Saturday's Critters # 652

   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!

"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." John Muir

Click on images for better viewing.

This post continues with our little getaway to the Eastern shore of Maryland, we stopped on the way home at the Blackwater Wildlife Refuge.  We saw so many birds, Eagles and Osprey were plentiful. There were Egrets, Herons, Red-headed Woodpecker, Brown-headed Nuthatches, various shorebirds and gulls. 

1. Below are an Osprey couple, one Osprey  eating a fish perched on the side of the nest.  

My Merlin App showed just some of the birds seen and heard at the Blackwater wildlife refuge in Cambridge Maryland. 

2. Seen below are the Brown-headed Nuthatch top left and the Eastern Bluebird top right. Bottom left is the red-headed Woodpecker and a Killdeer on the right. 

3. We saw some Great Egrets hanging about in the wetlands. 

The Great Blue Herons are a common sight to see along the wildlife drive. 

4. My Merlin App picked up both the Lesser Yellowlegs and the Greater Yellowlegs. 

5. The Ospreys and Eagle sightings were plentiful.  I think both the Ospreys and the Eagles are impressive beautiful birds.  

6. There were two Eaglets in the nest, this photo is heavily cropped.

7. This pair of Eagles posed in a pine tree that was next to the wildlife drive. 

8. The sun was reflecting on the Glossy Ibis

A Killdeer with two chicks at the visitor center. 

Killdeer chick looked cute, it was seen on the visitor center parking lot. 

I hope you enjoyed my bird sightings at the Blackwater Wildlife refuge, these photos were all taken from my car window. My reason for not being perfect photos.  

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.

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Saturday's Critters # 574

  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!

Oct 7-9th, these photos are from our latest visit to Chincoteague Island NWR Virginia and Blackwater NWR, Cambridge Md. These are some of my favorite places to visit to see wildlife.  

Click on images for better viewing!

1. On the way to Chincoteague Island Virginia we pass by Blackwater NWR in Cambridge Maryland.  We drove through the refuge on the wildlife drive one loop before getting back on the road the Virginia. 

2. Chincoteague Ponies, the main attraction for visiting the Chincoteague Island NWR.

3. Belted Kingfisher

4.  Great Egret

5. Gulls, Cormorants and Terns. The Laughing Gull seems to be the most common gull seen at the refuge. The bottom photos shows the gulls with two different Terns, one of the Terns has more of a yellow bill and the other is really orange-red colored bill.  

6. There are a few Terns seen at this wildlife refuge.  The Royal Terns, Caspian Terns and the Forster's Tern. 

The Sanderlings were plentiful and fun to watch on the beach. They like to run back and forth to the water. 

7. Tricolored Herons

8. Chincoteague Island National Seashore.

9. Tom's Cove sunset, Chincoteague Island NWR 

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 # 534

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!

Feb 8th-10th, hubby and I were on a getaway to Maryland's Eastern shore, we stopped at Blackwater NWR in Cambridge Md and then onto Ocean City, Md for 2 nights. The first images are from Blackwater Wildlife Refuge and the last ones are from the Ocean City Inlet. 

1. At Blackwater, we enjoyed seeing lots of Tundra Swans, Canada Geese, Snow Geese, Northern Pintail and a GB Heron. 

At Blackwater NWR, it is a treat to see the Snow geese, this huge group of Snow Geese was out on the Blackwater River. 

While we sat in our car and watched the Snow Geese, they all flew up, circled around and came back down and landed on the river. They are extremely loud, an Eagle or Hawk must have upset them.

A landscape image of Blackwater, lots of Tundra Swans, Canada Geese and a variety of ducks. 

We did some birdwatching and wave watching at the Ocean City Inlet.  Birds seen below are top row are the Surf Scoter and a Ruddy Turnstone with Sanderlings. Bottom row are male and female Bufflehead with a Red-breasted Merganser.

We had dinner at the Ropewalk restaurant in Ocean City, located on the bay side. A perfect spot to watch the sunset while having dinner. They had some beautiful murals on the walls outside the restaurant. 

The murals are pretty scenes, Maryland fishermen with gulls and another mural of the sea creatures and birds in flight.

I loved this mural with the birds and fish below.

From inside the restaurant we watch the pretty sunset on Ocean City's bay. 

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. I am also joining Sami with Monday Murals

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:

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.