SWF>>>Bird sounds and the sunset

For my Skywatch Friday I have some shots of the sky from my backyard and a video including the sky and a bird sound I am not too sure of? I could help with the id on the sound. I know there are some experts out there.



These photos are in order as I took them. I did take shots of the sky looking west and the little pufft clouds were right above my head. I think it was a cool looking sky.

I hope you enjoy my skies as much as I did and to see more beautiful skies

please visit Skywatch Friday. Thanks to the hosting group of Sylvia, Sandy and Wren.

Also thanks for stopping by to see my skies. Have a wonderful weekend and Happy Birding to all my birding friends.

White Breasted Nuthatch

I am linking my White Breasted Nuthatch up with World Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes

The White Breasted Nuthatch is one of my year round birds, they often come to my feeders grab a seed and fly off. The White Breasted Nuthatch is a pale Blue above with a slightly darker crown.

The White Breasted Nuthatch is seen in mature oak forests but it prefers pine forest. Most will remain in pairs year round.

They are fun birds to watch as they crawl all around the trees, similiar to how the Tree Creeper can go all around and upside down. I am hoping to see the Red Breasted Nuthatch at my feeders this winter.

I hope you love my cute White Breasted Nuthatch and to see
more beautiful birds check out Springman's World Bird Wednesday  and for more
nature scenes please visit Michelle's Nature Notes.  Thanks to both Springman and to Michelle for hosting these fun memes.

Also, thank you for stopping by my blog to see my birds. Happy Birding and have a great week.

Around the yard

I am linking up with Todays Flowers and Mosaic Monday and Ruby Tuesday

Even though it is officially fall my flowers are still blooming and looking beautiful. Yesterday I walked around my yard taking some photos of the flowers, birds and the frogs at the pond. We have hads tons of rain here and I guess that helps, even though I am sick of the rain. The flowers are happy, the frogs seem really happy and the birds looked wet. I am still being rewarded with some sweet cherry tomatoes.  I really wanted and needed was some sunshine.

It's been damp, my poor bear has turkey feathers growing. Have you ever seen a bear with feathers? LOL

The winterberries are looking so colorful and my butterfly bushes are still  attracted a pretty Fritillary.

The zinnias and lantana are blooming and my dogwood tree has these colorful red berries.

The American Goldfinch is one of my year round sweeties.

This Catbird should be leaving soon and be replaced with some winter birds.

In my mosaic above I have some of my the Catbirds, my sweet Goldfinches, a few of my pond frogs, a cute chipper and a fussy Titmouse.

  The winterberry bush is looking colorful.

I have been really happy with these zinnias, they bloomed all summer long and are still blooming.

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Fritillary on my butterfly bush

My pond frog, it has the biggest eyes.

I hope you enjoyed my walk around my yard. To see many more beautiful flowers, mosaics and photos please visit: Today's Flowers and Mosaic Monday and Ruby Tuesday

Thanks to the host of Todays Flowers: Santili,  Denise, Sandy, Pupo and to Mary of Mosaic Monday

and to Marytheteach at Ruby Tuesday.

Also, thanks for stopping by and visiting my blog and post. I hope evveryone has a great week. Hopefully a sunny week.

Osprey

I am linking up my Osprey post to Friday Ark  and Camera Critters. Both are great memes to visit if you are an animal lover like me.

These Osprey's are from my archives, it has been a cloudy and rainy week and there has not been very many opportunities for taking new photos. I hope this rain stops so I can go out and play. Rain, Rain go away, come back some other day.

The Osprey is an awesome looking raptor and is also known as the Fish hawk. The Osprey is dark above and white below. They have a short crest and a dark eye stripe. They are 24 inches in length.

The Osprey like the Bald Eagles were once threatened by DDT. Now, they are a familiar sight on lakes, Bays and rivers. Their huge stick nests are very visable on poles, buoys and large trees.

Their diet consists of fish. They are pretty cool to watch hunting and catching their prey.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my Osprey's and to see more cool and cute critters
please visit Friday Ark  and Camera Critters.  Thanks to the host of the Friday Ark and to Misty Dawn for hosting Camera Critters. I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend.

SWF>>>storm clouds over the reservoir

I am linking up with Skywatch Friday . This week I am showing some shots of storm clouds around the reservoir and the bridge. I am first noticed the clouds from my deck.

Hubby was out walking the dogs and noticed the clouds too. He thought they looked cool near the lake.  So we both went down to the bridge to watch the sky.

I have done lots of birding at this bridge. This summer we were treated to Cliff Swallows hanging around the bridge. The swallows seem to like being near the bridge and the lake. Pigeons are usually perched on the bridge itself. My son was lucky to see a Barred owl sitting on the bridge. I have also seen lots of Canada Geese and various ducks, like the Red Breasted Merganser from this bridge. The bridge is just another favorite and close spot for some birding.

The sunlight hitting the top of these dramatic clouds looked awesome.

Back in my yard a funky looking male Cardinal

I hope you enjoyed my skies and to see more beautiful skies

 from around the world please visit Skywatch Friday , Thanks to the hosting group of Sylvia, Wren and Sandy.

Also, thank you for visiting my post and blog. I hope everyone has a safe and happy weekend.

Kettle of Broad Winged Hawks

For my World Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes post I am showing the Broad Winged hawks.

During my walk on Sunday at the Soldiers Delight park hubby and I were almost back to the car when I looked up and spotted the largest flock or kettle of hawks I have ever seen. They were high in the sky and there had to be fifty or more in the kettle. I was excited to see my first kettle of Hawks, a very cool sight to see for a birder.

Sorry the photos are not the clearest but I wanted to show it anyway because it shows just one little part of these hawks as they were flying along. I did not really count them, I was too excited just seeing them.

The word kettle is another word for a flock of migrating birds. Since they were high in the sky I am adding a link to wikipedia's Broad Winged hawk so you can see what they look like up close.

The Broad Winged Hawk is brown above chestnut below and a white tailband. Wings appear full but rather short and they have dark tips.

I was checking out my listserve and the Broad winged Hawks were seen in the thousands over the weekend.  According to my guide book during migration flocks of hawks can sometimes number in the thousands in eastern and central North America. I was so excited to see the kettle I saw. Apparently as the day went on more were seen flying over the same spot.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my kettle of hawks and to see more awesome birds

 check out Springman's World Bird Wednesday  and to see more wonderful nature scenes

please visit Michelle's Nature Notes  Thanks to Springman and to Michelle for hosting these fun memes.

Also, thanks for stopping by my blog and post. I appreciate all your visits and comments.

Birding and hiking Soldiers Delight

For this weeks Mosaic Monday  and Our World Tuesday.  I can not believe how fast these weeks are going by. Since, I work Monday thru Friday hubby and I enjoy getting out on the weekend to enjoy nature and to do some hiking and my favorite hobby birding.

This Sunday morning hubby, Goldie Girl and I hiked the Serpentine Trail at Soldier's Delight a natural environmental area here in Maryland. This trail is 2.5 miles goes thru the largest serpentine barren in the eastern United States. The park or NEA consist of grassland, wetland and an oak forest. The barrens are underlain with serpentinite a rock that has very little quartz and aluminium bearing minerals, it consists mainly of serpentine. Serpentinite is naturally disolved by rainfall which leaves a thin layer of rocky soil. Soldiers Delight was also mined up until 1860 for chrome and was once one of the largerest producers of chromite in the world.

I saw three Eastern Phoebes during my walk. Other birds seen and heard were Bluejays, Cardinals, Chickadees, House Wren, Nuthatches, Mourning Doves, Hairy Woodpecker, Redbellied Woodpecker, Crows and Turkey Vultures. I was really excited to see a kettle of Broad Winged hawks. My first time for seeing a kettle, there had to be at least fifty of these hawks flying together. Very cool sighting and photos to come on another post later.

Buckeye Butterfly

This Serpentine barren contains scrub oaks, pines, cedars, grasses and some unique and rare wildflowers.  We passed many signs requesting hikers to stay on the trails due to the sensitive nature of the ecosystem.

A few bluebirds and an unknown hawk was seen off the trail. The hawk may have been a Coopers Hawk.

 
To see more wonderful mosaics please visit Mary's Mosaic Monday  and to see more wonderful photos from around the world check out Our World Tuesday.  Thanks to Mary of Little Red House and thanks to the gang at Our World: Sylvia, Sandy, Arija, Gattina,  and Lady Fi.

Also, big thanks for visiting my blog and post. I hope everyone has a wonderful week.

American Redstart

My post for the Friday Ark and Camera Critters I am showing the American Redstart. The male was seen last weekend during my bird count at the clear cut study area located at the reservoir's watershed.

I have been enjoying the warblers showing up at the reservoir and watershed near my house. The American Redstart breeds in moist and mixed deciduous woods. The male Redstart has halloween colors, mostly black and orange at its sides. I have heard the female being called the Yellowstart because she has yellow at her sides.

Below the female hiding in the bush, but if you look close you can see the yellow at her sides.

Another male perched in the bush, you can see his pretty orange side.

Another angle looking up at the male Redstarts bottom, white underneath, black head and back and bright orange at its sides.

Another female below, still far away but a little clearer photo.

For me trying to photograph any type of  warbler is very hard, these little birds are so quick and bounce around on the tree limbs way too fast for me. Just when I want to snap a photo, they take off and bounce to another branch. I am happy to get any photo to record where and when I see these beautiful birds.

To see more wonderful critters, you should board the Friday Ark  and
 for more cute animals check out Camera Critters.  Thanks to the host of the Friday Ark and to Misty Dawn for hosting Camera Critters.

I hope you enjoyed my American Redstarts and thanks for stopping by. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

SWF...Backyard Sunset

For my  Skywatch Friday   I have some sunset photos from my backyard.

The header shot is the view of the sky from my backyard. On this day I watched a flock of geese flying over my neighbors yard.

The pink clouds are beautiful and reminded me of this quote.

"Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty" by John Ruskin

Thanks for stopping by to see my pretty pink skies and to see more beautiful skies from around the world please visit Skywatch Friday.  Thanks to the hosting group of Sylvia, Wren, Sandy and Fishing Guy.

Ruby Throated Hummingbird

For this weeks World Bird Wednesday  and  Wordless Wednesday

I am sad that my Hummingbirds will be leaving soon. I am only seeing the females now, the males have all left.

Click on the links to see more World Bird Wednesday  and  Wordless Wednesday

Thanks to Springman the host of World Bird Wednesday and to the host of Wordless Wednesday

Thank you for stopping by to see my post, I hope the rest of your week is wonderful.