Saturday's Critters # 653

    Welcome to Saturday's Critters! Hello and Happy Saturday!

 If you love all God's creatures like I do and also like to blog about them and take critter photos this is where you can share your critter post. Link up your post and share your critters, join in with my critter party ! You can share any kind of critters the real ones, pretend ones, statues and paintings, a new or old post!

Happy Father's Day to my hubby and son and all the Dads in Blogland. I hope your day is special! 

"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." John Muir

I am sharing my walks, my favorite parks, NCR bike trail and of course our local Prettyboy fire road walk with Miney. I have been enjoying all the wildflowers, the spring birds are arriving. All are my simple pleasure and bring me joy. 

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1. Hashawha Nature Center walk, the wildflowers were looking pretty. I found an Eastern Kingbird sitting on a wire that goes across the lake. The kingbird's tail has white on the very bottom. I captured a Carolina Wren, you can almost hear him singing. 

2. NCR trail Parkton Maryland, the best bird I heard and saw was the Baltimore Oriole.  The white-throated Sparrows were still hanging around, the Northern Parula was singing often. 

3. My backyard bunny is a cutie!  

4. My walk with Miney on the Prettyboy fire road, I love seeing the Pink Lady Slippers.  

It is wonderful to see all the greenery, Spring is one of my favorite times of the year. 

5. While the Pink lady Slippers are blooming I tend to walk on the fire road in their direction. Our Rhododendrons are blooming, we lost some branches this past winter. The snow was too heavy and they fell over.  

I like using the Merlin app on my fire road walks, the Blackburnian Warbler was nice to hear.  I have seen them previous years around the Prettyboy watershed. 

6. Miney loves her walks, her nose is to the ground. So many smells for her, she picks up speed if she smells a fox. 

7. The Bluebirds are using a birdhouse on our deck, the male Bluebird does not like the woodpeckers. I have seen him trying to chase off the birds from the feeders. 

Below is from my walk again with Miney on the local Prettyboy fire road.  The Northern Parula are breeders here in the watershed.  I am not sure if the Black and White Warbler was a resident or migrant.

8. Walk with Miney on the local fire road at Prettyboy.

I was happy to hear the Yellow-billed Cuckoo calling, it is nice to see the birds returning to our area. 

I hope you are all enjoying nature and getting outdoors walking. 

I am linking up to Heidrun's Mosaic Monday   I hope you can stop by and visit Heidrun and check out the Mosaic Monday post.

Thanks to all my visitors and for your past and present comments. Stop back to see any replies to your comments. I appreciate everyone who loves and respects wildlife. Thank you for linking up a critter post.

Check out  Catblogosphere.com

Here is my linky:

Thank you for sharing your critters and post! 

Happy Monday!

Wishing everyone a great day and a happy new week!

" If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere."

"Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud."

Road trip May 2018, Cumberland Falls Resort State Park, Kentucky

"We take photos as a return ticket to a moment otherwise gone."

Comments off, enjoy your day!

Saturday's Critters # 652

   Welcome to Saturday's Critters! Hello and Happy Saturday!

 If you love all God's creatures like I do and also like to blog about them and take critter photos this is where you can share your critter post. Link up your post and share your critters, join in with my critter party ! You can share any kind of critters the real ones, pretend ones, statues and paintings, a new or old post!

"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." John Muir

Click on images for better viewing.

This post continues with our little getaway to the Eastern shore of Maryland, we stopped on the way home at the Blackwater Wildlife Refuge.  We saw so many birds, Eagles and Osprey were plentiful. There were Egrets, Herons, Red-headed Woodpecker, Brown-headed Nuthatches, various shorebirds and gulls. 

1. Below are an Osprey couple, one Osprey  eating a fish perched on the side of the nest.  

My Merlin App showed just some of the birds seen and heard at the Blackwater wildlife refuge in Cambridge Maryland. 

2. Seen below are the Brown-headed Nuthatch top left and the Eastern Bluebird top right. Bottom left is the red-headed Woodpecker and a Killdeer on the right. 

3. We saw some Great Egrets hanging about in the wetlands. 

The Great Blue Herons are a common sight to see along the wildlife drive. 

4. My Merlin App picked up both the Lesser Yellowlegs and the Greater Yellowlegs. 

5. The Ospreys and Eagle sightings were plentiful.  I think both the Ospreys and the Eagles are impressive beautiful birds.  

6. There were two Eaglets in the nest, this photo is heavily cropped.

7. This pair of Eagles posed in a pine tree that was next to the wildlife drive. 

8. The sun was reflecting on the Glossy Ibis

A Killdeer with two chicks at the visitor center. 

Killdeer chick looked cute, it was seen on the visitor center parking lot. 

I hope you enjoyed my bird sightings at the Blackwater Wildlife refuge, these photos were all taken from my car window. My reason for not being perfect photos.  

I am linking up to Heidrun's Mosaic Monday   I hope you can stop by and visit Heidrun and check out the Mosaic Monday post.

Thanks to all my visitors and for your past and present comments. Stop back to see any replies to your comments. I appreciate everyone who loves and respects wildlife. Thank you for linking up a critter post.

Check out  Catblogosphere.com

Here is my linky:

Thank you for sharing your critters and post! 

Happy Monday!

 Wishing everyone a great day and a happy new week!

"Colors are the smiles of nature."

The colorful Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

" A splash of color can brighten even the darkest day."

"We take photos as a return ticket to a moment otherwise gone."

Comments off, enjoy your day!

Saturday's Critters # 651

   Welcome to Saturday's Critters! Hello and Happy Saturday!

 If you love all God's creatures like I do and also like to blog about them and take critter photos this is where you can share your critter post. Link up your post and share your critters, join in with my critter party ! You can share any kind of critters the real ones, pretend ones, statues and paintings, a new or old post!

"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." John Muir

Hubby and I went on a 2 night getaway April 20-22nd to the shores of Delaware and Ocean City Maryland. We were lucky get an appointment with a dialysis center close to Ocean City. The stars have to align for this to happen, hubby had to have blood work within 30 days, the center had to have a chair opened at the time we wanted to travel.  They called me on Friday with a time and we were leaving on Monday, a close call. Miney went on her own vacation on that Sunday April 19th. It was our first trip since our Alaska trip back in July-Aug 2024. I forgot to mention I signed Miney up for a Doggie Boot Camp for 2 weeks, she needed some training on leash walking and social behaviors.  

Click on images for better viewing.

1. On our loop road trip from home we drove to Bombay Hook NWR in Delaware. I messed up with my camera card, I left it home and could not take photos until I stopped and bought a new card in Dover Delaware. I took a few photos with my phone which are just so-so, I can not get closeups at all with my phone.  I did like catching this Bald Eagle in flight next to the wildlife drive. 

After stopping to buy a new camera card we drove onto to Prime Hook NWR in Delaware.  I wanted to see if the Pink Lady Slippers were in bloom.  Years ago we saw them lining the trail, this trail had the most Lady Slippers I have ever seen.  This year we were lucky to see 3 or 4 plants.  

2. Next we drove on to Ocean City, Md where we would be staying for two nights.  We had an ocean front room at the Hilton Garden Inn.  I thought  it was a good deal for off season.  

3. The next morning we watched the sunrise from our balcony and room.

I watched lines of Double-crested Cormorants flying by, just above the Atlantic Ocean. 

Early morning, the workers are out cleaning the beach. 

4. Mid Morning, Michael can not travel without having his dialysis treatment.  We found a place in Berlin Md, 8 miles outside of Ocean City.  So part of the day Michael had his dialysis and I birdwatched and read my kindle book. We did stop at the Heron Pond in Berlin for a little walk and some birdwatching. We ran into some other walkers with dogs, the dogs always like Michael.

I watched a Killdeer on the parking lot at the dialysis center.  

5. Later in the day we watched the sunset at the Ocean City Inlet. Across the inlet I could see the Ponies at the Assateague State Park. 

7. On the jetty at the inlet, I saw a few Great Blue Herons, some Brown Pelicans, various gulls and some Cormorants resting on the rocks. 

8. Sunset at Ocean City, Maryland

On a sad note, our neighborhood peacock has disappeared, he has been missing for a few weeks now. I am afraid something bad happened to it, maybe a fox?

I am linking up to Heidrun's Mosaic Monday   I hope you can stop by and visit Heidrun and check out the Mosaic Monday post.

Thanks to all my visitors and for your past and present comments. Stop back to see any replies to your comments. I appreciate everyone who loves and respects wildlife. Thank you for linking up a critter post.

Check out  Catblogosphere.com

Here is my linky:

Thank you for sharing your critters and post!