Experience Nature in Ohio throughout the Year

There’s little that’s more striking that spotting a bright red male northern cardinal sitting against a backdrop of falling snow. Cardinals spend the winter searching for seeds from grasses and other plants that poke above the snowline. They'll also feast on any wild winter berries, such as hackberries. 

Not all winter birds are year-round residents. Some, like the yellow-rumped warbler, dark-eyed junco or the white-throated sparrow, actually make Ohio their winter homes. 

These winter visitors fly south from Canada, where they spend their summers, to the relative warmth and easier-to-find food that Ohio's landscapes (and backyards) offer in the winter. 

As year-round residents in Ohio, winter can be a great time to spot great blue herons as they hunt for fish and other prey around unfrozen bodies of water. Against the muted colors of winter, the blue color of their feathers stands out much more than it does in summer.

Owls, hawks, and other raptors live in Ohio throughout the year. In late winter, many of these raptors begin their breeding season, sitting on their eggs while snow falls around them. Their young require a lot of time to grow and learn to hunt, so these birds get an early start on parenthood each season.

But, because they begin courtship, breeding and nesting before the trees begin to leaf out, it’s a lot easier to spot these magnificent birds in the trees when you're outside!

In late spring and early summer, wild blue lupine begins to bloom at our Kitty Todd Preserve, the centerpiece of our Oak Openings Region. As the only host plant for the endangered Karner blue butterfly, hiking the 3-mile loop trail around Kitty Todd provides the best chance to see this rare pollinator.

For birders, the Kitty Todd Preserve offers a chance to spot the endangered lark sparrow, which makes it home at the preserve during the summer.

Lark sparrows migrate to the western half of Ohio from the southern U.S. and Mexico each spring to breed and raise their young. These birds make their homes in open grassy habitats with scattered trees.

Ohio’s rare native carnivorous plants, such as round-leaved sundew and northern pitcher plants, shine in the summer around wetlands and bogs. There, they attract and trap insects for food. 

Though abundant in other states, sandhill cranes are considered rare birds in Ohio, often only passing over or stopping briefly in the state as they migrate further north.

Sandhill cranes depend on large wetland areas for food and shelter and there are too few areas in Ohio that are suitable for them, due mostly to development in the state. 

However, thanks to restoration and creation of areas like the new Sandhill Crane Wetland area at Kitty Todd Preserve,  these beautiful wading birds are beginning to settle back in our state.

In the fall, migrating birds like redwing blackbirds, common grackles and European starlings can form enormous flocks that swoop across the sky in mesmerizing formations called murmurations. These sweeping flights rise and fall in waves across the sky, serving as a way to help the birds avoid predators.

The tiny bobolink flies between the grasslands in northern Ohio and Argentina each year. In the fall, they begin their 6,000-mile journey south, after raising their young in Ohio over the summer. Throughout its life, this remarkable bird may travel the equivalent of four times around the world due to its long migration. 

The only hummingbird species that's common in Ohio, ruby-throated hummingbirds make the state their summer home to breed and raise their young. 

If you put a nectar feeder out at your house, you'll likely see lots of hummingbird visitors in the fall, as they gear up for a long flight back to their winter homes in Central and South America. To get there, these tiny birds (they weigh about as much as a penny!) will make a 500 mile non-stop flight over the Gulf of Mexico.

Monarch butterflies are among the most impressive migratory species in Ohio, traveling more than 3,000 miles south, back to Mexico to overwinter there. Planting native fall-blooming wildflowers, like goldenrods or asters, can help these amazing insects make this long treacherous journey, as their fall flowers provide a crucial food source when most wildflowers have stopped blooming.