Saturday's Critters # 511

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 catching up, I ended this post with photos from September.  These are photos from our local walks to the lake, on the local  fire roads and some from my back yard.  Several people have mentioned my header photo, it is a view of our local lake/Prettyboy reservoir and it is one of my favorite spots for neighborhood birdwatching.

1. Sightings from our walk to the local lake, the usual birds were seen in the usual places. Birds seen are the Great Blue Heron, Belted Kingfisher, Cedar Waxwings, a nice sighting of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Slider Turtle and the Canada Geese. 

2. A larger viewing of my sighting of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo.

3. A larger view of the Belted Kingfisher. 

4. Another day and another walk to our lake, the water level is low due to the drought. Sightings included a Double-crested Cormorant, the usual Great Blue Heron and the Belted Kingfisher.  

5. In my backyard, I am still seeing the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds and lots of the Fritillary Butterflies. 

6.  Another day and here we are again on our walk to the lake. For a local walk I am always happy with the sightings I see. There are lots of pine cones on the trees, is that a sign of this winter's weather? A good winter for the Finch sightings? The lake water level is still going down, the day's sightings were a Bald Eagle seen sitting in a tree across the lake from where we were, a few Great Blue Herons were hanging out on the shore, an American Robin seen in sitting in a tree above the trail, the Green Heron was seen in the usual spot too. 

I took a few photos of the Bald Eagle, until it flew away.  

7. More looks at the Green Heron seen at our local lake.  

8.  Just another walk to the lake, you can see the water levels are down even more now due to the drought. On this day I saw a Solitary Sandpiper, flock of Canada Geese, the Great Blue Heron, Mourning Doves and the Belted Kingfisher. 

9. I never know what bird I will see at the reservoir. The low water levels means there is more mud around which seems to attract different birds. This is the Solitary Sandpiper, we watched it for awhile foraging in the mud. 

10.   Sept 3, 2023 the second Maryland Cycling Classic was held, it was a hot day with temps in the mid 90's. We were able to watch them speed past our little neighborhood on their route around the Prettyboy reservoir. The race features world champion cyclists from 30 countries. The winner Mattias Skjelmose from Denmark finished the 121.4 miles in 4 hours 28 minutes. They were escorted with a line of police motorcycles, cars with extra bicycles and 2 ambulances in case of emergencies. The race ended at the Baltimore's Inner Harbor with a ceremony and a crowd of people to cheer on the winner.

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 linking up to Heidrun's Mosaic Monday  I hope you can stop by and visit Heidrun and check out the Mosaic Monday post. 

Happy Monday!

Wishing everyone a great day and a happy new week!

"Life is too short to be anything but happy."

"Don't let yesterday use up too much of today."

"We take photos as a return ticket to a moment otherwise gone."

Comments off, enjoy your day!

Saturday's Critters # 510

 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!

This post is part 2 of our visit to Bombay Hook NWR in Delaware. Since we spent the night in Dover Delaware we were able to visit the wildlife refuge early in the morning.  I like seeing the refuge during the low tide also the lighting is different on the pools. 

1. I love seeing the large groups of Snowy Egrets and the Great Egrets, we also saw a Tricolored Heron hanging out with the Great Egrets and a few Green Herons. The American Goldfinch was eating some seeds off a nearby plant, American Avocets look busy grooming themselves, a Common Moorhen was hidden in the wetland grasses. In the last row, I was undecided if I was seeing the Purple Martins or Swallows, someone listed Bank Swallows on ebird for this sight. A pair of Bald Eagles were seen off in the distance near their nest and last are more Egrets with a Glossy Ibis. 

As always, click on images for larger viewing.

Snowy Egrets, Great Egrets and the American Avocets. 

Below are the Great Egret and a Tricolored Heron.  The Tricolored has the long bill and a white belly.

The Green Heron, one of my favorite herons.  One of the smaller herons only 17 inches tall. 

The male Indigo Bunting, is a pretty color blue.

We enjoyed watching this Indigo Bunting, calling out his familiar sound.

A pretty male American Goldfinch, found some seeds to eat. At this spot I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye, it was a Least Bittern. The Least Bittern disappeared into the grasses, it was too fast for my camera but a great sighting. 

The low tide brings out the Clapper Rails, foraging in the muddy area of the wetlands. 

The two Clapper Rails went off in different directions and soon disappeared in the grasses. 

The Semipalmated Plover is a cutie! 

We enjoyed our picnic lunch in the car while watching these two Green Herons at the edge of the pond. 

A front view of the Green Heron, it looks comical. 

A view of the pool, way off in the distance are lots of little shorebirds looking like little brown spots, closer in are the American Avocets, Snowy Egrets, Great Egrets and the Glossy Ibis.

Bombay Hook NWR is a great place to see the birds,  many are breeders and are here during the summer. 

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 linking up to Heidrun's Mosaic Monday  I hope you can stop by and visit Heidrun and check out the Mosaic Monday post. 

Happy Monday!

Wishing everyone a great day and a happy new week!

"Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends....the mind can never break off from the journey."

Ireland May 2023

"Life is short, make it sweet."

"We take photos as a return ticket to a moment otherwise gone."

Comments off, enjoy your day!

Saturday's Critters # 509

 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!

These are photos from our Aug 16-17th overnight trip to Bombay Hook NWR and Dover Delaware.  After our 2 and 1/2 hour drive we arrived at the Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge. It will always be one of my favorite places to see the birds. These are the birds I saw on the first day, we saw a family of Wild Turkeys, lots of Snowy and Great Egrets, Great Blue Herons, Glossy Ibis, American Avocets, Osprey and various shorebirds like the Dunlin, Dowitchers, Yellowlegs, Semipalmated Plovers and Sandpipers, Willets, Black Bellied Plovers and Mute Swans. 

1. Below in the mosaic, top row is a family of Wild Turkeys, American Avocets and a guess at a Yellowlegs. Second row are the Snowy Egret and Great Egrets, Long-billed and Short Billed Dowitchers with a Black-bellied Plover, more Egrets with American Avocets and more shorebirds. Bottom row an Egret, Great Blue Heron and Canada Geese with Willets.

2. Forster's Tern, Semipalmated Plover, Caspian Tern with Gulls and Terns. Middle row is an Osprey, Swallows and Mute Swans. Bottom row is a Mute Swan, Egrets and Egrets with Glossy Ibis.

3. Below are various images of the American Avocets, various shorebirds, Osprey Egrets with Glossy Ibis.

4. The American Avocets, a pretty shorebird has black and white wings, the breeding adult can have the burnt orange head. 

5. The Great Egrets with the yellow bill mixed in with the group of Snowy Egrets.

6. Below is a mix of shorebirds, Great and Snowy Egrets and the American Avocets. 

7. There is one Black-belled Plover mixed with Dowitchers and possibly other shorebirds. 

8.  More of the attractive American Avocets.

 

9. A mix of Terns, Gulls and I see the Semipalmated Plover. 

10. We saw a few Osprey perched in trees around the refuge. 

11. This Mute Swan was giving me a look, all my photos were taken from my car window. 

12. Snowy Egrets with a Glossy Ibis. 

13. A view of the pool with various Egrets and more American Avocets. 

14.  Taken off the Glossy Ibis, Terns and shorebirds. The Canada Geese were settled on the ground.

15. A young fox was walking by our car. 

I hope you enjoyed these photos from the Bombay Hook NWR . 

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 linking up to Heidrun's Mosaic Monday  I hope you can stop by and visit Heidrun and check out the Mosaic Monday post. 

Happy Monday!

Wishing everyone a great day and a happy new week!

"The past is your lesson. The present is your gift. The future is your motivation."

Hore Abbey is seen from the Rock of Cashel complex. The former Benedictine Abbey was given to the Cistercians in 1270. Now known as the ruins of a Cistercian Monastery. 

"Believe you can and you're halfway there."

"We take photos as a return ticket to a moment otherwise gone."

Comments off, enjoy your day!

Saturday's Critters # 508

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 combining various photos from outings back in July up to some in August. Like I mentioned on  a previous post, I am way behind sharing photos from our walks. These are from our Maryland State park, our neighborhood next to the Prettyboy reservoir and the NCR bike trail.

1. Cunningham Falls State Park is located in the Catoctin Mountains in Thurmont Maryland. We have been short of rain, so the waterfalls was just a trickle the day we were there. Wildlife sightings, Red-winged Blackbirds, Chipping Sparrow, Chipmunk, American Robins and some Barn Swallows sitting in a tree and flying low over the lake.

2. Along the trail I saw and heard this Caroline Wren,  they sing so loudly.  

3. Bees and butterflies are loving our plants right now, The Purple Coneflowers, a waterlily, Buddleia blooms and the Sunrita Blanket Flower, Zinnias and Lantana. 

4. Our walk to the lake, we have been seeing this Great Blue Heron standing in the same spot almost every time we visit the lake. The Bunnies seem to be doing well, they are all over our yard and neighborhood. A view of the reservoir with a sunburst and the Belted Kingfisher is seen sitting at his favorite spot. 

5. On another day, scenes from our walk to the lake we saw the Green Heron perched on a branch hanging over the lake. The Canada Geese are always around the lake, bottom left side looks like a female Towhee and a Black Swallowtail butterfly. 

6. A larger image of the Green Heron perched above the lake shore.

7. A Ruby-throated Hummingbird likes to sit in the butterfly bush, mean time the butterfly bush attracts the Tiger Swallowtails, both the Yellow and Black Swallowtails are seen every day.  A bunny is seen often in our yard.  

8. The Black Swallowtails are a common sight seen around our butterfly bush. 

9. The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail is another common butterfly seen on our flowers. 

10.  Another day and another walk to our lake, the usual sightings of the Great Blue Heron, Belted Kingfisher and the Green Heron. 

11. A closer look at one three Green Herons we saw on this day. 

12.  On this day we drove around our lake to see the dam, I noticed a few Double-crested Cormorants hanging out, Cliff Swallows were flying around the dam and we made a little detour to see the Canada Geese and a Great Egret at the Friendly Farm's pond. 

13. A day after the big storm that took out our power we went on a walk at the NCR bike trail, there were several spot on the trail were trees had fallen, some pretty purple wildflowers, a Turkey Vulture perched high in a tree above the river and I am not sure of the bird's id in the lower right side of my mosaic. 

Since living in our home for 33 years we have known and loved our neighbors dogs as if they were are own. Recently Marlow has passed on, he was a good friend to our Goldie Girl. Marlow was a happy dog and always came to greet us if he saw us in the yard or out on the trails. RIP Marlow, you will be missed. 

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 linking up to Heidrun's Mosaic Monday  I hope you can stop by and visit Heidrun and check out the Mosaic Monday post.