Saturday's Critters # 503

 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 sharing some more of our Ireland photos. On May 11th we visited the Cliffs of Moher and we also went to a private sheep farm.

1. My mosaic images are various views of the Cliffs of Moher. We were able to spend a few hours walking the cliffs, checking out the tower and the visitor center. 

Click on images for larger viewing.

2. The Razorbills one of the many sea birds on the Cliffs of Moher. The Razorbills a type of Auk, they are white and black and there is a white line on the face and bill. 

3. The Black-legged Kittiwake also seen in high numbers on the cliffs. They are white with gray wings, black legs and a yellow bill.

4. The Northern Fulmar was also seen on the cliffs, they are gray and white with a pale yellow thick bill. 

5. The cliff walls were covered with sea birds, I believe these are Common Murre. The Common Murre or Common Guillemot is a black and white sea bird.  They have a thin dark pointed bill. 

6. I wished my camera was able to zoom in closers to all those tiny dots. There must have been thousands of sea birds on this sea stack. 

7. Later on the same day we visited a private working sheep farm. It was neat to see the dogs herding the sheep. Hubby was able to bottle feed one of the lambs. The donkeys, dogs and sheep all seemed very friendly.  

8. Lambs being bottle fed, hubby's hand is in the front wearing his gloves. 

9.  The sheep with their farmer's colors.

10. The herding dogs seem to run with smiles on their faces, they love their jobs. 

11. The herding dog is waiting for instructions. 

12. The dog at work moving the sheep. 

13. Time to pet the cute donkeys. 

14. Some of the farm with a view of the bay, some fiber art using the sheep's wool, an old caravan,  a sample of sheared sheep's wool. The lambs are adorable, a closeup of the sheep black faces, some penned sheep and the lambs inside waiting for their bottles. 

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. 

Saturday's Critters #100

Saturday's Critters #100

Hello, we have reached # 100 for my Saturday's Critter linky party.  Thanks so much to everyone who has been with me since the start of Saturday's Critters. I appreciate all my blogging friends who have linked up and joined in with all the critter fun. Who doesn't like critters, they are all so cute! Thank you again to the visitors and for the nice comments.

EDIT: I am linking up with Favorite Fotos thanks to Lydia at Where the Wild Things Were

I am sharing some of the birds and Humpback Whales we saw during our Port Angeles Whale Watching trip during our Washington State visit.

A group of Common Murre being led by a single Rhinoceros Auklet

In the mosaic above is the Rhinoceros Auklet, a common bird seen near the coast of Washington State.

Whale Watching Port Angeles

It was exciting to see 4-5 Humpback Whales during our whale watching trip on Oct 5th.

A young Humpback Whale seen playing with the kelp during our whale watching trip out of Port Angeles, Washington.

The Common Murre were common birds seen in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. This Strait is the body of water between Washington State and Victoria British Columbia Canada. You can see the two red spots on the map included above where our whale watching tour was based.

Another main attraction beside seeing all the whales were the Harbor Seals, Elephant Seals and Sea lions at the Race Rocks  & Lighthouse which is closer to Canada than the USA.

The Race Rocks Reserve includes the marine animals, sea birds and fish. Above the rocks are covered with various Cormorants, mostly the Pelagic Cormorant.

An InLinkz Link-up

To see more beautiful birds and cute critters, check out these two memes below.

Also visit:  I'd-Rather-B-Birdin. Thanks to the gracious host: Anni.  Also check out Camera Critters. Thanks to Misty for hosting this fun meme.

Common Murre Lifer

I am linking up with Wild Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes

While hubby and I were vacationing on the Oregon coastline we stopped at the Cape Meares Scenic viewpoint. Cape Meares provide a view of the largest colony of nesting Common Murres. Another lifer for me the Common Murre is also known as the Common Guillemot. The Common Murre is in the family commonly called Alcids. The Thick Billed Murre is also in the Alcidae "Alcids"  family.

The Common Murre is an Alcid that dives for their prey. They use their wings and their feet for propulsion and steering. The Common Murre has a thin bill. It has a black head, back and wings and white underparts.The face is white with a dark spur behind the eye.

The Pyramid and Pillar rocks are part of the Oregon Island National Wildlife Refuge. I was able to zoom in few a few closeups. But the photos of the Common Murre are fuzzy.

The Common Murre breed in colonies in high densities, nesting pairs maybe in bodily contact with their neighbors. They do not make a nest, their egg is incubated on a bare rock ledge.

The Three Arch Rocks provide habitat for more than 200,000 nesting seabirds, primarily the Common Murre.

The vertical seacliffs support nesting seabirds such as the Tufted Puffin, Common Murres, Pigeon Guillemots, Pelagic Cormorants, Peregrine Falcons and the Bald Eagle.

A fuzzy shot of a few of the Common Murre in the ocean.
It was an amazing sight to see so many of these Common Murres in one spot. Zooming in on any one spot on the rock I could see how close the birds were to each. The Murres and other birds were sitting on just about on every spot of the rock. It was an amazing sight to see, if you are in the area I highly recommend visiting Cape Meares.

To see more wonderful birds and photos please visit Wild Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes