Monday, November 27, 2023

Happy Monday!

Wishing everyone a great day and a happy new week!


"Curiosity is one of the great secrets of happiness."





"Blessed are the curious, for they shall have adventures."


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

Comments off, enjoy your day!

Saturday, November 25, 2023

Saturday's Critters # 519

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 sharing a mish mash of photos, birds from my back yard and my Prettyboy neighborhood and the lake. 


1. Oct 15th, another walk to the lake, we were seeing more fall colors, the usual Great Blue Herons hanging out in the favorite spots and the same with Belted Kingfishers. What I thought were Solitary Sandpipers could be the Lesser Yellowlegs. 


Click on photos for better viewing!




2. Same day as above, there were at least 3 Great Blue Herons, each having their favorite spots to fish. 





3. Oct 16th,  a Bald Eagle perched on a small stick was which in the middle of the lake, the Great Blue Heron and Belted Kingfisher hanging out in the same area as the day before. 





4. Oct 18th , our walk on a Parkton section of the NCR Bike trail, I saw the Yellow-belled Sapsucker, Eastern Bluebird, a White-tailed Deer, Ruby-crowned Kinglets and a Downy Woodpecker. 



5. I was seeing some great birds in one spot on the bike trail, the two Ruby-crowned Kinglets were chasing each other around the trees. 



6. On the same day, back at home the Cardinal takes a turn knocking on our front window. 





7. Oct 19th , our walk was to the back section of our lake. I saw at least 4 of the Lesser Yellowlegs. Also high in a tree were two American Goldfinches. 




8. I was able to catch the 4 Lesser Yellowlegs in one shot, foraging along the lakeshore.




9. This photo is a little better with two of the Lesser Yellowlegs. 



10. With the lake level down so low now, we are able to walk along the lake shore, a fishing boat was seen across the lake from where we walked. 





At this time in our neighborhood, the fall colors and trees were looking beautiful.  

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.

Wednesday, November 22, 2023

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

May your Thanksgiving be full of peace, love and joy!




"May your blessings be many, your troubles be few and your Thanksgiving be wonderful."

Monday, November 20, 2023

Happy Monday!

Wishing everyone a great day and a happy new week!


"Find joy in the small things"






"Search for something beautiful in every day."

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

Comments off, enjoy your day!

Saturday, November 18, 2023

Saturday's Critters # 518

Welcome to Saturday's Critters!

Hello and happy Saturday!

Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃 🦃🥧


 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!


On Oct 9-11th , hubby and I went on a short getaway. First we took a short detour off of Rt 50 to the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Cambridge Maryland. Then we headed to Chincoteague Island Virginia, the Chincoteague Island National Wildlife Refuge, Tom's Cove and the Assateague Island National Seashore. 


1. These are images from our drive at the Blackwater Wildlife Refuge. At Blackwater NWR, we took the short Marsh Edge trail. 



We saw and heard these Terns, they were so loud. I think they were fighting over a fish?  Back in the car and on the wildlife drive, I found a juvenile Bald Eagle sitting in a tree, monarchs were flying next to our car, a White-tailed Deer walking off into the wood and the Tickseed  Sunflowers were plentiful along the drive. 

 



The Tickseed Sunflowers looked pretty, the yellow flowers were seen all along the wildlife drive. 



2. Further along the wildlife drive, we saw the Yellowlegs, numerous Great Blue Herons, Canada Geese and an Egret. 





3. We saw two Mallards, one is hidden in the grasses hanging out with the Canada Geese.  





4. Looking straight on, the Great Blue Heron looks a little silly. 





5. After driving a total of 4 hours or more, we arrived in Chincoteague. We took a walk on the trail to the pony overlook.  On the way I saw this tiny Sika deer, it is so cute. At the pony overlook I found one Tricolored Heron and the ponies of course. 




The Sika Deer is a small member of the elk family, they have dark brown to black coat. They have short snouts and small ears. The Sika Deer were introduced to Maryland's Eastern Shore and in Virginia. I am assuming this was a juvenile Sika Deer, it just stood and stared at us while we were on the trail. 






A distant look at the Chincoteague Ponies. 




Great Egrets and Snowy Egrets are mixed together, a few times I think I saw the juvenile Little Blue Heron which is also white.  





6. On the road to the beach, we see lots of Egrets. Further up the road we see the Double-crested Cormorants hanging out, we caught the sun setting at Tom's Cove, a small group of Black-bellied Plovers  (just a guess) and there were 3 Great Blue Herons flying over the cove. 





7. On the shore of the cove, I was watching a group of what I believe are the juvenile Black-bellied Plovers.  There is a closer look at two in the mosaic above bottom left image. 





8. The end of day one, we watched the sun setting over Tom's Cove in Chincoteague Island NWR. 





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.

Monday, November 13, 2023

Happy Monday!

Wishing everyone a great day and a happy new week!


"Butterflies...flowers that fly and all but sing." Robert Frost




"The butterfly is proof that you can go through a great deal of darkness yet still become something beautiful."



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

Comments off, enjoy your day!

Saturday, November 11, 2023

Saturday's Critters # 517

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 finally getting around to posting the birds I saw on my last full day in Ireland. On this morning we were packed up and left Kilkenny with one stop at Glendalough a Monastic city and the Wicklow National Park. Hubby and I walked around the park, enjoying the ruins, the birds I did see and lovely views of the valley of the lakes. 


1. A distant view of the round tower, we hiked some on the green trail to the lake area. 




A view of the mountain and the trail and lake. 




The Upper Lake at Wicklow National Park and Glendalough. 







2. I saw a few of the Pied Wagtails, this one was posing on a rock in the creek. 





3. Various scenes from Glendalough and view of the Monastic City or settlement, the St Kevin's church




Glendalough is a beautiful place to visit, I like the Round Tower, the Gateway and church, the view of the ruins and the trail and the lake. 




4. I am guessing the ID of this bird, a Jackdaw.  This bird looked like it was nesting between the rocks of the ruins in Glendalough. 






5. I watched a couple of Chaffinches, one male and a female on the ground near our table. We took a break and had some ice cream from one of the local vendors. 







6. The Gateway lead to the cemetery and the round tower. 











7.  I found a few Blue Tits enjoying some berry bushes.  






The Blue Tits are such a cute birds and one of my favorite Ireland birds. 





I had fun watching these Blue Tits, they were too busy eating to worry about me. 





8. The Pied Wagtail posed for me a few times.  




9.  A nice spot to sit and enjoy the view. Looks like the heart was surrounding the bench.




We loved this beautiful park and the scenic views, I did see some cute birds. Leaving Glendalough and Wicklow we headed to Dublin and were dropped off at our airport hotel for the last night of our trip. 


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.

Monday, November 6, 2023

Happy Monday!

Wishing everyone a great day and a happy new week!


"The ocean stirs the heart, inspires the imagination and brings eternal joy to the soul."



Chincoteague Island and the Assateague Nat'l Seashore

"Happiness is a quiet walk along the beach."


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

Comments off, enjoy your day!

Saturday, November 4, 2023

Saturday's Critters # 516

Welcome to Saturday 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 sharing a variety of photos, some from our yard, our neighborhood walk on the fire roads and to our local Prettyboy Reservoir.  There are some photos from our outing to Conowingo Dam and the Susquehanna River State Park and more from the local NCR bike trail. BTW, my header photo now shows a view of neighborhood Prettyboy reservoir and the Prettyboy watershed. 


1. Sept 17th, usually I see various species of Warblers in September they love to eat the berries from the Devil's Walking Stick plants in our yard.   This year I am not see as many different species as in previous years,  that can not be a good thing. I did see the male and female Black-throated Blue Warblers but I was not able to get their photos. The Cape May Warblers and a few Tennessee Warbler pictured in the mosaic below. 


Click on images for larger viewing. 





2. Sept 19th, more images of the Tennessee Warbler and the Cape May Warblers. 




3. Sept 19th, another walk to the local reservoir. Again I am seeing the same Great Blue Herons, Belted Kingfishers, Solitary Sandpipers, unknown raptor standing in the mud, more images of the Sandpipers, Great Blue Heron and the Green Heron.





4. Sept 30th,  in my yard is a Northern Mockingbird enjoying the Devils Walking Stick berries.  



On the same day as above, these our the birds seen during our walk to the lake. Below are the Canada Geese, Solitary Sandpipers, Belted Kingfisher, Double-crested Cormorant and the Great Blue Heron.




5. Oct 1st, the Blue Jays are sitting in our rhododendron bush outside the den window.  Some times they are attacking the window or just sitting there fussing loudly. 




On the same day as above our walk was at the NCR Bike trail, we saw some fall flowers looking beautiful and some colorful leaves and berries.  I heard more birds than I actually saw, the birds were hiding from me.  





6. Oct 3rd, we drove to the Conowingo Dam and the Susquehanna River State Park.  Below are the Bald Eagles seen around the dam and on the towers. We also saw lots of Great Blue Herons, some Double-crested Cormorants, Vultures and Pigeons.




We drove a little further, and took a walk at the Susquehanna River State Park trail.  Views of the river and bridge, mushrooms, the Rock Run Gristmill, Great Blue Heron and more Cormorants. 








We enjoyed our lunch at the picnic area and then tried to walk (the little trail was overgrown with weeds) around the nearby pond.  Here I was able to see some Eastern Bluebirds, Mallards and some Wood Ducks. 






7. Oct 4th, another walk to our local Prettyboy reservoir. The lake water level is still very low. We need more rain.  In the mosaic below are views of the reservoir, fungi, a Great Blue Heron and the Solitary Sandpipers are still hanging around and we saw a small group of Killdeer. 



It looks like I am staying behind sharing my photos, almost a month behind and I have one more day from our Ireland trip to share.  

I will be away from my computer for a few days after Saturday, just a heads up I will be late commenting.

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 ha ppy new week! "Calm is a super power. Don't let stress kill your happiness." "Jud...