When a Purple Gallinule showed up at a park just east of Cleveland last week I was a bit disappointed. I was sure that it would have left by the time my family was planning on going to Magee Marsh the next week and I was sure that Mom would not want to drive to Ohio two weeks in a row. I began to get more and more excited, however, as the Gallinule showed no signs of leaving and was still there on Sunday, the day before we left. I was able to convince my Mom that the extra three hour drive to see the Gallinule was worth it and we left at six thirty the next morning. When we got there we were told that the Purple Gallinule had been seen that morning but it was in the east pond, which was the larger of the two ponds. As soon as I approached the pond I saw a man there taking pictures and after a few seconds I was able to see the Gallinule walking around on the lilly pads. While I was able to get some nice looks at the bird it was rather backlit and all of my pictures turned out terribly. After a while the Gallinule disappeared into some vegetation near the trail. I was almost ready to leave when all of a sudden, my younger brother said, "Look! The Gallinule is right by the trail!" I turned around and the Gallinule was just coming out of the tall grass at the edge of the trail. It ran into the middle of the trail before it flew into the smaller west pond. After this it came quite close and I was able to get some very good pictures. It was definitely worth the drive.
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