"Anna Goes Outside" Captures the Beauty in Cleveland's Nature

The misconceptions around geese bother Anna Henry. Geese are not aggressive, she says. They’re just protective mothers. 

As a wildlife educator, Henry has a soft spot for avians, even the ones that poop in our yards. On a day in early spring, the part of the season where the snow has just melted and seeped into the ground, she’s walking up an incredibly muddy path, wearing a fleece jacket covered in birds. Henry tries to tiptoe her way up the path when she stops, listening intently to a bird’s call before assessing that there’s a woodpecker somewhere in the trees. A few steps down the road, a flock of geese flies overhead.

“What a beautiful sound,” she says.

The eccentric jacket, the connectedness to nature — it’s all very on brand for Henry, whose social media accounts have amassed more than 30,000 followers and millions of views on TikTok and Instagram in just over a year by sharing her knowledge of nature, especially birds. A full-time student working toward her bachelor’s degree in environmental science and a part-time wildlife specialist, Henry’s online channel has even grown into a full-fledged show on local television. 

Building an audience was never part of Henry’s plan. Not too long ago, she completely shunned social media. If she ever got back online, it’d be to “make something good.” In January 2025, that “something good” landed on her shoulder. Designed with the mission to share her knowledge and passion for wildlife, @annagoezoutside was born. This time, social media would be an escape, not a trap.

“I feel like it’s so easy for me to get wrapped up in my life and my problems, but anytime I go outside, it’s like all of these things are happening regardless of what’s going on in your life,” she says. “The same birds are going to still come back every spring. The same ones are going to migrate and leave in the fall, and I think that’s really beautiful.”

One of Henry’s most popular videos, showing a blue jay shrieking like a hawk to scare away a cardinal from a bird feeder, has been viewed 2.2 million times on TikTok. Blue jays, like crows and magpies, are corvids and skilled vocalizers that can imitate much larger birds of prey. It’s a phenomenon that Anna and her @annagoezoutside co-creator Evan Prunty have caught on camera many times.

Prunty works as a photographer and videographer, which is where the two met. (Disclaimer: Prunty’s Black Valve Media frequently contributes to Cleveland Magazine.) Henry was a model on a photoshoot at Prunty’s studio several years ago. The two have been friends since, and Prunty was eager to work with Henry when she pitched her new social media idea to him.

“I have always wanted to do a project like this with someone where it facilitates traveling,” Prunty says. “It’s kind of a cool challenge to film, because everything’s really far away or really small or moving fast.”

Prunty set up a large bird feeder and cameras outside his studio, which is where those viral blue jay videos came from. Henry also films at home, with many of her videos starring her pet ring-necked dove, Mozart.

“She is the people’s princess,” Henry says.

The duo also heads out into the field at least once a week to film content. That’s why we’re out here today, trekking through the mud. Mentor Marsh State Nature Preserve is a known home to bald eagles. Prunty found the nest, but no eagles were spotted that day. Still, Henry saw plenty of ducks, geese and herons.

“I feel like I naturally kind of gravitated toward a lot of birds because that’s the majority of what you see in Ohio,” she says. “Anytime you go out, if you’re looking for animals, it’s probably going to be a bird, whereas somewhere like Florida, for example, they’ve got more gators, they’ve got manatees, they’ve got dolphins, all those things. But all wildlife, any of it that I can find, I’m excited by.”

Henry was thrilled that she got to see the snowy owl that briefly took up residence at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport this past winter. She points to a picture of a Burrowing Owl on her jacket, and says, “This is one I really want to see soon.”

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As Henry and Prunty’s work online has taken off, people in the real world have taken notice. The public access channel Brunswick Area Television has partnered with them to bring episodes of Anna Goes Outside to local television screens. The duo is producing two episodes a month, focusing on nature content and interviews with local conservationists, an they’ve also started hosting birding walks. In April, they travelled out West for a collaboration with the Arizona Office of Tourism. Getting paid to go birding and make videos about it is a dream job for Henry and Prunty.

“Wherever we can possibly find little critters, I want to find them,” Henry says. “What’s cool, too, is it’s given me an appreciation of how much is really in Northeast Ohio.”  

Want to get outside? Henry shares her top three nature spots in Northeast Ohio.

Sandy Ridge Reservation

“Every single time I go out there,” Henry says, “I see something.” While filming content last October, she and Prunty spotted trumpeter swans, red-tailed hawks, herons and egrets.

The Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve

Henry explains that this is “the perfect spot, because it’s right on the edge of Lake Erie,” where many birds and monarch butterflies will stop while migrating north or south.

Mentor Marsh State Nature Preserve

“The marshes around here are great for wildlife,” Henry says. There’s a bald eagle’s nest, as well as coyotes, but the wetlands attract many different kinds of ducks and herons, too.

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