s #BirdOfTheDay theme is #Black&White; any shot in black and white. A trio of Canada geese in a cove along Lake Superior. #birds #birding #geese #ECK #classicmono

A trio of Canada geese on the water in monochrome

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 01/10/2026

An engineering landmark from 1890 at the Cornish Pumping Engine & Mining Museum above the former Chapin Mine in Iron Mountain, Michigan. It removed water from the mine by pulling it up a shaft 1522 feet in depth. #AlphabetChallenge #WeekMforMachinery #ECK #ColorADay #RedWed #MichiganUP #mining

Tall red 1890 steam engine with massive wheel eclipsing the height of a door into the building that now protects it, with interpretive sign recounting the depth of 1500 feet it reaches to below this structure

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 30/09/2026

From @robcrank68.bsky.social, today's #BirdOfTheDay theme is #BestOfTheMonth. While taking photos of blooms with my iPhone at Mattheai Botanical Gardens in Ann Arbor, MI, this ruby-throated hummingbird photobombed my frame. #birds #birding #ECK #hummingbird #bloomscrolling

ruby-throated hummingbird hovering to feed on a flower amid a riot of red, yellow, and purple blooms against a greenery backdrop

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 29/09/2026

For #RockinTuesday a delightful piece of rockwork by trail builders on the Perimeter Trail at Caesar Creek State Park, upslope from Horseshoe Falls. #ECK #hiking #stateparks #trails #ohiohikes #forest

Fossil-imbued slabs of stone make up a sloped path into a tunnel of hardwood forest

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 29/09/2026

Today's #BirdOfTheDay theme is #EFG, birds beginning with any of those letters (1st name). Alt theme #Paridae, any of the species. A most surprising find last year, a Florida scrub-jay in a mangrove forest near Charlotte Harbor. #birds #birding #FloridaBirds #ECK

A bright blue and white jay perched in a salt-loving shrub under the roots of a red mangrove with shell-flecked mud below it

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 28/09/2026

For today's Alt #BirdofTheDay of #AwkwardAvian - any bird captured in a silly, clumsy or strange position - here's a wood stork playing balance beam on a boardwalk rail at Gatorland Orlando. #birds #birding #FloridaBirds #woodstork #ECK

Awkward stance of a wood stork balancing on a railing above an alligator pond at Gatorland Orlando. Legs and feet splayed, head dipping forward, wings held high extending out of frame for balance

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 28/09/2026

Pond at Cox Arboretum, Dayton, under blue skies. #BlueSkyMonday #ECK #Gardens #ohio

Pond edged by grass and landscaping with a row of trees in the distance, reflecting a cloud in a blue sky within the water

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 27/09/2026

Today's #BirdoftheDay theme is #Seabirds, any bird found by the sea or coast. Alt #airborne, any bird in flight. Brown pelicans hover over the Atlantic Ocean near Playalinda Beach. #birds #birding #FloridaBirds #EastCoastKin

A pair of pelicans overhead against a blue sky

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 27/09/2026

A pair of rather dissonant lights illuminating the difference between city and country in the Great Lakes region. #BlueSkyArtShow #ECK #lights

Frank Lloyd Wright designed lamp in a meeting space within Monona Terrace in Madison, WI

Antler lamp in a rustic bar and grill outside of Marquette MI

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 26/09/2026

Today's #BirdOfTheDay theme is #Pairs of the same species; alt #Green, in the background not the bird. A pair of common grackles along a paved path in a town park. #birds #birding #ECK

A pair of common grackles competing at calling out along a paved path in a park with a grassy edge.

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 25/09/2026

For #ForestFriday a look down from the bluff at High Bluff State Park at the north end of Lake Winnebago in Wisconsin. #ECK #hiking #trails #stateparks #wisconsin #OWAA2026 #nature

Looking down into a lush forest amid natural rock terraces on bluffs, with a clear leafy path where hikes are walking into the woods

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 25/09/2026

Today's #BirdOfTheDay theme is #Borbs, birds looking plump. Alt #Brown, birds with Brown in their plumage A sparrow edges up under our table, at my feet, looking for crumbs. #birds #birding #sparrow #ECT

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 24/09/2026

Fall wildflowers add a shimmer of yellow to Horicon Marsh at Marsh Haven Nature Center, Waupun WI #PalacesAndGardens #ECK #MellowYellow #BloomScrolling #wildflowers #ScenicWisconsin #OWAA2026

Goldenrod and other yellow wildflowers across a swath of wetland with cottonwood trees in the background

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 24/09/2026

To celebrate #TheDivers for today's #BirdOfTheDay here's an anhinga surfacing in Lake Hancock at Circle B Bar Preserve in Lakeland FL #birds #birding #floridabirds #ECK

Anhinga surfacing with neck stretched out and ripples of water surrounding where it surfaced

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 23/09/2026

A #WoodlandWednesday wander in Chocolay Bayou Nature Preserve on a forested ridge between a bog and Lake Superior south of Marquette, MI #hiking #MichiganUP #trails #inthewoods #ECK

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 23/09/2026

Today’s #BirdOfTheDay theme is #Raptors; any bird of prey. A sequence taken through a porch screen of a young red-shouldered hawk and a rabbit. Although the hawk finally swooped after the rabbit it didn't catch it. #ECK #birds #birdijg #hawk

Young red-shouldered hawk perched on a railing in a yard watching a rabbit in the grass

Young red-shouldered hawk perched on a railing in a yard now intently watching a rabbit in the grass

Young red-shouldered hawk perched on a railing in a yard launches itself at a rabbit in the grass

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 22/09/2026

For #RockinTuesday a visit to the Jackson Mine, the first open pit iron mine opened in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, now a stop on the #IronOreHeritageTrail in Negaunee, west of Marquette. #IOHT #ECT #UpperMichigan #geology

Iron statues in a forest depicting men breaking apart rocks with hand tools, ore carts in the background

Red and blue streaks of specular hematite iron ore on a boulder along a footpath

The hand hewn entrance (about 6 feet tall) of an iron mine, wide enough for mule-drawn ore carts

Interpretive sign titled "The First Open Pit Mining Site" with photos and details about the Jackson Mine. It is installed on an observation deck in the woods above the now water-filled pit.

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 22/09/2026

For #ThickTrunkTuesday one of the big maples basks in the glow of a remnant of the Great Black Swamp at Sawyer Quarry Preserve east of Perrysburg, OH. #ECK #hiking #GreatBlackSwamp #OhioHikes #BigTrees

Thick trunk of a maple tree along a footpath in a lovely green glowing woodland

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 22/09/2026

Today's #BirdOfTheDay theme is #Redheads, any bird with Red on its head/beak. A free-roaming urban rooster pounding the pavement at the Oviedo Post Office. #birds #chickens #FloridaBirds #ECK

A rooster with a red crown inspects the sidewalk outside an urban post office

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 21/09/2026

Reflections of the photographer's pink shirt in a fresnel lens atop a Lake Michigan lighthouse. #EastCoastKin #ColorADay #PinkMon #AlphabetChallenge #WeekLforLookingIn #MacroMonday #lighhthouse #reflections

Close up of reflections in a fresnel lens atop a lighthouse of the pink shirt worn by the photographer with a hint of blue skies beyond

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 21/09/2026

Sturgeon Bay meets Green Bay, as seen from the observation tower along the #IceAgeTrail at Potawatomi State Park, Door County WI. #BlueSkyMonday #ECK #hiking #nature #stateparks #OWAA2026 #DoorCounty #ScenicWisconsin #GreatLakes

Treetops in foreground with expanse of blue water and blue skies beyond broken by a forested spit of land

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 21/09/2026

The #BirdOfTheDay theme today is #LightAndShadow, any bird capture that has both. Alt theme is #FallBirds, any Autumn/ Fall bird captures. Black-bellied whistling ducks sounding a sunrise alarm on a neighbor's roof. #birds #birding #ducks #sunrise

Silhouettes of over a dozen ducks on a house roof against a sunrise illuminating them from behind

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 20/09/2026

Among the native sunflowers at Bradner Preserve near Bradner, OH #StunDay #ECK #BloomScrolling #sunflowers #hiking #OhioHikes

Tall spikes of native sunflowers with multiple blooms reach for the blue sky in a meadow within a wooded preserve

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 19/09/2026

Today's #BirdOfTheDay theme is #Elegant with an Alt of #Scruffy Inherent in the species, it seems, the elegant posture of the great egret, this one in a Michigan wetland. #birds #birding #egret #ECK #reflections

A great egret in glowing white against the wildflower fronted backdrop of a pond in a wetland along a creek basin

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 18/09/2026

For #ForestFriday another perspective on the grandeur of the Great Black Swamp from one tiny patch of this once-mighty wooded wetland along Lake Erie from within Pearson Metropark, Toledo. #ECK #scape #nature #bigtrees #GreatBlackSwamp #hiking #Ohio

Perspecti ve from below of the amazingly tall tree canopy within a patch of the ancient Great Black Swamp preserved within Pearson Metropark, Toledo OH

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 18/09/2026

Per @robcrank68.bsky.social today's #BirdOfTheDay theme is #Paridae, any of the species. Alt #Pigeons&Doves, any Pigeon or Dove will do. Several recent visitors to feeders at bird blinds at parks. #birds #birding #ECK

Carolina chickee musing over whether seeds dropped are better than seeds grabbed from inside the feeder

Two wood doves taking command of a hanging platform feeder

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 17/09/2026

For today's #PalacesAndGardens theme of #PompandPatterns, here's a pairing of art and nature at the Mattheai Botanical Gardens in Ann Arbor, Michigan #ECK #gardens #bloomscrolling

Floral windmill sculpture with leaf motif and bright color accents

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 17/09/2026

Today's #BirdOfTheDay theme is #ODG, any Owl, Duck or Goose. Thank goodness I've captured quite a few of the latter recently. Left, a pair of blue-winged teals dab in the reflections of an ore dock on Lake Superior; right, one moves into clear water. #ECK #birds #birding #ducks

Two ducks dabbing in the striped reflections of a massive ore dock on Lake Superior

A single female blue-winged teal escapes the reflections into blue water

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 16/09/2026

For #WoodlandWednesday an immersion in an ancient hardwood forest on the Black Swamp Trail at Pearson Metropark outside Toledo for a taste of the wild wet woodland that once blanketed more than 2,000 square miles of northwest Ohio. #ECK #GreatBlackSwamp #trees #forest #OhioHikes #hiking #Ohio

View into a lush hardwood forest with a dark forest floor where rainfall pools and runs seasonally

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 16/09/2026

A hidden waterfall within a rocky gorge in Baraboo, Wisconsin at Pewit's Nest Natural Area. #WaterfallWed #ECK #ScenicWisconsin #OWAA2026 #waterfalls #Baraboo

Waterfall dropping through enormous rocks to create a tannic stream flowing out of a jumble of glacial boulders

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 15/09/2026

Amid a jumble of iron-rich boulders amid the remains of the historic Jackson Mine in Negaunee, MI #RockinTuesday #InTheWoods #UPMichigan #ECK

Large metallic boulders containing iron ore amid a wooded setting with tree backdrop

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 15/09/2026

Today's #BirdOfTheDay theme is #silhouette Like leaves against the sky, European starlings settle out of a murmuration onto the branches of a dead tree along Lake Erie. #ECK #birds #birding #starlings

Silhouettes of starlings on the branches of a dead tree mimic leaves against a blue sky

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 14/09/2026

View from a lakeside ridge along Middle Bay at Presque Isle Park towards Sugarloaf Mountain, Marquette MI #ECK #BlueSkyMonday #MountainMonday #GreatLakes #LakeSuperior #Marquette

Against a blue sky, a stand of tall windblown cedars along the shoreline of Lake Superior on a sand ridge above the blue waters

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 14/09/2026

Today's #BirdOfTheDay theme is #Mamas&Papas, male & female of the same species in the same photo. A pair of wood storks on their nest at Wakodahatchee Wetlands. #birds #birding #FloridaBirds #ECK

Two wood storks standing in a nest, one with a bill over the others torso

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 13/09/2026

Today’s #BirdOfTheDay theme is #AngryBirds, any bird with an angry face. Alt #MyBestSide, bird capture in profile. This angry young snowy egret stalking a boardwalk may have seen a great egret and realized he'd never grow that tall. #birds #birding #ECK #FloridaBirds

Immature snowy egret on a boardwalk, feet splayed, beak pointed forward

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 12/09/2026

One of many fabulous views along Sturgeon Bay on the #IceAgeTrail in Potawatomi State Park. #BlueSkyArtShow #undulating #ScenicWisconsin #ColorADay #GreenSat #ECK #DoorCounty

Peek through rock pillars at undulating cloud bank over blue waters of a bay with forest on rocks and greenery below to shoreline

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 12/09/2026

Today's #BirdOfTheDay theme is #BirdsInAbstract From motion blur, obscure angles, or contrasting textures, anything goes. Removed from yesterday's deleted folder: ducks against the current. A quartet of blue teals blending in with rocks in a stream. #ECK #birds #birding #ducks

Ducks (blue teals) feeding in a stream, face forward and in the water against the current, vegetation on stream bank obscuring

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 11/09/2026

#ForestFriday along the #IceAgeTrail near its eastern terminus in Potawatomi State Park, plus the stunning #Scape with a heart-shaped island where Sturgeon Bay meets Green Bay as seen from the observation tower at this access point in #ScenicWisconsin #hiking #stateparks #ShowHeart

Ice Age Trail sign and symbol at a trail crossing near the observation tower in Potawatomi State Park, WI

Blue skies over of a large bay with a larger one beyond and islands foreground, one shaped like a heart with a tail

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Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 11/09/2026

Today's #BirdOfTheDay theme is #Mouthful any bird with anything in its beak. Alt #Black any bird with black plumage. An American coot gnawing on a plant in the marsh at Orlando Wetlands. #birds #birding #ECK #FloridaBirds

An American coot gnawing on a plant in an open water marsh: black feathers and white beak and underside of tail

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