I got to the pond just as the snow storm passed by, but was able to get these pics as a second round of flurries passed through.

It looks like both the Western and Eastern ponds are kept full by the beavers. Separated by the Cuyahoga Valley Line, each is connected by an overflow from the Western pond, and there are small lodges in each.

Last time I was here, I thought I heard an owl in a grove of pines, and it looks like this could be the nest.

They tend to nest in the pines so they have permanent cover to hide from the crows. Scouting locations for the upcoming spring is one of my favorite things to do in the winter because the deer trails are very viable and the geography is easy to read.

I went to the Station Road pond Sunday evening to look for good recording locations beyond the railroad bed. I didn’t really find anything new, but there is a hillside that may shield the mic from the road traffic coming from 77. I find that atmospheric conditions affect the sound, for example, if there is a heavy fog, ambient sound is diminished. If it is very still and the sky is clear, the sound from I77 is very noticeable. All in all, it is a good area to use as an overall indicator, but maybe not so much for recordings. There are areas along the towpath that are much more protected and quiet.

I went to Brecksville Station today and think that I will do more recordings from this area.

I heard an owl calling from a stand of pines that you can listen to here on the Voices in the Valley YouTube channel. The call is very soft and wearing headphones is the best way to hear it. I’m still going to record along the towpath between Brecksville Station and Vaughn Road because different areas and environments have different groups calling. The season should be interesting because of the lack of snow means that much less water is available to fill the vernal pools. Right now this pond is covered with a thin layer of ice, but all of the snow from earlier in the week has melted away. This location should be good because it is more or less a permanent body of water, much like some of the canal ponds. I think some areas are fed by underground springs due to their permanence, while others are fed by run off or the Cuyahoga overflowing it’s banks. I’ve noticed that the ones fed by runoff or overflow have less stable chorus activity and the permanent ponds don’t generally have much activity until later in the spring. That being said, each area has it’s own variance in geography etc… so areas within a large pond will have activity not found elsewhere. The early spring frogs like Spring Peepers, Chorus Frogs and Wood frogs will call from the more shallow, less permanent, vegetation filled areas, and the larger Bullfrogs and Green Frogs call from the more permanent deeper areas. This pond is kept full by beaver activity. Right along the Northern edge, the culvert built to drain overflow and protect the train tracks from washouts has a dam built around it. That is the source of the running water which can be heard in the recording.