Nature Center Visit

Click here Watery Wednesday to see more watery shots from all over.

Wordless Wednesday  click  link to visit the Wordless Wednesday links.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit, I hope you enjoyed my nature center visit and the Barred Owl. Thanks to the host of Watery Wednesday and Wordless Wednesday.

Shenandoah birds and wildlife

Last weekend, hubby and I spent all day Sunday on the Skyline Drive in Shenandoah Nat'l Park. We stopped at many of the overlooks and at each overlook I would hear either the Scarlet Tanager or the Indigo Bunting singing. They are both gorgeous birds.


                                                     Mary's Mosaic Monday

Click on photos to see the larger image

Indigo Bunting

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Scarlet Tanager singing

As we made our way to the middle secion of the drive near the Big Meadows we were treated with this cute fawn and the mom. They didn't seem to mind we stopped to watch them.

This spotted fawn look so cute near these yellow grasses.

I am joining several memes this week, please click on the links to visit all these fun memes
 Mary's     Mosaic Monday  Thanks to Mary at her Little Red House.

Sally's  Blue Monday  Thanks to Sally for hosting Blue Monday

and
Mellow Yellow Monday  and thanks to the host of Mellow Yellow Monday

Thank you for stopping by my blog to see my Shenandoah birds and deer.

A few shots of my yardbirds

My Camera Critters post, click on link to go there. Thanks to Misty Dawn for hosting this fun critter meme.

and my entry for
Bird Photography Weekly  click on my link to see more great Bird Photography

It has been cool lately seeing all the action at the birdhouses and seeing the juvies in my yard. Yesterday evening I was out in my yard checking on my plants when three juvie Mockingbirds landed on my fence.  I was able to snap a few photos before they flew off into the treetops.

                                Juvie Mockingbird

So, I continued my walk around the yard when this crazy house wren looked at me like I was it's enemy. It started flying around me acting crazy. Finally it went back into it's birdhouse. I'm sure this is the same wren I have seen my bluebirds dive bombing.

                                     Crazy House Wren

Poppa Blue is very protective of his mate and feeders. I have seen him chasing squirrels, chipmunks and other birds from my feeders and deck.

This is my post for The Friday Ark , thanks for stopping by.

Cranberry Glades Botantical Area

Hubby and I had a long weekend away in West Virginia and Shenandoah. Hubby's main reason for the trip was to meet with a Caving Club and go spelunking. In case you do not know spelunking is a word for cave explorers. So, I tagged along for the weekend and did the driving. I am not into exploring caves, dark closed in places give me a fright. I did some research on the area and found out that the Cranberry Glades is a good place for birding. After dropping hubby off , I took out my GPS and drove the 30 minutes or so to see the Cranberry Glades. My first stop was the very nice visitors center. They also had a nice shop, I picked up a butterfly guide book, tee shirt, a hat pin and a new hummingbird feeder. I do most of my shopping when hubby is not around. After checking out the many hummingbirds on the visitors centers  feeders and the butterflies on the plants, I drove the short distance to the actual Botanical Area.

The Botanical Area had a half mile trail that was all boardwalk.

The 750 acre glades are a grouping of peat bogs similar to some Canadian bogs. The land is highly acidic and support plants that are normally found at higher latitudes some are the pitcher plant and the cranberries and sundew. The weather is cool and wet comparable to New England. So glad, it was a beautiful day when I was there. The higher mountains surrounding the Glades form a bowl and draining the cool air downhill to the glades. The plants some rare seem to thrive in these conditions.



I used my new guide book to id this Great Spangled Fritallary

I was told at the visitor center that I timed my visit perfectly for the grass pink orchids that were in bloom. The Cranberry Glades are also known for the insect eating plants, one of which I saw was the Purple Pitcher Plant. The wildflowers were all just gorgeous! I heard a lot of birds in bushes along the walkway. Of course they just teased me and just gave me brief glimpses. I read that the Nashville and Mourning Warblers breed in this area. I was also actually hoping to see a black bear, no luck there. I guess that is a good thing I am not sure seeing a bear by myself would be a good thing.

Grass Pink Orchids

This is my post for Nature Notes please click on my link to go there and see more. You can also read about the passing of Bobbie of Almost There and see all the wonderful causes she stood for. God Bless You, Bobbie.

I am also linking in with Susan's Outdoor Wednesday visit Susan to see more great post.
Thanks for visiting my blog.

Wordless Wednesday

Thanks for stopping by to see my singing Scarlet Tanager Wordless Wednesday.

To see more click here for Wordless Wednesday

Black Crowned Night Heron

My entry for Bird Photography Weekly click on my link to see more great bird photography.

And my entry for Mary's Mosaic Monday  click on link to see more wonderful mosaics!

Every couple of weeks, I try to make a visit to the Black Crowned Night Heron rookery. It is not far from my house, which is nice. There are also a few Great Egrets nesting in the same area. The rookery is located in trees surrounding  a busy manmade lake. The neighborhood folks use the lake to fish, there are people and kids feeding the ducks and geese. The Herons and Egrets do not seem to mind people being around. As far as I know they have been using this area for a rookery for many years.

Thanks for stopping by to see my Black Crowned Night Herons and mosaic. Specials thanks to Mary of Little Red House and to Birdfreak for the Bird Photography Weekly.

Wordless Wednesday

My Ruby Throated Hummingbird couple are my Wordless Wednesday post and to see more great photos click here Wordless Wednesday

Thanks for stopping by

Backyard Pond

Besides having the beautiful waterlilies our pond is doing exactly what I wanted and that was to attract wildlife. There are probably hundreds of tadpoles, frogs and just the other day I watched this dragonfly dipping into the pond. I believe it was their way of laying eggs.



                                         Dragonfly seen at bottom of photo with its bottom curved

Yellow Waterlilies

A few tadpoles with their wiggly little tails can be seen in shot

                                            Frogs love it.

The birds seem to enjoy the pond too.

I am linking to several memes with my pond post to see more great photos visit 

 Susan at her

Outdoor Wednesday

and Michelle at

Nature Notes

and 2sweetnsaxy at

Watery Wednesday

Thanks for stopping by my post

Weeping Cherry tree

Years ago we planted this Weeping Cherry tree across from our deck. The birds seem to love sitting in this tree. The top branches are bare, I am not sure if it is due to the birds landing and sitting on these same branches over the years. It is one of my favorite blooming trees in the spring and it seems like the birds love as much as I do. But,  is a popular tree with the birds during all the seasons. It is very popular with the hummingbird as he guards HIS feeders. He found a nice branch where he can sit and see all the hummingbirds feeder on my deck.

I especially love this tree because I can sit outside on my deck and take photos of my yardbirds as they land on the tree. I can also watch this tree and the birds from my dining room and kitchen windows and from my computer.



Click on the photos for a larger image

Birds in this mosaic are male downy woodpecker, carolina chickadee, house finch, male bluebird, female cardinal, cedar waxwing and on the last row are the goldfinch, purple finches, female bluebird and a bluejay.

A blue bird for Blue Monday, they make me smile so I can not really say I am blue. The bluebird is my all time favorite yardbird.

Under the tree we have some Purple Coneflowers growing which are very popular with the groundhog family living in the yard. We had to enclose the area around the tree to keep the groundhogs from eating all the plants.

The birds in this mosaic below are the male cardinal, pine warbler, eastern phoebe, female cardinal, house finch with bluebirds, male ruby throated hummingbird, rose breasted grosbeaks and a bunch of Pine Siskins.

The bluebirds look cute sitting in the weeping cherry tree with the male house finch. That red head on the finch looks perfect for a Ruby Tuesday.

Male Ruby Throated Hummingbird

My newest visitors to my weeping cherry tree.

The Brown thrasher

and the Great Crested Flycatcher

For Flag Day

This is a multi meme post and I am linking up with

Mary of Little Red House for Mosaic Monday

Sally's of Smiling Sally and Blue Monday

Mary at Work of the Poet for Ruby Tuesday

You can visit all these fun memes by clicking on my link above or the sidebar link.

Thanks to the great host of these fun memes and thank you for stopping by to see my post.

Have a great week!

Green Heron and Turtles

Sights seen during one of our walks along the C&O Canal. The Green Heron is a regular sighting for us during our walks. The turtles on this day were all out and enjoy the sun I guess. I do not think I have ever seen this many turtles before. Pretty cool sight.

There had to be at least a hundred turtles on the downed tree. 100 might be an exaggeration. But there were some tiny ones that did not show up on the photo.

To see more cute and wonderful critter go and visit Misty Dawn's Camera Critters  and Thanks to Misty

Also my entry for Bird Photography Weekely

Thanks for stopping by to see my Green Heron and Turtle post.