Saturday's Critters # 614

  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!

A mish-mash of photos from early August. 

Click on images for better viewing.

1. Aug 4th my walk with Miney to the lake. I found a Red-eared Slider Turtle and some Canada Geese across the lake. 

2. Aug 6th, our walk with Miney on the NCR trail. Hubby was walking with us part of the way. 

Below are 3 Black Vultures sitting on top of a large boulder next to the bike trail. Only part of one of the vultures is seen in between the other two. 

3. Aug 7th, A local Prettyboy fire road walk with Miney. 

4. Aug 8th, another walk to the lake with Miney. We saw some Double-crested Cormorants and the Slider Turtles were a distance away. A Northern Flicker perched high on a tree. 

I am sharing a closer look at the Northern Flicker in my yard, they are beautiful birds.

5. Aug 11th,  I have been enjoying watching the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds zooming around my yard. The male likes to sit right on top of the feeder, he guards his feeder from all the other hummingbirds. 

6. Below are the Monarch Butterfly, the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail and the Black Swallowtail. There are times our buddleia bush is filled with butterflies, looks magical. 

The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly sharing a bloom with a Black Swallowtail. 

7. Flashback Florida 2017, The Roseate Spoonbill has a long flat spoon-shaped bill. This shot shows just how flat the bill is. The first three photos were taken at Lake Parker Park in Lakeland, Fl.

8. Immature Roseate Spoonbills are a paler pink. Their pink color is derived from their diet. They eat frogs and aquatic insects and very small fish. The next two images were taken at the Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland Fl.

The Roseate Spoonbills lately are showing up up and down the Atlantic Coast. I believe there were 4-5 in Delaware seen at Bombay Hook NWR and 5-6 in Southern Maryland. 

Sept 15th, there was some excitement in our neighborhood, with a few of our neighbors helping a public works employee having to fend off a bear. The worker was checking out the health of trees in the watershed when a bear was bluff charging her, my neighbors were out walking their dog and tried helping the worker. We are not sure, maybe the bear had cubs it was protecting. The worker had some scratches from a fall and was driven back to the street in a neighbor's 4 wheeler and a policemen with a gun escorted our neighbors back to the road. We were at lunch with the family and missed all this excitement. 

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 # 540

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 away from my computer, I will be visiting your posts and commenting as soon as possible. Thank you for participating and for all your comments.

These are photos from our visit to Conowingo Dam and the Susquehanna River. We saw lots of Bald Eagles, Vultures and great view of the Great Blue Heron rookery. 

1. The Bald Eagles both adults and juveniles were all around the dam area and river. Some were standing on rocks along the river, in the trees and perched on the dam sign. 

2. On the photo below there are two juvenile Bald Eagles with one adult Eagle. 

3. How many Bald Eagles can you find in the tree below? I found 8 eagles. 

4. This Bald Eagle found something to stare at, a possible meal?

5. The warning sign at the end of the island. There were 2 juvenile Eagles with one adult.

6. The Black Vultures are plentiful at Conowingo. There are warning signs about these vultures eating the rubber off of car windows that are parked in the lot. 

7. At Conowingo I think the Black Vultures outnumber the Turkey Vultures.  They hang out in big groups in the trees and on the ground. 

8.  Here is a Turkey Vulture showing off it's wing span. 

9. The Great Blue Heron rookery is on a small island in the middle of the Susquehanna River just a short distance from the Conowingo Dam. It is great to see so many Heron nests, they are doing well. 

10. I always enjoy seeing the Great Blue Herons, they have a nice rookery at Conowingo.  

11. It is amazing to see how many herons there are, on or around the tiny nest.  

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.

Here is my linky:

Thank you for sharing your critters and post!

Saturday's Critters # 414

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!

Hubby and I took a short day trip to the Conowingo Dam and the Susquehanna River State Park to see the Bald Eagles. In November the Bald Eagles gather at the river just below the dam. Previous years the Eagle count was close to 200. I think we went a little too early, we will make another trip soon.  We saw numerous Double-crested Cormorants, various Gull species, Turkey Vultures and the Black Vultures and the local resident Great Blue Herons. The Ring Billed Gulls dominate but the Herring Gull and the Great Black-backed Gulls can be seen too. 

1. Below on the dam walls, are a few immature Bald Eagles, Double-crested Cormorants with a line of Gulls, 2 Great Blue Herons with a Bald Eagle, immature Bald Eagle with a few Black Vultures. 

2. There was 3 immature  Bald Eagles perched on the dam wall. 

3. One of the many Bald Eagles seen at the Susquehanna River and Conowingo Dam. 

4.   A Bald Eagle, Black Vultures and an immature Bald Eagle with a fish perched on the tower.

5. A line up of Gulls and a group of the Double-crested Cormorants.

6. Below mixed in with the rocks are an immature Bald Eagle, adult Bald Eagle and the Great Blue Heron. 

7.  Some views of the Susquehanna River State Park.

8.  Below images are the Golden-crowned Kinglet on the left and the Downy Woodpecker on the right.  

Thank you for visiting, for linking up and for the nice comments.

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!

Here is my linky:

Thank you for sharing your critters!

Thanks to all my visitors and for your comments. Stop back to see any replies to your comments. I appreciate everyone who loves critters and has linked up their critter post.

Our World, My World

 Happy Monday everyone,

On November 5th hubby and I took our walk at the Susquehanna River and at the Conowingo Dam in Maryland.  Hubby and I have been going to see the Bald Eagles every year, this is a link to my previous posts on the Susquehanna River & Bald Eagle.  November is a great time to see the migrating Bald Eagles, there are days you can see 100 or more Eagles.

 1.  Every winter the Bald Eagles gather below the dam, some are the migrating Bald Eagles and some are seen year round. It was a little foggy at the river, dam and trail when we first arrived but the fog cleared out and it was a beautiful morning. Below photos are of the Susquehanna River trail, a Great Blue Heron, Bald Eagles in the trees, fog over the river, a juvenile Bald Eagle perched on a rock in the river, eagles flying over the dam, eagles on the tower and lots of Black Vultures on the tower.

Click on the photos for better viewing!

 

2. The foggy Susquehanna River trail.

 

 

3. Seen from the foggy trail, a Bald Eagle high in a tree.

 

 

4. A juvenile Bald Eagle was perched on top of a rock in the middle of the Susquehanna River. The juvenile eagle below is starting to have more of the white head, it takes 5 years to attain the full white head seen on the adult Bald Eagle.

 

 

 

5.  The fog was lifting and the sun was shining and the sky was looking beautiful. What a great day! 

 

6. The Bald Eagles were everywhere you looked, in the trees above our heads, flying over the river and  chasing each other around. It really is an amazing sight to see so many Bald Eagles at one time.

 

 

 

7. In this area below, I found 3 Bald Eagles ( 2 adults and one juvenile) and 2 Great Blue Herons. Can you find all 5 birds below? 

 

 

8.  Years ago, there was an Opsrey nest on this tower.  These 2 adults Bald Eagles seem to be checking out the nest. 

 

 9. Below perched on the tower are 2 juvenile Bald Eagles on the right and one adult Bald Eagle on the lower left. The photo above was taken at the same time showing the nest and 2 adult Bald Eagles. 

10.   This area is popular for seeing the Black Vultures, below the are just a "few" Black Vultures hanging out on the tower.  There are warning signs at the parking lot, you park at your own risk. These vultures are known to land on the cars and start eating the rubber around your car windows.  Sharing an old post that shows the Black Vultures on some of the parked cars.

 

 I have lots more photos to share for my Saturday's critters, I hope you enjoyed these views from our visit to the Susquehanna River and Conowingo Dam.

 Below a Covid 19 update, which is in the news every day and in my world. This is not political, it just concerns our health and lives.

 I follow and trust the Johns Hopkins website called Track Testing Trends, it shows the positivity rates in Maryland and every state in the USA. The state of Maryland as of 11/6 has a positive rate of 3.4 and just to share how bad the numbers can increase, the state with the highest number is South Dakota at 52.2.  I believe any state that stays in the range of 5.0 or below is doing well handling the Virus.  The Covid cases are going up each day, so take care and stay safe.

Wear your mask and keep your distance! 

 Hubby and I are happy and healthy, I hope everyone is doing well too.
 

What's happening in your corner of the world? Please check out and visit the following memes and links. I hope to see you there.

 
Thanks to Angie the host of  Mosaic Monday

Thanks to LadyFi  the host of Our World Tuesday!

Thanks for visiting and commenting, have a happy day and a great new week!

 

Happy Thankful Thursday

 Hello, Happy Thursday!

Hubby and I look forward to the nice weather for our walks and outings.  It seems like the weather people can not always predict the weather lately. We wanted to get away for a night or two but the weather was not cooperating.  

 

1. So we go on, taking our daily walks. On this day we were able to drive an 1 1/2 hour away to the Great Falls National Park in Potomac Maryland. We walked a total of 5.3 miles at the C&O Canal Trail earlier and at Great Falls.  

 

 

2. Great Falls National Park visitor center. It was a pretty blue sky day...My kind of weather, cool, sunny and clear skies.

3. The C& O Canal Trail at Great Falls, not a cloud in the sky.

4. The Canal Boat and canal was being worked on while we were there.

5. Me and my shadow are seen below in the white water without a raft and paddle.

 

 

 

 

 

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6. Below are a few Warblers and friends, top row Northern Parula. Bottom row is the Black & White Warbler, Blue-headed Vireo and a Black-throated Green Warbler.  These were all seen in one spot along the trail to the Great Falls Overlook.

 

 

 

7. Below is the view from the Great Falls overlook, the Potomac River.

 

 

8. From the Maryland overlook you can across the river and see the Virginia Overlook.

 

 

 

 

9. These are some of the birds I saw during our visit to Great Falls NP.

Below top row are the Black Vulture, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Great Blue Heron. Middle Row are the Northern Parula, Black-throated Green Warbler, Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Bottom row are the Canada Geese, Double-crested Cormorants, Mallard Ducks. 

 

 10.  A Yellow-billed Cuckoo seen right off the trail. I do not usually see these birds on the ground, they are usually found in the tree tops. This Cuckoo was seen flying and landing on the ground.

 

 

 

11. Pretty blue sky and the Potomac River.  The Great Falls National Park is split between the states of Maryland and Virginia by the Potomac River. 

 

 

 

I am thankful for correct weather predictions.

I am thankful for planned outings.

I am always thankful to survive driving on the DC 495 Beltway and on the I-95, there are some crazy drivers out there.  

I am thankful for long walks with nature.

Take care and stay safe! 


Live simple and be happy!  😊 Keep smiling!



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


Thank you for visiting and for your nice comments on my previous post. Have a happy day!!  😊