Bad stuff! Here in southwest Ohio, it is rapidly spreading and completely covering and crowding out almost all natural flora along streams.

Maybe northern magnolia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnolia

Yup, one of the worst invasives, (like bullfrogs) in many places.

And like so many human residents of this area not a native, but very firmly established / entrenched.

Red eared sliders

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-eared_slider

Real estate developers have no incentive to build small. Huge homes fetch far higher prices than more modest (reasonable) sized ones, and I'd wager the difference in materials cost is far less than the difference in selling price.

How many people are there going to be living in this giant place, 20? 30?

Well the bird looks blue, anyway.

I've never understood the mindset... I could understand a 3-4 bedroom with a 3 car garage, especially with a few teens, but these are nuts! And they seem to be popping up everywhere.

From what detail there is, I would say a definite probably...

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Eastern_Bluebird/id

Thanks Nancy. I'm also not really "church people" despite having grown up in a home where Sunday church attendance was compulsory. But I still like to look at the country churches and find their accompanying graveyards quite interesting and informative for the stories they imply when you take the time to look.

I enjoy your church photos even being a non-church goer! Churches can be very picturesque, and though there are not as many in the areas I bike around in the Pacific Northwest, I will steal your idea and begin taking photos of those I find wherever I am ;’-).

Also I am enjoying your travels with you. Mainly my rides have become day rides, but more often than not, I get to connect several days together but mostly around home. My home state is Maryland but I am not all the familiar with western parts of the states and find your finds and photos very interesting.

Female green frog. Green frogs look like bullfrogs, but they have lateral folds down their backs behind their eyes that bullfrogs lack. Females have tympanic membranes (ears) about the size of their eyes while males have substantially larger ones. The wiki article link below has a photo of a male which nicely demonstrates the ears.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithobates_clamitans

There are at least two of these: this one and the one at the luau on Maui.

$15 on Amazon gets you one of your very own.