Happy Thankful Thursday

Happy Thankful Thursday!

I have been worrying about loosing my blog and photos ever since hearing about Diane of Lavender Dreams. I am happy to see she had her blog back on 2/26. Would it help to buy your domain and blog name? Would blogspot still be able to come along and take it all away?  If anyone has purchased their domain thru Google or Blogspot? If you think it is a good idea, please let me know. 

On Feb 4-6th we were in Ocean City Maryland.  Bird watching is one of my simple pleasures and the sea ducks and birds in Ocean City did not disappoint me. I also enjoy the sunrises and sunsets.  

Here comes the sun!

A beautiful sunrise and a beautiful day!

Our hotel on the beach, we had a nice room with a partial view on the 5th floor. 

I think this may be the Common Loon, seen swimming in the ocean while we were watching the sun rise. 

Ocean City Inlet, a great spot for seeing the sea ducks. 

I am pretty sure this is the Common Eider below, seen at the Ocean City inlet. They have a long-nosed appearance. This one could be a first winter male? 

The Common Eider and the Bufflehead ducks.

A male Bufflehead with a few females or first winter males. 

Two Common Eider @ Ocean City Inlet. 

The Long-tailed Ducks were seen at the Ocean City Inlet.

The Bufflehead ducks were seen in groups.

I am thankful to enjoy watching the birds, my simple pleasure.
I am thankful to see the beautiful sunrise! 
I am Thankful, Grateful and Blessed!
I am thankful for all your visits and comments. 


Thank you Michelle for hosting Thankful Thursday. 
Thank you to Yogi the host of   Skywatch Friday


Happy Thursday, enjoy your day!

Thanks so much for visiting and for your nice comments on my previous post. Have a happy day!

More from Florida

Happy Monday everyone! 

These Mondays keep rolling right along and I am counting down the days till spring. I am sharing some photos from Jan 9th. It was another day of visiting Florida Parks and the beach. 

Update: as of the morning of 2/26 Diane's blog has returned. YAY!!!!

I wanted to mention that our blogging friend Diane of LavenderDreams had her blog disappear. I assume we all have to watch what we say in our blogs. I can't imagine Diane ever having anything negative on her blog. Maybe it is all a misunderstanding and she will get her old blog back. This is my hope. If you know a way to help, I hope you visit her at her new blog. It is sad you can blog for ten years and just suddenly all your words and photos disappear. I am including her new link and maybe we can all show our support for Diane at  The new Lavender Dreams .

We started off our day with a repeat visit to the Green Cay Nature Center. It is a great park to see the birds, easy walking on the boardwalk. 

In the mosaic below on the top row are the Painted Buntings, Purple Swamphen, Tricolored Heron. Middle row are the Little Blue Heron, pretty palm tree, Purple Gallinule. Bottom row are the Green Heron, Glossy Ibis and a Pied-billed Grebe. 

After a few hours at the Green Cay Nature Park, we headed to the nearby Wakodahatchee Wetlands. In the mosaic below are some of the birds of the wetlands. These birds are easy to see and photograph most were standing right next to the boardwalk. 


We saw a couple of American Bitterns at Wakodahatchee Wetlands, the bittern below was almost hidden in the grasses. 

Tricolored Heron landed on the boardwalk railing. 

Top row, wetland sign and boardwalk, Wood Storks, Green Heron. Middle row is a Florida gator, Purple Gallinule, Purple Swamphens, American Bittern. Bottom row the Queen Butterfly, Anhinga, Black-bellied Whistling Ducks and another alligator. 

In the mosaic below I am showing the three species in the Rallidae family, Chicken like birds and kin to the rails. The Purple Gallinule on the left, the Common Moorhen top right and the Purple Swamphen bottom right. 

Below are a few photos for comparison, sometimes people get the American Bittern on the top confused with the Green Heron in the photos below. We saw both both on this day at both of the parks mentioned above. 

Hubby and I both loved the John D. MacArthur Beach State Park located in Palm Beach County. This was our last stop of the day and I wish we had more time to spend at this park. You had a choice of walking to the beach or taking a shuttle. We decided to walk, the beach is located at the end of a 1600 foot boardwalk over the Lake Worth Lagoon. 

Not the best photo below but I wanted to document this Yellow-crowned Night Heron. It was seen from the boardwalk, I think these birds roost or nest in the mangroves along the lagoon.

The boardwalk to the beach and the view of the Lake Worth Lagoon. 

John D. MacArthur Beach, it is a pretty beach . Very clean and not very crowded while we were there. The beach spans 2 miles along the Atlantic Ocean.

Pretty view of the beach and ocean waves. 

Thanks for your visit today!  I hope you enjoyed my post and photos.


Thanks to Angie the host of  Mosaic Monday

Thanks to LadyFi  the host of Our World Tuesday!

I hope to see you there. Thanks to the hosts today. Enjoy your day and new week.


As always I thank you for stopping by and as always I appreciate your comments.

Saturday's Critters #271

Welcome to Saturday's Critters !


If you love all God's creatures like I do and also like to blog about them and take critter photos this is where you can share your critter post. Link up your post and share your critters, join in with my critter party ! You can share any kind of critters the real ones, pretend ones, statues and paintings, a new or old post!

During our recent trip to Ocean City Maryland we took a side trip to Assateague Island National Seashore. I love seeing the wild horses and at this time there was a surprise winter filly born a month or so ago. We saw it a few times during our walks and time at the park.  Here are some of the photos I took while at Assateague.

Gulls resting. The water is so calm on the bay side of the island. 

Our first sighting of the new filly and her mom Susi, they look alike. 

Assateague is always a great place to see the Yellow-rumped Warblers. 

A view of the butter-butt.

A cute bay pinto filly around a month old at the time of my photo. She was born in the coldest part of our winter which is unusual.  They are usually born in April, may or June. Good news is that the filly and her mom are both doing well.

The Mom named Susi Sole and her new foal who is not named just yet. The ponies are given alpha-numeric names when they are born. If you want to name a new filly you can win the Ebay auction

Another sighting of the Assateague wild horses, was right next to the parking lot.  They say to stay at least 40 ft from the wild horses.  Some people have trouble following the rules. We saw some people closer.

Assateague's wild horse population is around 80 horses on the Maryland side of the island.

When the horses came close to us, we walked further away and towards our car.  The pathway leads from the parking lot to the beach. 

I have to say the newest filly and Assateague pony is just adorable. 

I appreciate and thank everyone who links up their post and for all the wonderful comments !








Here is a list of my linky parties;

Also visit:  I'd-Rather-B-Birdin. Thanks to the gracious host: Anni.

Happy Saturday, enjoy your weekend!

Happy Thankful Thursday!

Happy Thankful Thursday! 🙂

These are some images from our little getaway to Ocean City Md Feb 4-6th.  We stayed at a Doubletree hotel on the beach and we had a nice partial view of the ocean. 

Our "partial" view of the ocean from our hotel room and balcony. The sky and view looked beautiful.  

More of our partial view, Ocean City Maryland beach. 

We saw a few Ruddy Turnstones at the inlet and there were some Long-tailed Ducks.  I was missing the Purple Sandpipers, not seen on this trip. 

A few Bufflehead ducks.  

Looking back at the Ocean City fishing pier. 

Ocean City jetty 

Hubby's favorite thing is to watch the waves crashing on the rocks. 

The temps were in the 40's this day and there were surfers catching waves. 

Ocean City Inlet sunset. 

 Sun is setting and lighting up the amusement rides.

More of the sunset at the inlet.

I see a small line of birds in flight, maybe cormorants or ducks. 

A pretty sunset and some jet contrails. 

FYI, I changed my comment form so I can reply. If you ask me a question I will reply with an answer or I will thank you for commenting and for your visit.  I will see how long this will work, when weather permits I prefer to take walks outside and I have less computer time. 

 
I am thankful for each day I see the sunrise and sunset.  
Each Day I am Thankful, Grateful and Blessed!
I am thankful for all your visits and comments. 


Thank you Michelle for hosting Thankful Thursday. 
Thank you to Yogi the host of   Skywatch Friday


Happy Thursday, enjoy your day!

Thanks so much for visiting and for your nice comments on my previous post. Have a happy day!

We 💗 Florida State Parks 💗

Hello and Happy Monday!


During our Florida trip Jan 4-13th we tried to visit as many Florida parks that were new to us. On Jan 8th,  we started off at the nearby Savannas Preserve State Park, then we drove to the Jonathan Dickinson State Park. Next we went to the Hobe Sound NWR Beach and to end the day we went back to the Savannas Preserve State Park. I have to say when we travel we do not sit still, it is go, go, go. My steps and mile count were high for each day of our trip. 

Savannas Preserve State Park located in Port St. Lucie Florida.
We talked with a park employee during our early morning visit and he gave us some great info on the park . He told us the birds come and go, they are there in the morning and return in the evening to roost. The Sandhill Cranes, Osprey, White Ibis, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Glossy Ibis, Great Egret and Blue-winged Teals were some of the birds we saw during our morning visit. 

A view of the trail at Savannas Preserve State Park.

Jonathan Dickinson State Park located on Federal Hwy, Hobe Sound Florida. The sky was filled with Swallows, I am guessing Tree Swallows. During our walks on the trails we saw the Florida Scrub Jays, the Red-bellied Woodpecker, Loggerhead Shrike, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Red-shouldered Hawk and a couple of Mockingbirds. 

Seeing these two Florida Scrub Jays was a treat at the Jonathan Dickinson State Park. I wish the lighting was better on my photo below. 

Hobe Sound NWR Beach, Bridge Road, Hobe Sound Florida.

The street lined with ficus trees took us to the Hobe Sound NWR Beach. There is a wildlife refuge parking lot at the dead end street for this beach. We have a national park pass or you can pay $5 to park. We enjoyed a walk on this pretty beach. We watched two guys paddle out to go diving.  The gulls, Sanderlings and Ruddy Turnstones were some of the birds hanging out on the beach. 

We loved this pretty beach, it was a gorgeous day!

Savannas Preserve State Park. At the end of the day, we decided to go back to see the birds coming back to roost in the trees. There must have been a hundred or more White Ibis, Great Blue Heron, Blue-winged Teal, Wood Stork and Glossy Ibis, Great Egret. We also saw a pretty Sun Dog and the watched the sunset.  

It was not possible to get all the birds flying in on one photo. Below is a large group of White Ibis that will roost in these trees overnight.

Sunset @ Savannas Preserve State Park

Thanks for your visit today!  I hope you enjoyed my post and photos.


Thanks to Angie the host of  Mosaic Monday

Thanks to LadyFi  the host of Our World Tuesday!

I hope to see you there. Thanks to the hosts today. Enjoy your day and new week.


As always I thank you for stopping by and as always I appreciate your comments.