Last weekend we went to Squire's Castle. I remember going there when I was a kid, so I wanted to take my kids there at least once.

My bet is we'll go again since we live in Mayfield Village which is just a hop, skip, and jump from the Cleveland Metropark's North Chagrin Reservation. Check out the map here: PDF Map

I also posted a Photo Album. Check it out if you want.

Yesterday, Arisa posted about finding a Robin's blue eggshell (in Japanese of course), which of course she didn't believe was a shell from a bird's egg at first. A couple of days ago, via BFD, Ron Copfer posts a picture of a deer, and to my amazement a picture of a bald eagle in downtown Cleveland. One of the things that has really struck me about living in Cleveland, well okay, the 'burbs, is the amount of wildlife that you see on a daily basis.

While not nearly as dramatic as Ron's post, I have decided to do a series of posts on the wildlife that we encounter here in Northeast Ohio. The first picture is of a robin, spurred by my wife's post about the robin's blue eggshell that she found. I remember my mom telling me that when robins show up, spring is around the corner. While I was off in Japan, I had completely forgotten about robins.

One of the things I have always liked about living in Northeast Ohio is the easy access to nature. I grew up in Shaker Heights so had easy access to Shaker Lakes. Now I live in Mayfield Village with real easy access to the Cleveland Metropark in this area. When we first got here, I stayed at my Mom's place and we would see 5 or 6 deer every morning in the back. Which of course the kids thought was fascinating.

In fact, one of the reasons the ended up with us moving to Okinawa was the lack of any serious nature in Tokyo. Having grown up with easy access to very nice natural settings, the lack of green in Tokyo got to me. And by luck, there was enough business reasons for me to move to Okinawa where we lived a 10 minute walk from the beach. But Okinawa is also sub-tropical so we had geckos, snakes, mongoose and fruit bats. One of the things that I noticed this spring is the difference in birds.

Over time I hope to post about the other wildlife we find here.

I have a vague recollection of either reading or talking to somebody about seeing a wild turkey in the 'burbs around Cleveland. At the time, I really didn't believe it and promptly forgot about it. Yesterday, after Arisa and I visited Elly's participation in the Senior Project Performance at the Cleveland School of Dance, we were headed home, when I was forced to recall that conversation/reading of wild turkeys in the area:

We were driving back on Monticello near Lee Road when we saw this turkey. I am assuming it is wild, although it could simply be an escapee. Unfortunately, by the time we realized what it was we were already passed it. Luckily, we hit a red light probably about 50 yards down, and were able to grab a couple of pictures. Unfortunately, in the rush to get a picture, we didn't get the best shots, and the one above is the best of the batch.

Is this for real?

Yesterday, Elly emailed me some pics she took with her cell phone:

To me, that is just a good picture. Of course I know that she went to the beach, but didn't have a swimming suit so they were only wading. The picture I really liked though was this one:

Okay, I am definitely not the artistic type, but to me that second picture is artistic. And it was taken by a 14 year old with a cell phone. Those of you whom have a better sense/understanding of "art" and/or photography, whaddya think?

So far I have gotten 5 pics, which you can see here. Hopefully will be getitng more.

Update: Re-added pics and fixed link to gallery as they moved...

Okay, can't pass this one up. Just saw this in the New York Times. The story is about the Iriomote wildcat which according to the article has been around for 200,000 years(according to this page 2 million years!) but wasn't discovered until 1967. You would have to go to Iriomote to believe it.

As most of you know, I was in Japan for 18 years, 9 of those in Okinawa. I consider Okinawa my second home. It's a great place. The reason I can't pass this article up is Iriomote is by far my favorite island of the Okinawan archipelago. I was lucky enough to visit Iriomote three times, twice as an "IT Coordinator" and once as a translator for some international guests. Over on Planet Uchina(Japanese), you'll see some of the feeds are from Iriomote blogs.

I did in fact get a brief glimpse of an Iriomote wildcat on one of my visits. And per the article, it was while we were driving in a car and the cat crossed the road. Almost roadkill, but the person driving was a proponent of eco-tourism and was driving accordingly.

The interesting thing about Iriomote-jima is that it is in fact the second largest island of the chain of islands that make up Okinawa, with the Okinawa-honto being the largest and most populous. Iriomote, though, while the second largest in terms of land mass, only as a little over 2000 residents. Compare that to Okinawa-honto where the City of Naha has 700,000 residents, and you get an idea of how pristine it is. Additionally, something like 80% of the island is a national park and your average joe ain't allowed in it.

I still remember getting taken around the first time I was there. It is absolutely incredible. Have you seen Tom Hanks in Cast Away? Ever read Robinson Crusoe? Well those images of a unpopulated jungle island...that's Iriomote. One of the times I was there I got a tour into area behind one of the villages. They showed me a gun turret from World War II that they had found the previous year, never knowing it had been there. The whole experience was kinda surreal, I felt like I we were in a pre-historic jungle.

The first time I was there was the week that the fireflies make their appearance. The come out in mass for about 5 days and the best place to see was on narrow road through the hills. The road cut through the hill so that the upside of the hill on the road was pretty much like straight up. We headed out at about 9pm and it is pitch black. Very, very few lights on this island. As you look up the hill, it's all fireflies blinking. It's so dark that if you look long enough you get the feeling your looking at the stars. In fact, as looked up, I kept moving my head up so I could look at the stars and got a little dizzy because I couldn't tell where the fireflies stopped and the stars started. Just a little exaggeration, but I distinctly remember it, particularly because I also saw a shooting star when I did that.

I don't know how endangered the cat is, but there is definitely a battle brewing between the mass-tourist businesses and those that want to retain the pristine nature, and support the local economy via eco-tourism. If I recall correctly, one of the battles at the time I was there was that one of the big landholder on Iriomote, who also happened to be the President of the equivalent of the Okinawa Chamber of Commerce, wanted to build a massive 1000 room resort hotel on Iriomote. He wanted, however, to build it right on a beach where sea turtles lay their eggs. The lights alone would pretty much insure decimation of that sea turtle population.

The other thing I remember is the wild boar we had for dinner one night. Absolutely fresh, having been killed earlier in the day. I wasn't brave enough to eat it raw, which some folks were doing, but I did have it in a stew, and man-oh-man was it good.

I found this this morning, but Google Japan has announced the One Green Project. There are two elements to the One Green project.

Quick Update: Turns out that the lead developer on the One Green Project is Shibata-san, the same developer of Coreblog which powers this blog on plone.  His post is here.

The first is a google gadget that goes on to your igoogle page. Once you have added the google gadget to your site, you will need to login using a google account. Or you can do it the other way around, login to the project and then add the google gadget to your igoogle page. Whatever floats your boat. When registering, they will ask for a nickname and your address. You can add a comment if you so wish, and an idea for saving energy. Some examples I've seen is to use a bicycle where possible, or purchasing regional farm products.

Having added and "configured" the gadget, when you visit your igoogle page, it'll give you an idea for reducing CO2 emissions. By clicking on "take this action", it will show you your reduction. For example, "taking the action" of turning "down" your air conditioner from 78 degress to 82 degrees, you reduce 83g of CO2 emissions. If you then take a 1 minute shorter shower, your daily savings jumps to 157g.

The second thing you can do with the google gadget is to post your idea for saving energy. For example, bicycle to work.

The second element to the project is a mashup using google maps. Daily savings by each participant and their ideas are shown on a google map with their chosen icons. When you click on the link to the One Green project page, you are shown your location with your idea and the savings you have accumulated for that day. Just like google maps, you can click on other icons and show their ideas or the ideas that they have to implement cost savings. You can "support" other participants ideas and the idea will show how many people support that idea. The more energy you have saved, the color of your icon/avatar changes from red to yellow, and then to green.

As I was looking through this, I thought this would be a great project for Green City Blue Lake, for example, to undertake. Perhaps in partnership with Youngstown's Green Energy TV and others. What I don't see, in the One Green project is a calculation of the total daily savings of all participants. This would be an interesting additional piece to add to the project, so that participants can see the total effect of their group efforts.