There are three categories of waterfowl that frequent the Buckeye State: ducks, geese, and swans. Swans are by far the largest of them — weighing 20 pounds or more, with wingspans measuring nearly 8 feet.
Tundra swan (the good)
The tundra swan is Ohio’s only native swan. Large flocks of them migrate through the state late in February and March on their way north to nest in the High Arctic, then come back with their young cygnets the following November and December, especially along the shores of Lake Erie. If you have an older bird ID book, the tundra swan may be identified as a “whistling swan.”
As electric cooperatives, our main job obviously is to keep the lights on. We’re also dedicated to keeping our members informed about things like reliable service, affordable rates, and important rules that affect our business. We often talk about the benefits of being self-regulated, even though there are plenty of laws and regulations that also apply to us as we perform those important functions.
Like many Kelleys Island residents, Charles and Cindy Herndon spent their childhood summers in the bucolic setting on western Lake Erie before returning decades later to live there. But they didn’t just come back to fade away into retirement.
“The lake is a provider for paintings using propagation, waves, the stones it brings to shore, its movement, repetition, and variety,” he says. “The natural world is important to my soul and its creative juices.”
Before he painted, Charles mostly sculpted, and the garden portion of the campus is home to about 150 pieces ranging from smaller works to massive creations 7 or 8 feet tall. Some are wood, steel, or bronze; others are pieces of glacial erratic (granite) and limestone, many quarried from the island.
Each visit to Passion Works Studio is a visit to joy. It’s part art studio, part gift shop, and part community gathering place — and it bursts with creativity and whimsy. There are bold lines and vibrant color combinations everywhere. Each visit brings a new discovery.
What the Athens studio is best known for — its signature pieces — are the Passion Flowers, which festoon the walls and hang from the ceiling.
The flowers, made from recycled metal newspaper printing plates, have put the town’s creative spirit on the map. Stop in numerous Athens businesses and you’re likely to find them. They also decorate several downtown outdoor spots.
“My dream is to be a roadside attraction,” says Patty Mitchell, Passion Works founder and executive director.
Kyle Hicks, the new senior government affairs analyst at Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, hadn’t always planned to pursue a career in public policy — he wanted to be a teacher.
Hicks decided to apply to take the trip after hearing about the experiences his mom and sister had when they went on Youth Tour in 1994 and 2017, respectively. South Central Power selected him as one of its delegates as he was finishing his junior year at Amanda-Clearcreek High School, and that summer, he boarded a D.C.-bound bus with 30 other Ohio students who had been sponsored by their own co-ops.
What do a church, a brewery, and an elementary school have in common? Each is home to art installations created by the Artifactory, a partnership between two Delaware County artists who work with those groups to create intricate mosaic pieces from recycled materials.
Now she and Corwin teach groups in central Ohio and beyond to create those free-form mosaics that are then installed as permanent works of art.
If it's January in Ohio, we can count on ice — lots of it, everywhere. From the treacherous and violent to the tiny and delicate, our intrepid ice-chaser set out to capture these scenes of wintry wonder
Photographer James Proffitt warns that some of the images that went into this essay were taken in what he describes as NSFW conditions — Not Safe for Wading. Following are some of the musings from his vast wanderings in 2024 and 25 while collecting his images.
We love it and we hate it. It cools food and drinks, we skate on it, fish on it. We slip and fall on it, crash our cars on it and it destroys roads and sometimes things around the house. It can be treacherous, unforgiving, and beautiful: Ice.
Gray squirrels are the bane of those of us who attempt to keep backyard bird feeders filled with birdseed. In large cities, small towns, and even rural areas across the Buckeye State, these arboreal aerialists seem to defy gravity in getting to places we don’t want them to be.
For instance, a very early Columbus resident and hunter shot 67 gray squirrels in one day from just one tree in the middle of a cornfield on what today is the Statehouse lawn.
