The resonant trills of red-winged blackbirds, glistening wings of darting dragonflies and musky perfume rising from the black satin underfoot provide a feast for the senses. Wetlands are a cradle of life. They are safe spawning grounds for fish, whose tiny eggs cling to an underwater forest of aquatic plants in warm, shallow pools. Waterfowl and their broods nestle in the tall grasses, reeds, sedges and cattails, and feast on the insects that thrive here. Beaver and muskrat raise their kits in snug lodges and dens carved in the muddy shoreline.
Frogs perform their joyful chorus and leave behind millions of bubbly clusters of eggs.
Other animals come to visit and enjoy a cool sip of water or perhaps a meal. As the glacier slowly retreated northward to present-day Canada, boulders drug by the ice carved deep holes, debris left in mounds blocked drainage outlets, and the crushing weight of the ice itself created a landscape filled with watery potholes and channels. Over time, sediments accumulated in rich, mucky beds, and plants and animals populated these areas, creating complex wetland communities. Today, the coastal wetlands of Lake Erie are some of the state's most expansive wetlands. Coastal marshes at Maumee Bay and East Harbor state parks are visited by more than 300 species of songbirds, shorebirds and waterfowl each year.