Fifteen Mile Creek C&O trail

  I am linking up with Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday 

September 29, 2013

On Saturday, hubby and I headed to a new section of the C&O canal trail in western Maryland. The trail is 184.5 miles long. Usually we start our walking around mile 14 which is where the Great Falls National Park is located in Potomac, Md.  Yesterdays walk started around mile 140 at a place called Fifteen Mile Creek in the town of Little Orleans. The Autumns colors were here and there, definitely not the peak time yet.

Above is a view from the Sidelong Hill  rest area off of RT68.. not many fall colors here.

Across the river, we saw one pretty tree standing out among all the green leaves.Little glimpses of the Potomac River and some colorful leaves.

There were some pretty colors here and there along the canal trail, as you can see most of the trees were still green.We only walked up to mile 142, stopping along the way to check out the views and look for birds.

We saw a flock of Canada Geese in the Potomac River as we walked along the C&O canal trail. Other birds seen were the Pileated woodpecker and the Carolina Wren.  I also saw some Whitetail deer along the road. We headed a little further out to the Rocky Gap Casino, hubby had an offer of some free play and we figured why not since we were in the area. He played his free $15 and won $55.  Not bad, congrats to hubby.

Above, is the lake at Rocky Gap which you can see from the Rocky Gap Resort or the state park which is also nearby.  Rocky Gap is located in Cumberland Maryland off of RT68. You can have a great choice of activities at Rocky Gap, hiking, canoeing, golf course and the casino of course.
 

As always, I hope you enjoy my post and thanks for visiting my blog. I always appreciate your comments.

Join in on the fun and for more wonderful photos please visit  Mosaic Monday and more
 from  Our World Tuesday

 Thanks to our host: Mary our host of Mosaic Monday and to the hosting group of Our World Tuesday: Arija, Gattina, Lady Fi, Sylvia, Sandy and Jennifer.  I wish everyone a happy week!

Around the yard, Sept 28

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Linking up Camera Critters and I'd-Rather-b-birdin   I hope you are joining in and posting your birds and critters.  I am sharing some of the birds seen this week around my yard. Do you all love the fall season? I love the colors and sometimes the cool weather. But, I am not looking forward to winter at all. I wish we could have spring, summer and fall and just skip winter.

One of my many cardinals....with a mouthful.

This Cape May Warbler was seen during this week. I am not sure if this is a new Cape May Warbler passing thru or if one is hanging around for awhile.  This shot of the Cape May Warbler was taken on Sept 24.

Another warbler passing thru my yard this week...the Tennessee Warbler shot taken Sept 22.The Tennessee Warbler has a yellow wash across its breast and flanks. The juveniles have a dusky eyestripe and two faint wingbars on each wing.

This shot of the Tennessee Warbler was taken on Sept 15. On Friday evening, looking out my usual dining room window I saw at least two more warblers. One I am pretty sure was a Black-throated Green Warbler, they disappear quickly behind the leaves of our weeping cherry tree. Soon, the leaves will be off the trees and I will see the bare branches of the weeping cherry tree and the warblers will all be gone.

I am pretty sure this is an Eastern Wood PeWee..another bird that seems to be hanging around the yard. I have watched this bird fly straight up in the air catch a bug and land back in the weeping cherry tree. I am so happy that years ago we planted this weeping cherry tree in our yard, it is directly outside y dining room window and the birds favorite spot to perch. I hope you enjoyed my post.

Thanks for stopping by and  I wish everyone a happy weekend.

 To see more beautiful photos and cute critters

 please visit:  Camera Critters and I'd-Rather-B-Birdin. Thanks to the gracious hosts Misty Dawn of Camera Critters and to Anni of I'd Rather-B-birdin.

More from Chincoteague NWR

I am linking up with NF Winged   and  Skywatch Friday

 Wow, the week is flying by and it is time to look for birds, watch the sunset and see the moon rise. I am looking forward to seeing your skies from around the world, I hope you are all joining the Skywatch.

 These are more photos from our weekend away to Chincoteague Island, Virginia. We spent time birdwatching, hanging out on the beach watching the dolphins, we saw a gorgeous sunset and a lovely moon rising over the ocean.

 We ate our lunch on the beach and it seem like we were going to be surrounded by the gulls.

I loved catching these Black Skimmers flying by, the Willets stayed in place.

 The sun was beginning to set during this shot which made the grasses look especially pretty glowing from the sunlight.

 The sunset at Tom's Cove

 I like to try to include a bird in flight when I zoom into the setting sun. This photo is not perfect, but I like the wavy clouds in front of the sun, the bird in flight and the colors. After watching the sunset at Tom's Cove, we headed over to the beach to watch the moon rise over the ocean.

This shot actually looks lighter on the beach than it actually was, I used my flash, it is not the best of photos. But, I wanted to show this big and colorful moon.

 What a pretty sight and we were so happy we decided to stay for the moon rise. This full moon on Sept 19 was the Harvest moon, this moon shot is actually two days later .

  Happy Skywatching everyone!

Thanks for visiting my post and  blog and I always appreciate your comments.

To see more pretty skies from around the world please visit  Skywatch Friday
and to see more of the winged critters check out NF Winged

Thanks to Sylvia, Yogi  and Sandy for hosting Skywatch Friday! Thanks to Monica the host of NF Winged.   I wish everyone a safe and happy weekend.

Chincoteague NWR lifers

 I am linking up with Wild Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes

For this weeks featured bird, I am sharing my Chincoteague NWR lifers.



September 24, 2013

We arrived in Chincoteague NWR around 9:30am and stayed for a day and a half. Awesome birds were seen and of course I was able to add a couple of lifers to my list.

 I am always excited to see the Black Skimmers, they are cool looking birds with their distinctive red and black bill. Pictured above are the Skimmers, Willets, Forster's Terns, Marbled Godwits and possibly my lifer the Bar-tailed Godwit. In this photo, I believe my Godwit lifer is in the top right hand corner standing next to a few Willets.  The Bar-tailed has a two toned bill..pink with a dark edge. The female Bar-tailed Godwit was found in Chincoteague back on August 3rd. I was happy that a Virginia birder pointed out the Bar-tailed Godwit, it is a very cool lifer for me.

The Marbled Godwit above seem to have a longer bill, also pink with the dark tip.

Not the best shot, but another image of the Bar-tailed Godwit located on the far left of the photo.

Above the Bar-tailed has it's wing stretched out.

Another one of my Chincoteague lifers is the Sandwich Tern.  This bird is easily id with the yellow tip on its black bill.

I hope you enjoyed birding with me at the Chincoteague NWR. If you are ever in the area I would highly suggest a visit.

Join in and post your birdies and to see more beautiful and wonderful bird photos please visit:
 Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday and Michelle's  Nature Notes.

Thanks to Stewart for hosting Wild Bird Wednesday and thanks to Michelle for hosting Nature Notes.

Thanks for stopping by and for leaving your nice comments. I always appreciate your visits.
I wish everyone a happy week ahead and Happy Birding!

Birding is fun

My monthly post is up at Birding is Fun 

I hope you can visit me there!

 As always I appreciate the visits and comments.
Happy Birding and have a great day, Eileen

Chincoteague Island

  I am linking up with Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday 

September 22, 2013

I took off work on Friday so hubby and I could enjoy an overnight trip to Chincoteague Island, Virginia. Chincoteague is one of my favorite places to visit. My excitement started as I was seeing some cool birds along our drive on the eastern shore of Maryland. There were a few hawks along the highway, gulls flying along side the car while driving over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, awesome sighting of a Great Horned Owl on an electric pole, a kingfisher perched on a wire, cattle egrets seen on a cattle farm near Pocomoke City.

During our stay at Chincoteague Island we enjoyed the gorgeous weather, beach, birds, ponies and pretty scenery.

Above are the Black Skimmers, a Little Blue Heron, Egrets and the Chincoteague Lighthouse.

The boardwalk at Tom's Cove, surfer, Chincoteague ponies and the pretty beach.  We had cool sightings of dolphins swimming by and playing around in and jumping out the waves.

More Skimmers, Godwit, Terns and some Willets and along the side in the photo is a Little Blue, Snowy Egret and a Tricolored heron and the bottom is a Green Heron.

On a later post I will share my two lifers...the rare sighting of a Bar-tailed Godwit and a Sandwich Tern. The birding was awesome. I enjoyed seeing all the shorebirds.

Spending the one night we were able to watch the sunset, the moon rise above the ocean and see a beautiful sunrise.  After watching the sunrise we checked out some more of the shorebirds as we headed back to our hotel for breakfast. Not ready to go home we hung around the Chincoteague NWR. We took a walk on the woodland trail and did one last stop to check out the Tom's Cove area which was were I spotted my lifers. I will post about my Chincoteague lifers on another post. Even on the drive home, I was able to watch an eagle lift off the Nanticoke River and fly next to our car for awhile as I drove over the bridge. I had a great weekend, how was your weekend?

As always, I hope you enjoy my post and thanks for visiting my blog. I always appreciate your comments.

Join in on the fun and for more wonderful photos please visit  Mosaic Monday and more
 from  Our World Tuesday

 Thanks to our host: Mary our host of Mosaic Monday and to the hosting group of Our World Tuesday: Arija, Gattina, Lady Fi, Sylvia, Sandy and Jennifer.  I wish everyone a happy week!

Around the Yard, Sept 18

I am linking up with NF Winged   and  Skywatch Friday

September 19, 2013

My favorite time of the week is seeing skies from around the world. I am linking up with Skywatch Friday. Will you be joining in on the fun and post your sky photos. Also, I have a few birds for NF Winged. These photos were taken from Saturday thru today.

A view of the sun setting from our deck.

My cute hummers were still zooming around me on Saturday. I was happy to see three of them at my feeders.

Beside the pokeberries the birds seem to love these devil's walking stick berries. We planted a few bushes in the yard just for the birds.

The male Goldfinch is still showing off his pretty summer colors.

Hubby is sharing his sunset photos from our lake.

It was a pretty pinkish sunset with beautiful reflections!

The water turned a beautiful pink color.

Hubby has a great eye for a gorgeous sunset, what do you think?


  Happy Skywatching everyone!

Thanks for visiting my post and  blog and I always appreciate your comments.

To see more pretty skies from around the world please visit  Skywatch Friday
and to see more of the winged critters check out NF Winged

Thanks to Sylvia, Yogi  and Sandy for hosting Skywatch Friday! Thanks to Monica the host of NF Winged.   I wish everyone a safe and happy weekend.

Backyard Warblers

I am linking up with Wild Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes

For this weeks featured bird I actually a variety of warblers that stopped by my yard for the last week or so.
 I believe I have already shown the Chestnut-sided warbler but I have a few others that I am excited about. It seems the warblers are really attracted to Pokeberries. They LOVE them.

 A fall Black-throated Green Warbler.

A fall Cape May Warbler

A Cape May Warbler at the pokeberries.

Another Chestnut-sided Warbler.

Another Chestnut-sided Warbler

This Goldfinch looking bird is really a Tennessee Warbler..The beak is one way of id-ing a warbler. 

At times I was seeing two Cape May Warblers together, but it was hard trying to focus on one bird with the pokeberries and leaves in the way. I believe I had some other warblers moving around my yard, a few times I would see a warbler disappear into our weeping cherry tree before I could id.

Looks like the warblers also found the crepe myrtle to be a favorite like the Scarlet Tanagers in my previous post.

All of these photos were taken from my deck or my dining room window. It is pretty cool to be able to see all these warblers right in my yard. I am wondering what warblers I was missing all week while I was at work. These shots were taken Friday evening, Saturday morning and some more on Sunday.  I am lucky I did not have to travel to see them, they all came to see me or more like eat our pokeberries.



Join in and post your birdies and to see more beautiful and wonderful bird photos please visit:
 Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday and Michelle's  Nature Notes.

Thanks to Stewart for hosting Wild Bird Wednesday and thanks to Michelle for hosting Nature Notes.

Thanks for stopping by and for leaving your nice comments. I always appreciate your visits.
I wish everyone a happy week ahead and Happy Birding!

It's migration time

  I am linking up with Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday 

 September 15, 2014

I know all my blogging friends and readers are not addicted to birds like I am, so I appreciate everyone stopping by to see my post. Migration time is an exciting time if you are a birder. It is time to see birds you may not see all year, the birds are moving from their breeding grounds to their wintering grounds. And if you are in the right place at the right time you may see these birds stopping to refuel along their flyways.

On Saturday, I was home hearing a lot of bird activity in my yard. I noticed a lot of movement in our Crepe Myrtle bush tree.

I was flipping back and forth on my id. My first thought was a juvenile Scarlet Tanager. I saw the dark wings and I was trying to get a photo of the bill facing in a direction that would help my id. If you look in a guide book, the Orchard Oriole is the same color and dark wings . The only difference to me is the shape of the bill.  They are the Scarlet Tanagers with big thanks for a confirmation from another Maryland birder on facebook.

Above is what my Crepe Myrtle bush tree looked like on August 24. It is growing straight up and is very tall now. We planting the Crepe Myrtle because we love the pretty colorful blooms not knowing the the birds love them too.

Fall time is a confusing time, the fall birds and juveniles can look totally different than the adults that you are use to seeing. The juvenile male Scarlet Tanager is yellow with dark wings like the female but the adult male is a bright red with black wings.  Back on the subject, migration is timed primarily by the changes in day length. Migrating birds navigate using celestial cues from the sun and stars. The availability of food and the changes of habitat and weather also have an effect on migration.

Scarlet Tanagers everywhere..very cool!

I never seen birds eating the flowers off of a plant I thought maybe they eat seeds and bugs off of the flowers. I was watched as they ate some of the flowers. After they left most of the Crepe Myrtle flowers were gone, just like the birds. Not to be seen again till next spring.

I am used to seeing the Scarlet Tanagers one or maybe two at a time but, there had to be close to 15 Scarlet Tanagers in our Crepe Myrtle tree. In my next post I will share some of the Warblers that also stopped by on Saturday. I loved that I was able to see all these birds in our yard and not have to travel to see them.
It was a great birdie day and exciting sight to see, I wish you could have been here with me to see it in person.

As always, I hope you enjoy my post and thanks for visiting my blog. I always appreciate your comments.

Join in on the fun and for more wonderful photos please visit  Mosaic Monday and more
 from  Our World Tuesday

 Thanks to our host: Mary our host of Mosaic Monday and to the hosting group of Our World Tuesday: Arija, Gattina, Lady Fi, Sylvia, Sandy and Jennifer.  I wish everyone a happy week!