Saturday's Critters # 482

Welcome to Saturday's Critters!

Hello and happy Saturday!

 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!

I am trying to stay some what caught up with reports on my outings and posts. Most of my photos are from my neighborhood, our walks on the fire roads and to the lake.  

1. Feb 12th, our walk on the fire road looking down at the reservoir we saw a group of Canada Geese and a Mute Swan.  The Mute Swans are not native to Maryland but they are seen around the state. The Mute Swans are easy to identify with their reddish-orange bill. 

2. A larger look at the Mute Swan, I really had to zoom in for this photo. The fire road I was walking on is on the top of a hill and there are lots of trees in between the fire road and the lake. 

3. Feb 13th, hubby and I took our walk on the fire road that leads to the lake and to a view of the Bald Eagle's nest.  Along the way I found a couple of Brown Creepers, we saw the usual Common Mergansers and Canada Geese. We spotted the first Bald Eagle on the nest as soon as we got to the lake, the second eagle was sitting off in a tree across the lake. Soon both Bald Eagles were sitting in the same tree. 

4. Feb 13th, the Prettyboy Bald Eagles, this pair have been nesting nearby in a tree next to the lake. I like that they have been returning to the nest for years now. 

5. Feb 15th, hubby and I took a ride to where we saw the Golden Eagle . Usually there are ducks near the boat ramp parking lot.  I think the Golden Eagle has left this spot but we saw various ducks and geese.  Below are the Canada Geese, American Wigeons, Redhead Ducks, Ring-necked Ducks and Bufflehead ducks. I was happy to see this group of ducks some what closer for photos.  Maybe someone was there and threw some corn into the water for the ducks to eat. 

6. Below you can see a closer look at the Redhead ducks, the American Wigeon with the green eye patch and the Ring-necked ducks with the white band on their bill.

7. Feb 19th, our walk was on the fire road closer to home. We are seeing the Common Mergansers and Canada Geese and the Ring-necked Ducks during each visit to the lake. The Brown Creepers have been sighted each time too. The Downy Woodpeckers are seen pecking away and we saw a few of the Golden-crowned Kinglets were bouncing around all over the place. 

8. A Brown Creeper seen making it's way up the tree. These birds are brown with white underparts and have a slender decurved bill. 

9. Feb 20th,  another walk on the fire road close to home. We saw and heard the White-breasted Nuthatch, Downy Woodpeckers, Canada Geese and Ring-necked Ducks and a Bald Eagle some what hidden behind some branches. 

10. Feb 20th, I watched this hawk chasing a Mourning Dove away from my yard. It came right back and sat in a tree in our side yard. It was a small hawk, so I will guess a Sharp-shinned Hawk

Update: David who really knows his birds, says this is a Cooper's Hawk.

11. Feb 21st and Feb 24th, Red-shouldered Hawk perched on a dead tree in our yard. The photos look the same but they were taken on different days.

12.  Feb 24th, we watched our grandson Mason while Wyatt went for his check-up. We are always happy to spend time with our grandsons and the grand-dogs Nibbles and Winnie. They all love their Pop-Pop.

I hope you enjoyed my birds and post, I am looking forward to visiting your blog. 

Thank you for sharing your critters and post!

Thanks to all my visitors and for your past and present comments. Stop back to see any replies to your comments. I appreciate everyone who loves and respects wildlife. Thank you for linking up a critter post.

Here is my linky:

I am also linking up to Anni's blog party found here I'd Rather B Birding   Anni always has some beautiful birds to be seen on her blog, check it out! Also, I am also linking up to Heidrun's Mosaic Monday  I hope you can stop by and visit Heidrun and check out the Mosaic Monday post.