Saturday's Critters # 609

 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!

Click on images for better viewing.

Aug 14th, thank you for all the well wishes for my hubby. He is doing well and he was told his blood work was good. His diet seems to be a daily battle.

1. June 24, One of my favorite local trails goes thru a pine tree forest. While walking with Miney I had the Merlin App recording the birds I heard singing. The Pine Warbler is a regular in my neighborhood and on this trail. 

The Pine Warbler has been seen different times of the year here. I know they are breeders in the forest around our home. I hear them singing during most of my walks with Miney. You can see this male has the yellow with black streaks.

On one of my walks with Miney, we were just on the local fire road not far from home, she stopped and refused to go further, she was watching one section off the trail I thought she was scared of whatever was there. I was thinking it was a black bear roaming around our local forest, I have seen them here before.  

The Acadian Flycatcher is one of our summer birds, it returns to the forest that surrounds our home and the Prettyboy reservoir. The Acadian Flycatcher is olive above, narrow eye-ring and has two wingbars. Their forehead is rather flat sloping gently to give a peaked look.

2. June 25th, my walk with Miney is another local fire road trail. I am not sure what these wildflowers are called.  

3. June 27th, I watch the Ruby-throated Hummingbird perched near his feeder.  

4. June 28th, since we have had so much it seem I am seeing lots of mushroom growing along side the fire road. 

5. June 29th, We walked our local fire road once again. This time I did more of a loop and came to a downed tree we had to cross over. She makes jumping over these trees look easy.  

6. June 30th, my birdwatching dog Miney was watching some birds up in the tree next to the trail. 

7. Lately on my walks, I have been hearing the Yellow-throated Vireo.  I have seen them before in the summer time and my Merlin App has been picking their sounds on my local fire road walks. This Vireo is colorful, has a yellow eye-ring and thick bill, has the yellow throat and it's belly is white.

8. August 2015, flashback photos and a visit to the North Point State Park in Baltimore County. One this day we saw lots of Great Egret, Little Blue Herons and a Tricolored Heron. Below starting on the left are two Little Blue Herons, in the middle is a Tricolored Heron and on the right a Great Egret and another Little Blue Heron. 

The transitional mottled Little Blue Heron.

Below is the adult Little Blue Heron

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.

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.

Check out  Catblogosphere.com

Here is my linky:

Thank you for sharing your critters and post! 

Saturday's Critters # 450

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 continue with images from our daily walks, with the grand-dogs on the fire roads and to the lake. 

1. July 5th,  on the fire road to the lake, we saw the usual Belted Kingfisher hanging out, Indian Pipe fungi, Nibbles and Winnie the Corgi.

July 5th, across the lake is the Belted Kingfisher's favorite spot to rest. 

2. July 10th, we took a walk on the pine tree loop fire road, a 10K bike ride was happening around our lake neighborhood. The dogs did not seem to mind the bikes whizzing by as we walked up the street to get to the fire road. 

3. July 11th,  another walk to the lake with the grand-dogs.  A small group of Canada Geese were hanging out on the lake, the dogs enjoy the lake scenery just as much as we do. 

4. July 12th, our walk on the local fire road with the grand-dogs. Winnie likes smelling the ferns, looks like something was eating the mushroom, I am guessing the bird lower right is an Acadian Flycatcher. I did hear one while we were walking. 

5. July 13th, our walk with the dogs to the lake. A bad storm the evening before took some trees down along with taking out our power for 24 hours. Nibbles had no trouble jumping over the big tree and Winnie the Corgi was able to go under the tree. We saw 4-5 Wood Ducks at the lake. The top right shows a female or young Wood Duck. The female has a white eye patch and a little white on it's flanks.

6. July 14th, some of our summer annuals, the Lantana is attracting both the butterflies and the hummingbird moth. 

7. July 15th, our walk with the grand-dogs on the local fire road. We heard our son will be settling on his new home at the end of the month. The grand-dogs will be leaving us and moving to their new home soon.  I think they have enjoyed their time with us, all the walks in the forest and to the lake. 

8. July 16th, images from our walk to the lake with grand-dogs, a view of the lake, a snake was seen swimming in the lake, some wildflowers and shelf mushrooms. 

9. July 16th at home in the yard are some of my yard birds.  A cute female Northern Cardinal, a male Ruby-throated Hummingbird and a Carolina Chickadee and a gray squirrel perched on top of our dead tree. 

10.  A larger image of the female Cardinal, she is pretty. 

11. The Carolina Chickadee is one of my many favorite yard birds, they will stop by for a peanut.

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!

Happy Thankful Thursday!

 Hello everyone,

It is hard to believe August is almost half over.  The days continue to fly by.  There is not much happening here, we are still keeping our distance and wearing our face mask.  Our walks have been local, on the fire roads and to the lake.  Can I say, I am grinning and bearing this new version of blogger?  How do you like the new blogger?  Please ignore any errors, lol.   

 

My Skywatching is from my deck, yard and driveway.

" I am grateful, I am happy."

 Bird watching is from my windows or on our deck.  I am seeing 5-6 Ruby-throated Hummingbirds zooming around my yard. I have 3 feeders that I seem to refill every other day. Seeing these hummingbirds in my yard just make me happy. 

Thankful for flowers, they make me happy. Hubby had the nice suggestion to buy flowers for the vase we keep on the dining table. So every couple of weeks, we change out the flowers for a new arrangement. These are from the local Weis food store, I am not sure what they are. Maybe Freesia?

 

Nature scenes from our fire road walk, the round spider webs, mushrooms, Acadian Flycatcher and a Red-spotted Purple butterfly.

I often see these round spider webs during our walks, they remind me of a CD or DVD.

 

 

 

 

 

Backyard sky, sunset looking pretty in pink. 

I am thankful for the simple pleasure of a beautiful sunset. 

 

 " Make time to enjoy the simple things in life."  Warm tea and a good book are a few of my simple things. 

 

Recently, I heard about a tasty honey called Orange Blossom Honey. Apparently bees in Florida and California visit the orange blossoms which in turn flavor the honey comb with a sweet citrus flavored honey.  I like adding a little honey to my tea,  right now I am using a local Maryland clover honey.  I ordered the Orange Blossom Honey from Amazon, I am looking forward to trying this honey.  Do you buy local honey? It is best pure and raw, it has health benefits, antioxidants, nutrients to help promote digestive health and help with your pollen seasonal allergies.

 

I am thankful for all the ebooks I find online from my local library.

These are my latest books:

The American Agent by Jacqueline Winspear, it is # 15 in the Maisie Dobbs series. I really enjoyed this series, I hope she does another Maisie Dobbs, I am a fan. 

Unseen by Karin Slaughter, # 7 in the Will Trent series

All Shall be Well by Deborah Crombie, # 2 in the Duncan Kincaid & Gemma James series.

 
I am thankful hubby and I are remaining virus free.  This Covid virus is not just going to go away. I hope everyone take care and stays safe. 

Live simple and be happy!  😊 Take care, keep smiling!


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


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

Around the Neighborhood

Happy Thankful Thursday! 

Photos from May 25-June 4th.

These are some images from our walks on the local fire road and to the lake. We had so many rainy cloudy days in a row, we were happy to finally see the sun shining. Time to get outside for a walk!

If you look closely you can see the beak and eye of an Acadian Flycatcher. This nest was seen just of the fire road. 

"Love your Mother Earth."

A pretty sky reflection on our lake. 

A Red-eyed Vireo seen off the fire road. 

I am pretty sure this is an Eastern Phoebe, they are known to have a yellowish belly.

Barred Owl sighted just off the fire road. 

A view of the fire road, it is lined with pretty ferns along the way. 

"Weeds are a flowers too, once you get to know them." Eeyore

A pretty weed, a pretty flower. 

We went off the fire road to walk to the lake and came across this big Black Rat Snake. 

Another fire road walk took us to a view of the Bald Eagles nest across the lake. Not the best shot, it was too far away but you can see two juvenile eagles on the nest.

Across the way, in one of those trees is the Bald Eagles nest.  

Another look at the lake before walking home.

"May your life be like a wildflower, grow freely in the beauty and joy of each day."  Native American Proverb

I am thankful for the rain but also for the sunshine.

I am thankful for each new day.

I am thankful for all your visits and comments. 

Thank you Michelle for hostingHappy Monday, enjoy your day and new week! Thankful Thursday

Thank you to the hosts of   Skywatch Friday

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

NCR Trail

Hello,

These images are from my walk on the NCR trail, photos are from 6/5 and 6/8. The NCR trail is a local bike, hike or jogging trail in Baltimore County, Maryland. Birds seen during our walk were the Eastern Phoebe, American Robin, Acadian Flycatcher, Scarlet Tanager and the Gray Catbird. The link NCR trail  takes you to my previous post which tells you more about the trail.

I am pretty sure this is an Eastern Phoebe on the fence.

The stream is called the Beetree Run at the Bentley Springs area of the bike trail.

A Scarlet Tanager seen along the bike trail.

The bike trail and I think the flowers are from wild white rose bushes? But, I could be wrong on the bush id. A catbird was seen on the trail catching bugs.

I am not sure what these flowers are called, they were seen all along the trail..

The American Robin was one of the common birds we saw this day.

I am guessing this is the Acadian Flycatcher, they seem to be common in our area during the summer.

A view of the trail.

The sunset on June 5th.  Seen from my deck and backyard.

A moon shot I have not shown was taken on June 8th. I hope you enjoyed my birds, post and sky photos.  As always I appreciate and thank you for the nice comments and for visiting my post.

Here is a list of linky parties for part of the week, I hope to see you there.

Thanks to Theresa @ The Run*A*Round Ranch for hosting Good Fences.
Thank you to Sylvia, Yogi and Sandy for hosting Skywatch Friday.