Chincoteague Again

I am linking up with NF Winged   and  Skywatch Friday

I am looking forward to seeing your skies from around the world, I hope you are all joining the Skywatch and join in with NF Winged and share your winged creatures.


I wanted to share more from my Chincoteague Island and wildlife refuge visit. After spending the night we drove up to the beach to watch the sunrise. It was another beautiful morning! A little fog around but it was quickly burnt off once the sun had risen.

A group of Willets along with some Egrets in the early morning fog

We saw some beautiful skies and birds at Chincoteague NWR, perfect for my Skywatch and NF Winged post.

I like the Egret reflections on this shot.

A flock of Black Skimmers in flight.

Above Snowy Egrets with their dark bills and legs with a couple of juvenile Glossy Ibis.

 Thanks for visiting my post and  blog and I always appreciate your comments.

  Happy Skywatching everyone!

To see more pretty skies from around the world please visit  Skywatch Friday
and to see more of the winged critters check out NF Winged

Thanks to Sylvia, Yogi  and Sandy for hosting Skywatch Friday! Thanks to Monica the host of NF Winged.   I wish everyone a safe and happy weekend.

More from Chincoteague NWR

I am linking up with NF Winged   and  Skywatch Friday

 Wow, the week is flying by and it is time to look for birds, watch the sunset and see the moon rise. I am looking forward to seeing your skies from around the world, I hope you are all joining the Skywatch.

 These are more photos from our weekend away to Chincoteague Island, Virginia. We spent time birdwatching, hanging out on the beach watching the dolphins, we saw a gorgeous sunset and a lovely moon rising over the ocean.

 We ate our lunch on the beach and it seem like we were going to be surrounded by the gulls.

I loved catching these Black Skimmers flying by, the Willets stayed in place.

 The sun was beginning to set during this shot which made the grasses look especially pretty glowing from the sunlight.

 The sunset at Tom's Cove

 I like to try to include a bird in flight when I zoom into the setting sun. This photo is not perfect, but I like the wavy clouds in front of the sun, the bird in flight and the colors. After watching the sunset at Tom's Cove, we headed over to the beach to watch the moon rise over the ocean.

This shot actually looks lighter on the beach than it actually was, I used my flash, it is not the best of photos. But, I wanted to show this big and colorful moon.

 What a pretty sight and we were so happy we decided to stay for the moon rise. This full moon on Sept 19 was the Harvest moon, this moon shot is actually two days later .

  Happy Skywatching everyone!

Thanks for visiting my post and  blog and I always appreciate your comments.

To see more pretty skies from around the world please visit  Skywatch Friday
and to see more of the winged critters check out NF Winged

Thanks to Sylvia, Yogi  and Sandy for hosting Skywatch Friday! Thanks to Monica the host of NF Winged.   I wish everyone a safe and happy weekend.

Chincoteague Island

  I am linking up with Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday 

September 22, 2013

I took off work on Friday so hubby and I could enjoy an overnight trip to Chincoteague Island, Virginia. Chincoteague is one of my favorite places to visit. My excitement started as I was seeing some cool birds along our drive on the eastern shore of Maryland. There were a few hawks along the highway, gulls flying along side the car while driving over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, awesome sighting of a Great Horned Owl on an electric pole, a kingfisher perched on a wire, cattle egrets seen on a cattle farm near Pocomoke City.

During our stay at Chincoteague Island we enjoyed the gorgeous weather, beach, birds, ponies and pretty scenery.

Above are the Black Skimmers, a Little Blue Heron, Egrets and the Chincoteague Lighthouse.

The boardwalk at Tom's Cove, surfer, Chincoteague ponies and the pretty beach.  We had cool sightings of dolphins swimming by and playing around in and jumping out the waves.

More Skimmers, Godwit, Terns and some Willets and along the side in the photo is a Little Blue, Snowy Egret and a Tricolored heron and the bottom is a Green Heron.

On a later post I will share my two lifers...the rare sighting of a Bar-tailed Godwit and a Sandwich Tern. The birding was awesome. I enjoyed seeing all the shorebirds.

Spending the one night we were able to watch the sunset, the moon rise above the ocean and see a beautiful sunrise.  After watching the sunrise we checked out some more of the shorebirds as we headed back to our hotel for breakfast. Not ready to go home we hung around the Chincoteague NWR. We took a walk on the woodland trail and did one last stop to check out the Tom's Cove area which was were I spotted my lifers. I will post about my Chincoteague lifers on another post. Even on the drive home, I was able to watch an eagle lift off the Nanticoke River and fly next to our car for awhile as I drove over the bridge. I had a great weekend, how was your weekend?

As always, I hope you enjoy my post and thanks for visiting my blog. I always appreciate your comments.

Join in on the fun and for more wonderful photos please visit  Mosaic Monday and more
 from  Our World Tuesday

 Thanks to our host: Mary our host of Mosaic Monday and to the hosting group of Our World Tuesday: Arija, Gattina, Lady Fi, Sylvia, Sandy and Jennifer.  I wish everyone a happy week!

Sharing the Beach

  I am linking up with   Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday

Happy Memorial Day Weekend....God Bless and special thanks to all the veterans and our military men and women.

The Memorial Day weekend is usually the start of summer vacations and trips to the beaches. I wanted to remind bird lovers and beach lovers to help protect and still enjoy the shorebirds and the cute beach nesters.

This week my post is on some of the birds that nest on beaches. Since it is time for the beach nesting birds and summer is almost here my post is about protecting the beach nesters. There are some great tips for all beach lovers that are easy to follow.

 The Black Skimmers, American Oystercatchers and the Terns are all birds that nest on the dunes. I have seen them at Cape May, Maryland Beaches like Assateague and at Chincoteague beach. I believe these birds nest on beaches up and down the eastern coast of the US.

 I saw this Florida Audubon poster which has some great tips on how to protect the beach nesting birds. These simple things should be done as long as the birds are nesting and the chicks are seen on the beaches ....not just for the holiday weekend. These suggestions should be followed by beach lovers not only from Florida but up and down the US coastlines. 

There are simple things listed that everyone can do to help protect these birds, their nest and the chicks. Above are some of my shots of the Piping Plovers.

Above is a photo of a Piping Plover seen at Curry Hammock State Park in the Florida Keys. I thought the Florida Audubon notice was perfect since I was sharing the Piping Plover I saw while in Florida. But, I would hope all the Audubon Chapters located on the East Coast of the US would have the same kind of notice protecting the beach nesting birds.

I hope you enjoyed my post and thanks for visiting my blog and post. I really appreciate your comment too.
Join in on the fun and for more wonderful photos please visit  Mosaic Monday and more from  Our World Tuesday
 Thanks to our host: Mary our host of Mosaic Monday and to the hosting group of Our World Tuesday: Arija, Gattina, Lady Fi, Sylvia, Sandy and Jennifer.  Thanks also for stopping by to see my post.  I wish everyone a happy week!

Black Skimmer

I am linking up with  World Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes

My World Bird this week is the Black Skimmer.

Last week hubby and I saw quite a few Black Skimmers. We saw them both at Edwin Forsythe NWR on Thursday and at Cape May on Friday.  The Black Skimmers are Tern-like seabirds.

Above my photo captured a few of them head on but I really like the side view showing off their cool looking beaks.

At Cape May I believe they were nesting on the beach. They have roped off a part of the beach and sand dunes to protect the nesting birds. They breed in loose groups on sandy beaches. Three-seven bluish eggs are incubated by both the male and female.

At the nesting area we saw the Black Skimmers, Terns and American Oystercatchers.

I tried hard to catch two Black Skimmers flying low over the ocean at Cape May. I hope you enjoyed my post and to see more beautiful birds check out World Bird Wednesday  and for more nature scenes visit Nature Notes.

Thanks to Springman of World Bird and to Michelle the host of Nature Notes. Thanks for stopping by to see my post, hope the rest of the week is a good one. Happy Birding!

Edwin B Forsythe NWR

Wow, I was not sure if I was going to be able to use this blog again. I had so much trouble going on with warnings. I must say I run virus protection scans daily and my computer was clean , even blogger could not find a reason why it happened. Luckily and thanks to someone at blogger they have my blog up and running again. I decided to delete a lot of my links and I am no longer accepting  links on my comments, so please avoid leaving a link in your comment.

I am linking up with Mosaic Monday  and Our World Tuesday

This week hubby and I took short trip to the Jersey shore, we stopped at the Edwin Forsythe NWR which is just across the bay from Atlantic City. It is a great place for birding for me and hubby has his fun playing poker.

Above I am showing the Glossy Ibis, one of the many threatened Diamondback Terrapins, adult Osprey, gulls and a skimmer and bottom right is an Osprey with chicks.

 The Diamondback Terrapin is laying eggs right next to the wildlife drive. I hope the babies survive. The Diamondback Terrapin is threatened and starting to make a come back. They are the state reptile of Maryland.

Cute osprey chick is spreading its wings, it could be the first one to leave the nest.


You can visit the wildlife refuge at different times of the year and see different species of birds. Spring and summer are a good time for the shorebirds and to see the babies and chicks. This was the first time for me to see so many Osprey chicks on the nest. Some chicks seem bigger on the various nest but they are a very cool sight to see.

 Above top left are a few Black Skimmers, larger top right is a Black Crowned Night heron, middle is a Black Skimmer in flight and skimming. Bottom row is a Clapper Rail, I believe a Caspian tern and another Black Skimmer.

 The Black Skimmers are cool looking birds with their beak looking like a carrot dipped in black.

One of my favorite shorebirds is the Black Skimmer. We had fun watching the Black Skimmer flying low over the water and just barely touching the water with its beak. As they fly low over the with their beaks open till they feel their prey and their beaks snap shut. It is an amazing sight.

Another beautiful bird at the refuge is the Great Egret, we also saw some of the Snowy Egrets. I hope you enjoyed my post and believe me I am happy to be able to make a post.


To see more wonderful mosaics and photos please visit Mosaic Monday  and Our World Tuesday.

Thanks to Mary of Mosaic Monday and to the hosting group of Our World Tuesday. I hope everyone has a HAPPY week ahead and Happy Birding.