Cape May NJ

I am linking up with Skywatch Friday  and Good Fences
I hope you can join in on the fun and share your fence scenes and pretty skies.

For this week's Good Fence and Skywatch Friday memes I am sharing an overnight visit to Cape May/Atlantic City, New Jersey earlier in July. It was a pretty day to visit Cape May and the beach, I think I even got a little sunburnt.

A mosaic of the Cape May wildlife: Top Row is the Purple Martin house, Halloween Pennant Dragonfly, Carolina Wren. Second Row : Black Crowned Night Heron, Muskrat, Bunny, Third Row: Least Tern, Oystercatcher, Black Skimmers. Bottom Row: Blue Grosbeak, Mute Swan, possibly Forster's Terns.

For my Skywatch shot, the Cape May lighthouse and the Purple Martin birdhouse.

You have to look closely for this fence, just a white string tied to the area closed sign. This is to protect the birds nesting on the beach and dunes.

Another sky shot,  hubby and I sat on our beach chairs watching the waves. A few dolphins swimming by and the planes with their advertisements.

The Least Terns recognizable with the white spot on their foreheads. LOL, do birds even have foreheads? My birds posts are just for fun and I hope the serious birders do not find my post on the birds, their birdie parts and or how I type their names unacceptable. I guess they are skipping the part, that I admit I am blogging just for fun, I am an amateur photographer and I must admit sometimes I might miss a spelling error or put a dash on a bird's name when it does not belong.

Which leads me to bird slang, are you a birder or a birdwatcher? Maybe you are a twitcher or a dude.  Definition of a Dude: a low-keyed birdwatching hobbyist with a lack of devotion or enthusiasm.  A dude, really? Why bother birdwatching if you are not enthused with the birds? I love all the birds and wildlife, my favorite thing to do is go out and look for any species of wildlife. Maybe I am not understanding the definition of a Dude, could I be a dude-woman? I found this link with bird slang check it out Bird slang

A fence scene and a happy couple walking down the trail to the beach. This shot works for both Tex's Good Fences and for my Skywatch Friday shot. I hope you enjoyed our Cape May visit.

I hope you enjoyed my post and photos. Thanks for stopping by and for the nice comments.
To see more pretty skies from around the world please visit  Skywatch Friday
and check for more fence shots at Tex's Good Fences

Thanks to Theresa @ The Run*A*Round Ranch for hosting Good Fences and thanks to Sylvia, Yogi  and Sandy for hosting Skywatch Friday.    I wish everyone a happy day and weekend ahead..

Gull-billed Tern

Linking up with Wild Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes and NC Sue Wordless
I hope you can join in and share your wild birds and nature scenes.

For this week's wild bird I am sharing my latest lifer #451, the Gull-billed Tern. Hubby and I took a quickie overnight visit to the Jersey shores. We visited Cape May NJ and one of our favorite wildlife refuges Edwin Forsythe NWR near Atlantic City NJ. My lifer was seen at the wildlife refuge and hubby was the first to spot the Gull-billed Tern.

Hubby was the first to notice this bird's bill. It is a heavier black bill than the small terns. The Gull-billed Tern is considered a scarce coastal species seen in the summer months.

We watched the Tern for a while splishing and splashing in the water.

I hope you enjoyed my latest lifer and wild bird post and photos. Till next week's wild bird post. Join in and post your birdies and to see more beautiful and wonderful bird and nature photos please visit:

 Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday and Michelle's  Nature Notes and NC Sue Wordless

Thanks to all of our hosts. Michelle for Nature Notes and Stewart of Wild Bird Wednesday and Sue for Wordless Wednesday.

  Happy Birding and have a wonderful week!

Trough Creek & Raystown Lake

I am linking up with   Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday  

They are all fun memes I listed above to participate in...I hope you can join in with the fun  and check out some of the participating posts.

Back in June, hubby and I took a daytrip to Trough Creek State Park and the Raystown Lake and Dam in Pennsylvania.

I read about this park on Felicia's Blog and we are always looking for new places and parks to visit. Felicia's photography is awesome, my images do not compare but I hope you enjoy.

At the park we took the hike to the Suspension Bridge, Rainbow Falls and the Balance Rock.

It felt a little shaky while crossing, but is was fun.  And while crossing the bridge I saw a  Great Blue Heron flying down stream. During this outing I heard more birds than I actually saw.

Here is the Rainbow Falls, I was hoping for a little more water on the falls.  I assume there had not been enough rain in this area at the right time.

We saw a lot of butterflies while at the Balance Rock. One Tawny Emperor was attracted to my hand.

Silly hubby laying under the balance rock, if it fell it would go the other way.

More butterflies were seen around our picnic area.

This is the Red-spotted Purple, a weird name for a butterfly.

Raystown Lake and some wildflowers.

A pretty view of the Raystown Lake and some of the wildflowers.

A few Killdeer were seen at the lookout at the Raystown Dam . I have a lot more images from our visit to this area I may do another post.  I hope you enjoyed our visit to the park. As always thank you for visiting my post and for the nice comments.  Have a happy new week ahead!

I use Pic Monkey to create my mosaics, you can use Pic Monkey free or pay for an upgraded version.

I hope you can join in on our fun with Mosaic Monday  and Our World Tuesday 

 Thanks to Judith our host of Mosaic Monday and to the hosting group of Our World Tuesday: Arija, Gattina, Lady Fi, Sylvia, Sandy and Jennifer and to Monica for hosting NF Trees.

Saturday's Critters #84

Saturday's Critters #84

It's Saturday and it's time to share your critters.. Any kind of critter will do, even a new or old post..

May you find moments that make you smile today! Happy Saturday!

I am sharing some of the birds hubby and I saw during our visit to Ocala Florida. This was at a local park called Tuscawilla Park. This was a great local park jammed pack with birds.

Thanks to my Florida blogging friend Wildlifewatcher posting about this same park. I hope you can visit her blog.

Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, is it just me or do some of these whistling ducks have grouchy looking faces.

Muscovy Duck

White Pelicans with more Black-bellied Whistling ducks.

A female Wood Duck

A Cormorant, Egret and more Whistling Ducks. LOL, I think they are all camera shy and turned their heads. Or, I just caught them all during their nap time.

Turtles taking a break from the water.

The Pileated Woodpecker.

More of my favorite Whistling Ducks, two Egrets and a Wood Duck.

I hope you enjoyed my birds and post. Now, I am looking forward to seeing your critters. Thanks to everyone for your visits, participation and the nice comments.  Enjoy and have a happy weekend!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks to Tex Theresa aka Tex, I was able to add this link up button and thanks to  Jennifer for creating my photo badge.





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To see more beautiful birds and cute critters, check out these two memes below.

Also visit:  I'd-Rather-B-Birdin. Thanks to the gracious host: Anni.  Also check out Camera Critters. Thanks to Misty for hosting this fun meme.

Chesapeake City, Maryland

I am linking up with Skywatch Friday  and Good Fences
I hope you can join in on the fun and share your fence scenes and pretty skies.

For this week's Good Fence and Skywatch Friday memes I am sharing a daytrip hubby and I took to Cecil County Maryland. We did some birding in a local hotspot called Courthouse Point and we visited the C&D Canal Museum.

A view of the pond from the trail, wood duck, Canada Geese, Indigo Bunting and Cowbirds. Courthouse Point is a wildlife management area, hunting is allowed during the regular hunting season. Hikers and birders are allowed each day during the year but only on Sundays during the hunting season, which is September thru the end of January.

A couple of Brown-headed Cowbird with the pretty blue sky for a background.

Above in my mosaic a pretty puffy cloud, the trail, a farm/fence scene off in the distance, Queen Anne's Lace, Dragonfly, Great Egret.

I have found a few quotes about clouds that I like this is one of my favorites by Bob Ross "Clouds are free, they are one of the freest things in nature, they just float around and have a good time". 

We had a pretty day and a lovely sky over the C&D Canal and Chesapeake City, Maryland. If you are in the area try out the Chesapeake Inn for some jumbo lump Maryland crab cakes and crab bisque.



Various shots from around the museum, the sky, fences and coneflowers and the C&D Canal.

I like this view of the sky,canal, boat and the fence scene is perfect for Tex's Good Fence's.

Sharing this Jarod Kintz quote "I think the most heavenly food is fluffy white clouds"

For my skywatch the sky over the flag pole.

The US flag on top  and the Maryland flag on the bottom right. I think everyone in the USA is proud to fly their flags. I am not sure what the flag is on the bottom left, maybe a local flag.

I hope you enjoyed my post and photos. Thanks for stopping by and for the nice comments.
To see more pretty skies from around the world please visit  Skywatch Friday
and check for more fence shots at Tex's Good Fences

Thanks to Theresa @ The Run*A*Round Ranch for hosting Good Fences and thanks to Sylvia, Yogi  and Sandy for hosting Skywatch Friday.    I wish everyone a happy day and weekend ahead..

Great Crested Flycatcher

Linking up with Wild Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes and NC Sue Wordless
I hope you can join in and share your wild birds and nature scenes.

For this week's wild bird I am sharing the Great Crested Flycatcher. It is one of my backyard birds in the summer season.

The flycatcher has a large head and a crest that is not always prominent. This bird also has a bright lemon yellow belly.

 This is a back view of the Great Crested Flycatcher, it seemed to be checking out the bird seed on my deck railing.

This image above and the one below were taken at a local park, this young Great Crested Flycatcher was begging for food on the boardwalk.

I hope this enjoyed my images of the Great Crested Flycatcher, it is one of my many favorite backyard birds.  I hope you enjoyed my wild bird post and photos. Till next week's wild bird post. Join in and post your birdies and to see more beautiful and wonderful bird and nature photos please visit:

 Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday and Michelle's Nature Notes  and NC Sue Wordless

Thanks to all of our hosts. Michelle for Nature Notes  and Stewart of Wild Bird Wednesday and thanks to Sue the host of Wordless Wednesday.


  Happy Birding and have a wonderful week!

Ocala Florida

I am linking up with   Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday    and NF Trees

They are all fun memes to participate in...I hope you can join in with the fun  and check out some of the participating posts.

I am sharing more from our Florida visit, this was toward the end of our March visit in Ocala Florida. We walked a loop around the lake in Tuscawilla Park. It was a lovely path lined trail with some of the Spanish Moss covered trees that I just love.

A Pileated Woodpecker was seen in one of the moss covered trees.

Ocala is known for all it's gorgeous horse farms. So, it is fitting that there were horse sculptures in the park. In the background are some of the native trees in Ocala and the moss covered trees are common.

A pretty painted horse sculpture.

A look at the lake and  various trees across the way, I love the palm trees.

I like this statue, it could be hubby and I in our golden years.

Anhinga with his dinner.

The abstract fishing pole is one of the many sculptures seen in the park.

The lake shore was just covered with ducks, egrets and cormorants and anhingas.

We walked the pathway around the lake checking out the birds, the lake and all the sculptures. I hope you enjoyed our visit to the park. If you are ever in the Ocala Florida area it is worth a visit.  Thank you so much for stopping by for a visit. I appreciate the nice comments..

I use Pic Monkey to create my mosaics, you can use Pic Monkey free or pay for an upgraded version.

I hope you can join in on our fun at  Mosaic Monday and   Our World Tuesday  and NF Trees 

 Thanks to Judith our  host of Mosaic Monday and to the hosting group of Our World Tuesday: Arija, Gattina, Lady Fi, Sylvia, Sandy and Jennifer.  Also thanks to Monica for hosting NF Trees.
I wish everyone a happy week ahead!