VIDEO CLIPS FEATURE! Click this icon appearing in articles to view videos on the subject. ® MAY 2021 Wild about Wildflowers Identifying spring perennials Find Your Path Download Cleveland Metroparks new mobile app Mother Nature Motherhood in the animal kingdom Boardwalk trail in Rocky River Reservation A LETTER FROM BRIAN ZIMMERMAN CONTENTS Get Energized with New Trails, Animals and Adventures 2 Letter from Brian & Pathfinder There’s a special energy in Cleveland Metroparks every May. With warmer temperatures, a plethora of sights and sounds can be seen and heard around every bend: songbirds drop-by on their migration 3 Find Your Path northward, amphibians call from the ponds and marshes, and wildflowers blanket our trails. Of course, warmer temperatures also 4 Naturalist’s Almanac & bring more of all of you! Mothers of the Animal Kingdom In this issue, our experts have tips for your next visit to the Emerald Necklace including an extensive list on how to identify spring perennials on the forest floor, safety tips during a 5 Painting the Forest Floor busy day, how to paddle smart when exploring lakes and rivers and much, much more. Beyond the natural phenomena May has to offer, over the next few weeks and months 6 100th Anniversary Park Police there will be several new amenities to experience in Cleveland Metroparks including the long-awaited trails and connections: Red Line Greenway, Whiskey Island Connector, and Wendy Park Bridge. These trails will offer new ways to explore and connect with Cleveland 7 It’s Spring! Paddle Smart and our lakefront. As we near completion of these major projects, please stay tuned to our website clevelandmetroparks.com for the latest updates. 8 Golf Courses While there’s so much to see and explore as spring fully blossoms, signing up for one of our naturalist-led programs can help take you somewhere new. Our experts can teach you an outdoor skill or help you find your next favorite hidden gem in the Emerald Necklace. 9 Nature Shops & Job Opportunities If you’re looking to tap into your wild side, May is also a great time to visit Cleveland Metroparks Zoo as many of the warm weather inclined animals return to their outdoor 10 Foraging & Fungi habitats. Feed a Masai giraffe at the Ben Gogolick Giraffe Encounter and meet our new tiger cub trio at Rosebrough Tiger Passage! 11 Find Your Wildside & As you get outdoors this spring, please remember to practice social distancing during Swimming Events your exploration in Cleveland Metroparks and follow all of the latest guidelines from state and local health officials and the CDC. While the warmer months are typically the busiest 12 Directory & Map months in Cleveland Metroparks, there’s more than 24,000 acres to explore and Find Your Path. Click or touch a section above to access See you out there! it directly. Click on the home button (shown here) at the top corner of each page to return you here. VIDEO FEATURE! Click this Brian Zimmerman icon appearing in articles to Cleveland Metroparks CEO view videos on the subject. Summer Safety While Visiting Cleveland Metroparks As the weather warms up, Cleveland Metroparks • Always lock vehicles and keep 18 park reservations will be increasingly popular valuables out of plain view. destinations for families and individuals to enjoy the • Be aware of your surroundings and if you see outdoors. Cleveland Metroparks has some tips to something suspicious, say something to parks ensure you enjoy the parks safely all season long. staff or contact Cleveland Metroparks Police. • All park visitors are required to follow the latest CDC Cleveland Metroparks Police will be present safety guidelines to help prevent the spread of on foot, bikes, in patrol cruisers and on COVID-19, including practicing safe social distancing. horseback to assist in parking and safety. In • Practice good trail etiquette and warn other park case of emergency, please notify Cleveland users when passing. Metroparks Police Headquarters immediately • Be on the lookout for cyclists traveling on the by calling 440-333-4911 or 911. Non-life- roadways and allow at least 3 feet distance when threatening situations should be reported to passing in your vehicle. Cleveland Metroparks Police at 440-331-5530. 2 Emerald Necklace May 2021 | Vol. 70 #5 FEATURE ARTICLE Cleveland Metroparks 4 Naturalist’s Almanac & Mothers of the Animal Kingdom Launches a New Campaign and Mobile App leveland Metroparks announced Emerald Necklace, whether guests are the launch of Find Your Path, a seeking a peaceful retreat to nature, a Cnew campaign to encourage new trail adventure, an opportunity to exploration and inclusivity across learn from one of our expert naturalists the park district’s more than 24,000 or find time and space to connect with acres through a new mobile app. The friends and family.” Cleveland Metroparks mobile app is now App users will immediately have available for download on all Apple and access to new maps of all 18 park Android devices. reservations to find trails, attractions “There is truly something for everyone The launch of the new campaign and and hidden gems, as well as upcoming and we invite our guests to Find Your Path, app come on the heels of record- programming and events across Find Your Course, Find Your Wildside and breaking visitation in 2020 with more Cleveland Metroparks reservations, golf more.” than 19.7 million recreational visitors. courses, restaurants, retail locations, and The new record drew more than 1.2 Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. Guests can purchase a limited-edition million more recreational visitors than Cleveland Metroparks Find Your Path Additional app features available this the previous record set in Cleveland t-shirt online and in person at the Hinckley summer will allow guests to establish Metroparks centennial year in 2017, Lake Boathouse & Store. user accounts, register for events despite the significant impacts of and notifications, earn badges by Download the NEW mobile app today at COVID-19. participating in challenges, and be clevelandmetroparks.com/app. “With more visitors than ever across eligible for special promotions. Cleveland Metroparks, we are always “Find Your Path is not only rooted in reminded that everyone’s connection to the personal connection our guests the Park District is personal and unique,” have with the park system but speaks said Cleveland Metroparks CEO Brian to the vast array of amenities Cleveland Zimmerman. “We’re excited to offer this Metroparks has to offer,” said Chief new way for guests to interact with the Marketing Officer Kelly Manderfield. Find Your Path Find YourFind Course Your Course FindFind Your Your Wildside Wildside clevelandmetroparks.com 3 NATURALIST’S ALMANAC Month of May: Bursting with Flora and Fauna ne of the greatest shows on earth, Wildflowers the month of May bursts with Blankets of Virginia bluebells surging action and immense Trillium O intermixed with yellows of diversity of flora and fauna. As leaves and Blackburnian golden alexanders coat river bottoms and flowers sprout and swell from the ground warbler stream sides of riparian floodplains. Steep to the canopies of towering oaks, warm Birds hillsides and cool valleys rich in loamy leaf air and increasing sunlight urge pollinators Songbird migration peaks the first two litter are cloaked in jack-in-the-pulpits, — bees, flies, butterflies, moths, beetles weeks of May as wave after wave of birds trilliums, spring beauties, waterleaf, rue — to emerge to feast on nectar and fresh arrive from their southern wintering anemone, and mayapples. These perennial foliage. Spring wildflowers peak in full grounds. Some, like blackburnian botanical gems come and go quickly, bloom, carpeting the ground in a canvas warblers, began their journey in South blooming for short time periods only to of brilliant white, yellow, blue and pink. America and stop only briefly to rest and die back within weeks in order to store Millions of migrating songbirds descend refuel before heading north to spruce energy underground in roots and tubers. upon wetlands, fields and forests, having forests in the Canadian wilderness. arrived in the dark of night from Central Others, like the wood thrush, arrive Amphibians and Reptiles and South American wintering grounds. from the rainforests of Panama to stake On warm, sunny afternoons, eastern Filling the treetops in frenzy, Neotropical out a territory in beech-maple forests, garter snakes and northern watersnakes songbirds acrobatically search for insects serenading hikers with their flute-like bask along the edges of wetlands and to fuel their incredible journeys north to songs through summer. While millions zip across trails as they search for fish and the boreal forest. frog prey. Ponds and marshes swell from Wood of migrant birds pause temporarily to May’s natural use Cleveland Metroparks vital resources frequent rain, and the chorus of green thrush wonders shift for only days at a time, other species, frogs, bullfrogs, spring peepers, and gray and stir quickly, such as eastern bluebirds and pileated treefrogs continues from dawn till dusk. and new sights and woodpeckers, are already nest-building, Watch the trail ahead of you for American sounds appear daily. incubating eggs or rearing their fledged toads patrolling for insects while hopping young. across paths. Bird photos by Jen Goellintz, Fairview Park Mothers of the Animal Kingdom other’s Day is a holiday when we female beaver gestates her young for honor the maternal figures in our about three and a half months, but the Mlives for their role of motherhood, whole family works together to build a Virginia opossum strong bonds, and contributions to dam, maintain their lodge, and protect it society. While we celebrate these from predators. bean-sized joeys per litter (sometimes incredible people, let’s acknowledge more), each weighing a tenth of a gram.