Kids meet the animals of Mentor Marsh

Cheyenne touches the soft fur of an opossum.

The pelts of an opossum, skunk, beaver, raccoon, rabbit, gray fox, and two red foxes—both a summer and thicker winter coat—covered the floor of the Mentor Headlands Library Branch on Saturday afternoon.

The kids sat in a semicircle around them and took turns looking at the beak of a great horned owl and a pair of turkey feathers.

None of them realized just how much wildlife lived so nearby.

Zach looks at the different types of feathers that grow on a turkey.

Naturalist Becky Donaldson from the Mentor Marsh visited the library to tell the kids about the unique habitat that's just a few miles from their home.

The marsh is unlike any other park in the region. More than 200 kinds of birds (including a pair of bald eagles) nest in its mixed oak swamp some time during the year.

During a walk, you can see staghorn sumac and Northern shovelers, rose hips and heron, gadwalls and wild raspberry.

And it's free to visit and open from dawn to dusk every day. Its nature center is also open from noon to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.

Raven and Lucius check out the pelt of a red fox. In the winter, the fox's fur grows thicker.

The marsh also offers hikes from 2 to 3:30 p.m. each Sunday.

On Oct. 19, a naturalist will lead a fall foliage hike through the marsh. On Oct. 26, there will be a spooky scavenger hunt that busts some common myths about local wildlife. Then, on Nov. 2, nature lovers can learn about white-tailed deer and even practice their tracking skills by looking for signs of deer along the marsh's trails.

You can register for any of these hikes by calling the Mentor Marsh Nature Center at 440-257-0777 or by emailing rdonalds@cmnh.org.

Naturalist Becky Donaldson explains that while opossum do have prehensile tails, they don't hang upside down to sleep.

Becky Donaldson will return to our Headlands Branch in April to talk about bald eagles. It's a little too soon to register for the program but never too soon to get excited.

You can visit our Facebook page for more fun photos from library programs. You can also check out Mentor Marsh's Facebook page for some beautiful snapshots, if you'd like

Discover More About Where You Live: Mentor Marsh

The Newhous Pond in Mentor Marsh after the foliage has started to turn for the season

We are fortunate to live in this beautiful community.

We are surrounded by scenic city, county, state and even national parks. But how often do we think about or visit them?

Take, for example, the Mentor Marsh. It's nearly 700 acres are unlike any other habitat in the world. It provides a home to more than 200 kinds of bird, including the blue-winged teal, yellow warbler, American wigeon, gadwall, heron, American black duck, red-winged blackbirds, Northern shoveler and hooded merganser.

It combines a mixed oak swamp forest—an increasingly rare kind of habitat—with the largest phragmite marsh in the state. There are also picturesque walking trails that pass through thickets of staghorn sumac, rose hips, wild raspberry and more.

Kids can learn more about the Mentor Marsh when Naturalist Becky Donaldson visits Mentor Library's Mentor-on-the-Lake Branch on 2 p.m. this Saturday, Oct. 11. (You can register for the program on our website.) Donaldson will have hands-on items for kids to touch and explore as well as audio sounds of the marsh wildlife.

She'll also be talking about how the Marsh prepares for the winter.

Donaldson works for the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, who manages the park along with the state of Ohio. Her talk is free and open to everybody.

For more online information about Mentor Marsh, you can visit:

• the Cleveland Museum of Natural History
• the Marsh's Facebook page (with several gorgeous photos, including the one above)
• the Ohio Department of Natural Resources
• Hiking Ohio Parks.