Saturday's Critters #124

Saturday's Critters #124

Happy Saturday, it's time to share your critters and post. Any kind of critter will do, even a new or old post.. I appreciate everyone who is linking in with this week's critter party.
Are Saturday's coming fast for you, I am surprised how quickly the month of April disappeared. Happy May to everyone, I hope our weather will be warmer.
I am sharing some images from our visits to Virginia Beach and Back Bay NWR. While walking on the beach at Back Bay NWR we saw dolphins, northern gannets, pelicans, gulls and a grebe and an osprey on the bay side.

Brown Pelican

Horned Grebe

Red-wing Blackbird

Northern Gannet

Double-Crested Cormorant

Northern Gannet

Dolphin

Dolphin and Cormorant

Dolphins near the shore.

Osprey on nest.  I hope you enjoyed my collection of birds and the dolphins. As always thanks for the visits and the nice comments. I also thank everyone who is linking up and sharing their critters.. Happy Saturday, have a great weekend!

An InLinkz Link-up

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.

York PA Rookery

It's time to link up with Skywatch Friday  and Good Fences and Random 5 Friday and Friday's Hunt . Join in on the fun and share your post with these fun memes.

Teresa's Friday's Hunt
1. Start's with R
2. Weeks Favorite
3.  Texture

April 10th hubby and I visited the York Pa Great Egret and Black Crowned Night Heron rookery. I thought it maybe a little early to see these birds working on their nest at the rookery, I counted at least 14 egrets and maybe 4 Night Herons.

For Tex's Good Fences meme I have an overall view of the lake and Rookery in York Pennsylvania.

1. Great Egrets were hunted for their plumes nearly to extinction in the early 1900's. Luckily laws were created to protect these birds. The Egret below is one of my favorite photos for my Friday's Hunt.

2. Not bird related, one morning while watching "The View" I heard Donny Osmond say he has been performing for nearly 50 years. Donny's deput was on the Andy Williams Show in 1962. I would have been 6 yrs old, this makes me feel old, LOL. Do you remember the Andy Williams Show and the Donny and Marie Osmond show?

3. A fun fact about the Egret, during their breeding season they have a patch of neon green near show up on their faces near their eyes.

For Teresa's Friday's hunt I think the features on the Egret above is great for the prompt Texture.

4. I just read this fact about the Black Crowned Night Heron seen below. A breeding Night Heron will brood any chick that placed in it's nest.

For Good Fences and for Skywatch Friday I have the pretty sky above and my moon addiction photo below.


5. On April 10th I was able to catch the waxing crescent moon and the star Aldebaran close by. Can you see the tiny star near the moon in my photo? The star is just a tiny dot near the bottom right side of the photo.  BTW, for Teresa's Friday's Hunt this is also my favorite photo for the week.

"When it rains, look for rainbows. When it's dark, look for stars." unknown

To see more pretty skies, fences and fantastic photos from around the world please visit the memes below.  Thanks for visiting and for all the nice comments. I wish everyone a happy day and weekend ahead.

Thanks to Theresa @ The Run*A*Round Ranch for hosting Good Fences.

Thank you to Sylvia, Yogi  and Sandy for hosting Skywatch Friday.

Thank you to Nancy the host of Random 5 Friday

Thanks also to Teresa Friday's Hunt  

Monacacy River Trail

I have a list below of memes I am joining for this week, and to save time I am doing one post for all. 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. Special thanks to all the wonderful host and their memes, I hope you have some time to check them out.

It was just a short ride to Frederick County, Maryland for our walk along the scenic Monocacy River. We saw the Barred Owl that has drawn the attention of a lot of Maryland birders. It sits in a tree just above and not far from the trail.

Above are some of the birds and scenes we saw during our outing. The first row is the Wood Duck couple, Second row is the Barred Owl, Third row, my guess a Red-shouldered Hawk and an Eastern Bluebird. Bottom row are the Bluebells and some turtles.

Barred Owl seen from the trail.

The female Wood Duck.

This is just my guess, a Red Shouldered Hawk, sorry about the tree branch in the way.

For Jesh's Seasons...The bluebells are blooming but they look a little damaged from the frosty night we had.

For Tom's Barn Collective I have a few drive by barn shots from our outing. I liked the barn with the green roof and brick silo.

A view of the walking trail at the Monocacy River. I hope you enjoyed our walk and my birds. Thank you for visiting and for the nice comments. As always, thanks to the wonderful group of hosts listed below.

Thanks to Jesh our host for Seasons
Thanks to Tom for hosting The Barn Collective

Thanks to Judith our  host of Mosaic Monday
Thanks to Monica for hosting NF Trees

Thanks to Michelle for hosting Nature Notes

Thanks to the hosting team of Our World Tuesday!

Thanks to Stewart for hosting Wild Bird Wednesday

Saturday's Critters #123

Saturday's Critters #123

Happy Saturday, it's time to share your critters and post. Any kind of critter will do, even a new or old post.. I appreciate everyone who is linking in with this week's critter party.

Happy Passover to all that celebrate!

I have some more backyard birds to share from the past couple of weeks. I hope you enjoy.

As usual all these photos are taken thru my windows, some windows may be clean and some have drops from the the rain or snow we had on that day. Above are the Red-bellied Woodpecker, Pine Warbler and a Carolina Wren.

This Hermit Thrush was seen out my treadmill window.

My yard is full of Chipping Sparrows lately, they are cute birds and sometimes really feisty.

One of my many Carolina Chickadees.

A male Downy Woodpecker..I hope you enjoyed my collection of backyard birds. As always thanks for the visits and the nice comments. I also thank everyone who is linking up and sharing their critters.. Happy Saturday, have a great weekend!

An InLinkz Link-up

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.

More Virginia Beach, Virginia

It's time to link up with Skywatch Friday  and Good Fences and Random 5 Friday and Friday's Hunt . Join in on the fun and share your post with these fun memes.

First, I want to send my prayers to the people of Houston and Ecuador and Japan. The flooding in Houston and earthquakes in Ecuador and Japan are all devastating disasters.

I am sharing some more photos from our Virginia Beach trip. The sunrise, moon rise and moon set were all beautiful sights.

For my Random 5 Friday

1. I am surprised by this information that Virginia Beach is the largest city in Virginia with a population of 425,000.

The sunrise on the March 23rd from our oceanfront room. There are various fences in this shot for Tex's Good Fence meme.

Teresa's Friday"s Hunt
1. Starts with Q
2. Weeks favorite
3. At rest

2. Watching a sunrise is one of my simple pleasures. Below is one of my favorite photos for Teresa's Friday's Hunt.

Can you find the moon, it is setting just in the middle of the photo below. A look at the sunrise reflection on our hotel and a view of some fences too.

3. There are four North American Migration Flyways: the Atlantic, the Mississippi, the Central and the Pacific Flyway.

Above an aircraft carrier and two Northern Gannets seen at Virginia Beach.

3. Did you know gulls are called garbage birds because they eat almost anything.
We  saw a lot of  the Ring-billed Gulls on the beach. For Teresa'a Friday's Hunt here are some gulls "at rest" on the beach.

4. In April the full moon has several names: Grass moon, Frog moon and Egg moon.  They seem like weird names for the moon to me.

Below are some images of the moon rising from the Atlantic Ocean on March 23rd.

I did say I was addicted to taking photos of the moon.

Another favorite photo above the moon rising and the three little lights are from boats out in the ocean.

5. During the full moon and new moon the gravitational forces of the sun and the moon combine to produce the highest tides called the Spring Tides.

If you look hard on the bottom left of the photo, I have included our shadows on the beach. I hope you enjoyed your visit and my post. Thank so much for stopping by and for the nice comments.

To see more pretty skies, fences and fantastic photos from around the world please visit the memes below.   I wish everyone a happy day and weekend ahead..

Thanks to Theresa @ The Run*A*Round Ranch for hosting Good Fences.

Thank you to Sylvia, Yogi  and Sandy for hosting Skywatch Friday.

Thank you to Nancy the host of Random 5 Friday

Thanks also to Teresa Friday's Hunt  

Fireroad Walk

I have a list below of memes I am joining for this week, and to save time I am doing one post for all. 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. Special thanks to all the wonderful host and their memes, I hope you have some time to check them out.

Hubby and I often go out for walks on our local fireroads, lately we have been checking on our neighborhood Barred Owl and sometimes I am looking for other birds. On this day March 30th we didn't see the owl but I found this female Pileated Woodpecker.

She was working hard around this tree, it may be her nest. This is almost right across from where we saw our Barry the Barred Owl.

 These woodpeckers have been known to drilled rectangular holes in trees looking for bugs and for their nest.

The Pileated Woodpeckers are large birds and mostly black, they have a patch of white on their wings seen while in flight. This is the female wearing the black moustache. The male would have a red line instead of two black lines on their face.

Above a view of our lake from the fireroad, a White-breasted Nuthatch, Downy Woodpecker.

From another day this is Barry the Barred Owl seen on March 27th.

Here is a peek at the lake on a dreary cloudy day walk! The trees should be turning green soon.

Above are images from my most recent walk on the fireroad. On the top row are the Pileated Woodpecker, Canada Goose, Louisiana Waterthrush, Cormorants, Geese and Great Blue herons on the nest. I hope you enjoyed our walk in the woods.  As always, I appreciate the visits and your nice comments.  Have a happy new week ahead!

As always thanks to the wonderful group of hosts listed below.
Thanks to Jesh our host for Seasons

Thanks to Judith our  host of Mosaic Monday
Thanks to Monica for hosting NF Trees

Thanks to Michelle for hosting Nature Notes

Thanks to the hosting team of Our World Tuesday!

Thanks to Stewart for hosting Wild Bird Wednesday

Saturday's Critters #122

Saturday's Critters #122

Happy Saturday, it's time to share your critters and post. Any kind of critter will do, even a new or old post.. I appreciate everyone who is linking in with this week's critter party.

I am sharing larger images and critters or birds  from the mosaics in my previous post. These birds were seen at the Great Dismal Swamp NWR in Virginia.

The Belted Kingfisher was seen along the wildlife drive in the refuge.

The Killdeer was seen right on the wildlife drive. They moved off as we drove closer.

It was a warm afternoon the the turtles were sunning themselves.

More turtles..we saw more as the day went on.

Turtles and their reflections were everywhere.

Not the best shot, but across the lake was a nest far right and I believe it an eagle on the far left tree.

Back on the hotel parking area the local pool swimming Mallard couple were out for a walk and a dip in the puddle. I hope you enjoyed my post. As always thanks for the visits and the nice comments. I also thank everyone who is linking up and sharing their critters.. Happy Saturday, have a great weekend!

An InLinkz Link-up

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.