Some Shenandoah birds and critters

I am linking up with one of my favorite meme's Camera Critters. I have always been an animal lover.....from dogs, cats, birds, turtles and frogs, And the big critters too horses, cows, deer and bears. It is wonderful to see these critters and enjoy them.

These are some shots from our Shenandoah Nat'l Park trip on June 2nd.   We started somewhat early on my favorite Limberlost trail by 9:30am. It is a great trail to see some birds closeup in the underbrush. I was happy to be seeing lots of Redstarts, Towhees, Robins and Blue-headed Vireo...I should start carrying a notebook with me to keep a list of the birds I see. I know I saw and heard more birds but I can not remember them all, a notepad and pen is important for the next time.

 My only shot of the Blue-headed Vireo. This Vireo has a blue head, white throat and a greenish back. The sides are washed with yellow-olive and also has strong wingbars.


As we walked along the trail I stopped every once in awhile looking for birds, I looked up the hill and turned to hubby and said look there is a black bear. He was amazed at how calm I was just turning and saying quietly that there was a black bear. I was really excited it was only the second time we have even seen a bear while walking on a Shenandoah trail. We have been there hundreds of times too. We stood and watched the bear until it was out of sight, very cool.

So we continued walking along the trail hoping to see the bear cross over the trail. no luck there. So I went back to looking and listening to the birds.

 We heard a lot of Eastern Towhees, this female Eastern Towhee was the only one that came out into the open. She did not seem to care that we stood and watched her. We finished the loop trail and headed back to our car, we were ready to head down to the Big Meadows store for some lunch.

 At the parking lot we saw this group of riders on their horses. You can arrange to take a trail ride at Shenandoah, something we never seemed to have time for, we usually prefer to hike.

If you want to know where your winter birds go in the summer we saw lots of Dark-eyed Juncos near the camp store. We ate our lunch and headed back onto the Skyline Drive for our next hike, it was a new one for us called the Upper Hawksbill. It is the highest part of the Skyline Drive and the views were beautiful. Back in our car  and driving on the Skyline Drive we came across our second bear sighting. This one was just walking along side the road.

I have always enjoyed seeing bears, I just love them. This was a first time we had the bear to ourselves. No other cars came around so we were able to stop and watch the bear for awhile without more cars coming to scare it away. I believe we were still in the middle section of the Skyline Drive and heading home when seeing the second bear. We still had the north section of the drive to go. We stopped at some overlooks and we were still looking for deers and bears on the north section before heading out of the park.

Our next sighting was seeing this cute fawn and its momma along the road. I stopped my car to watch them for awhile until a bike rider came along and they ran away into the woods.

Almost out of the park and close to the entrance gate another black bear ran across the road right in front of my car and went right into the woods. It was moving quickly but we still stopped and watched till it disappeared into the woods. Wow, I could not believe we had sighted three different black bears. There are times we go and do not see one, so I consider myself really lucky on this trip.

I hope you enjoyed my Shenandoah critters and to see more beautiful and cute critters please visit Camera Critters . Thanks to Misty Dawn for hosting and thank you for stopping by to see my post. I wish everyone a safe and HAPPY weekend. Also Happy Birding!!

Leavenworth

I have another post and more photos from my vacation in the North Cascades, Washington state. This time we are in the Bavarian city of Leavenworth. After riding back to the town of Lake Chelan on the Lady Express boat from Stehekin we hopped back into our rental car and took off for Leavenworth. Leavenworth has been modeled after a Bavarian village and I really love the look. It is located on the eastern slope of the Cascade mountains and is on the Cascade loop and scenic drive. The beautiful Wenatchee River flows next to the city. I was attracted to the city after reading and looking at the Washington State Birding trail map I bought from Audubon of Washington. Leavenworth has many great hotspots for birding. The Leavenworth Nat'l Fish hatchery and the Waterfront Park were two places I decided I had to visit.

In this mosaic, I pictured the American Dipper a lifer for me. The dipper seen on the Icicle Creek likes to hang out in streams and feeds on aquatic insects. Icicle Creek was also were we saw the black bear. The Nat'l Fish hatchery has beautiful grounds, the gazebo and flowers and the beautiful mountains in the background. There had to be hundreds of Cedar Waxwings. Other birds seen were the Evening Grosbeak and the Steller Jay. The goats had a little habitiat and were seen in the city while we were walking back to our hotel from the Waterfront Park.

Lots of stores and restaurants on and around the main street.

The birds I saw at the Leavenworth fish hatchery were mostly yellow in color which is great for my Mellow Yellow Monday entry.

The birds pictured  below are the Western Tanager, Evening Grosbeak, Yellow Warbler all great birds for me.

Female Western Tanager, I really would like to see the colorful male someday.

 Another life bird was the Red Shafted Flicker, I see the Yellow Shafted Flicker on the east coast.

I am linking up with Mary's Mosaic Monday and
Drowsey Monkeys Mellow Yellow Monday  Click on the links to visit these fun memes.

Thanks to both Mary and Drowsey Monkey for hosting and thanks for stopping by to visit my post.

Daytrip tp Shenandoah National Park

Yesterday, my son and his girlfriend, my hubby, and I spent the day at Shenandoah National Park. We drove along the Skyline drive enjoying the wildflowers, butterflies and looking for wildlife. I was looking for the Black bears. Sometimes we are lucky to see a Black Bear along the drive.

Along the Skyline Drive there were many different wildflowers. The milkweed plants were plentiful and attracted the beautiful butterflies. I saw Monarchs, different Swallowtails and some butterflies and moths I still need to id.

We walked the looptrail on the Limberlost trail. The Limberlost trail has become my favorite trail at Shenandoah. The Limberlost trail is an easy walk and very pretty. After the walk we drove further down the Skyline Drive to the Big Meadows camp store by this time we were ready for lunch. After our lunch we walk the Lewis Falls trail. This trail was very steep, definitely not one of my favorites. I did see some birds on the trail which was the only part of this walk I enjoyed. The best bird sighting was a couple of female Rose Breasted Grosbeaks and some Eastern Towhees. I also saw what we call our snowbirds... the Junco's.








By this time, I had pretty much giving up hopes of seeing a black bear. We did see a few deer along the drive on the way down to Big Meadows. After a pit stop and recuperating from the exhausting Lewis Falls hike we were once again on the Skyline drive driving back to the North Section and Front Royal. This was my last chance to see the black bears, my eyes constantly watching the sides of the road. We drove the distance from the Big Meadows to the north section with again no luck in seeing any bears. We did see a group of deer, one of them being a spotted baby. They are always cute and nice to see.









Now we are driving the north section of the Skyline drive and finally Black bear jackpot. It was a mother Black bear with two cubs. They were munching on some brush or bushes along the road. Yeah! I was so happy to see the mother bear and cubs. The bear sighting was definitly the highlight of my daytrip to Shenandoah.

We loved watching the Black bear mother with her two cubs until they were finally chased away. Some crazy people just had to get their closeup bear pictures. I do not think these other people even know they are ruining the moment for others who are just enjoying watching the bears. Like me!