Saturday's Critters # 508

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 combining various photos from outings back in July up to some in August. Like I mentioned on  a previous post, I am way behind sharing photos from our walks. These are from our Maryland State park, our neighborhood next to the Prettyboy reservoir and the NCR bike trail.

1. Cunningham Falls State Park is located in the Catoctin Mountains in Thurmont Maryland. We have been short of rain, so the waterfalls was just a trickle the day we were there. Wildlife sightings, Red-winged Blackbirds, Chipping Sparrow, Chipmunk, American Robins and some Barn Swallows sitting in a tree and flying low over the lake.

2. Along the trail I saw and heard this Caroline Wren,  they sing so loudly.  

3. Bees and butterflies are loving our plants right now, The Purple Coneflowers, a waterlily, Buddleia blooms and the Sunrita Blanket Flower, Zinnias and Lantana. 

4. Our walk to the lake, we have been seeing this Great Blue Heron standing in the same spot almost every time we visit the lake. The Bunnies seem to be doing well, they are all over our yard and neighborhood. A view of the reservoir with a sunburst and the Belted Kingfisher is seen sitting at his favorite spot. 

5. On another day, scenes from our walk to the lake we saw the Green Heron perched on a branch hanging over the lake. The Canada Geese are always around the lake, bottom left side looks like a female Towhee and a Black Swallowtail butterfly. 

6. A larger image of the Green Heron perched above the lake shore.

7. A Ruby-throated Hummingbird likes to sit in the butterfly bush, mean time the butterfly bush attracts the Tiger Swallowtails, both the Yellow and Black Swallowtails are seen every day.  A bunny is seen often in our yard.  

8. The Black Swallowtails are a common sight seen around our butterfly bush. 

9. The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail is another common butterfly seen on our flowers. 

10.  Another day and another walk to our lake, the usual sightings of the Great Blue Heron, Belted Kingfisher and the Green Heron. 

11. A closer look at one three Green Herons we saw on this day. 

12.  On this day we drove around our lake to see the dam, I noticed a few Double-crested Cormorants hanging out, Cliff Swallows were flying around the dam and we made a little detour to see the Canada Geese and a Great Egret at the Friendly Farm's pond. 

13. A day after the big storm that took out our power we went on a walk at the NCR bike trail, there were several spot on the trail were trees had fallen, some pretty purple wildflowers, a Turkey Vulture perched high in a tree above the river and I am not sure of the bird's id in the lower right side of my mosaic. 

Since living in our home for 33 years we have known and loved our neighbors dogs as if they were are own. Recently Marlow has passed on, he was a good friend to our Goldie Girl. Marlow was a happy dog and always came to greet us if he saw us in the yard or out on the trails. RIP Marlow, you will be missed. 

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. 

Happy Thankful Thursday

 Happy Thankful Thursday!

I wanted to share some photos from a hike and a park we visited back on October 28th.  Cunningham Falls State Park is located in the picturesque Catoctin Mountins in Thurmont Maryland. The park has a man-made lake and is named after the Cunningham Falls, the largest cascading falls in Maryland.  

It was a pretty blue sky day, a lovely Autumn day for a hike.  Below is the man-made lake in the William Houck area of the state park. 

 Near the lake, I watched this flock of Cedar Waxwings finding some berries to eat. Other birds seen and not photographed are the Carolina Wren, White-breasted Nuthatch, Titmouse, Chickadees, various woodpeckers and the Ruby-crowned Kinglet.

 At the parking lot for the waterfall hike,  you can see a peak of the lake.

 A sunburst and some pretty fall colors. 

 I am pretty sure, below is the Golden-crowned Kinglet. It has a small bill and they have a black and white striped face. Their pretty colorful crown shows when they are excited.

I wish we had more rain , the waterfalls was not gushing. But, it looked pretty with some fall colors around.

 The boardwalk trail to and from the waterfall. The sun shining on the trees and the leaf colors were beautiful.

 "Happiness is something that you bring to life."

 Me and my shadow. 

 Walking back to our car, we saw more pretty fall colors.  Beautiful trees!

  "Whatever you decide to do , make sure it makes you happy."


I am thankful for the small things, like the sun shining through the trees, blue skies and lovely weather for walking. 

I am thankful for all your visits and comments. 


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




Thanks so much for visiting and for your nice comments on my previous post. Have a happy day!

Cunningham Falls State Park

Hello,

Happy Thursday everyone! I hope everyone is having a great week. My last quarter moon photo taken on the morning of January 7th.

Below from the morning of January 9th, we woke up to our deck and driveway being covered with a layer of sleet and ice.

January 9th, we were finally able to get outside for a walk and a short visit the Cunningham Falls State Park, in Catoctin Maryland. 

A sun flare seen while walking on the trail to the Cunningham Falls.

Birds seen and heard at the park were the Tufted Titmouse, White-breasted Nuthatch, Dark-eyed Junco and the Carolina Chickadees. I am sure there were more birds there but they were hiding from me.

The frozen Cunningham Falls is hard to see covered with snow and ice.

A pretty view of the blue sky and a few clouds.

The frozen manmade lake at Cunningham Falls State Park.

This is for Tom's Barn Collective, a barn seen from the road near the park. 

I am thankful for good weather and spending time outside. 
I am thankful for the state parks in Maryland.

I am thankful for all your visits and comments this past year. 

Thank you Michelle for hosting. Thankful Thursday

Thank you to the hosts of   Skywatch Friday

Thank you to Tom for hosting The Barn Collective

Thanks so much for visiting and for your nice comments on my previous post. Have a happy day!

Birding & Hiking at Cunningham Falls State Park

I am linking up with Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday

These photos are from a few weeks ago hubby and I visited the Cunningham Falls State Park here in Maryland.

 The weather had been mild and it was a lovely day to be outside taking a walk.  Our first hike was on the trail to the waterfalls  from the parking close to the lake. I was surprised that there were no ducks or geese on the lake at Cunningham Falls State park. It is a nice trail with pretty trees and lots of boulder size rocks in places. There were also new plantings of what looked like Hemlock trees along the trail. We met up with a family hiking with their cute blue eyed Husky puppy dog. I asked if I could take a photo of their puppy, I just love dogs.

I am not sure what kind of tree these are but they do not seem to loose their old leaves. I thought maybe in spring the new leaf pushes out the old leaf.  I thought the woods looked pretty with these trees with their bronze colored leaves all around.

The birds seen along the trail were a lot of White Breasted Nuthatches, and lots of Chickadees. I think this area could see a mixture of the Black Capped Chickadee and the Carolina Chickadee. I also heard the White Throated Sparrows, Juncos, Downy Woodpeckers and some Kinglets.

The Chickadee has to be one of the cutest birds even their sounds are cute.

The Cunningham Falls is a popular place, visitors like to climb up the rocks to the top of the falls.

There is also an easy boardwalk trail to view the falls, we also walked this trail so we could see a different angle and view of the falls. This is the creek at the bottom of the falls, a pretty scene with the trees and in the background the falls. Cunningham Falls State Park is located in Thurmont, Maryland. Also, nearby is the Catoctin Mountain National Park.

I am happy you stopped by to visit my post and I appreciate the comments. I hope everyone has a great week.
To see more wonderful mosaics and photos please visit Mary's Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday

Thanks to Mary the host of Mosaic Monday and to the hosting group of Our World Tuesday: Arija, Sylvia, Sandy, Lady Fi, Gattina.