Happy Thankful Thursday!

Happy Thankful Thursday! 

💓💓 Happy Valentine's Day everyone!  💕💗

I still have tons of Florida photos but I today am sharing some photos of our recent trip to Ocean City Maryland. It is fun getting away to the beach during the off season. We always check the weather first and the hotels are cheaper off season. The beach is just about empty of people, the gulls are still around.  You must know me by now, I can not go any where without looking for birds, I was hoping for a Snowy Owl but no luck there. We did see lots of sea ducks and cute little shorebirds.

Our first stop near the beach was at the Indian River Inlet, I have seen a Snowy Owl there in the past. We did see 30 or more Long-tailed Ducks, we watched these ducks fly up the inlet, land on the water and float back down. They repeated this countless times while we were there. 

The Long-tailed Ducks flying up the Indian River Inlet.

The bridge over the Indian River Inlet, Delaware.

Gulls resting on the jetty at Indian River Inlet.

Brant Geese were on the beach @ Delaware Seashore State Park

Oh, what a beautiful day! I am thankful for beautiful winter days.

I think these are the female White-winged Scoter?

More Long-tailed Ducks, Black Scoter, and Bufflehead.

More White-winged Scoters?

Common Loon or Red-throated Loon?

Lots of Bufflehead females, young male and one adult male almost hidden on far right.

A peek at a Bufflehead, the Black Scoter in the middle and just the head of a Long-tailed Duck. 

The pretty sky and beach @ Delaware Seashore State Park

I am thankful for our little getaways and trips.
I am Thankful, Grateful and Blessed!
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


Happy Thursday, enjoy your day!

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

Birding Cape Henlopen, Delaware

  I am linking up with Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday 

December 8, 2013

This post shares some of the sights hubby and I saw while birding Delaware last weekend. We stopped at so many different places in Delaware, I took tons of photos. Some are scenic and lots of birds photos of course  ;)

I was kind of hoping to see some  Snow Bunting on the beach at Cape Henlopen. There was not a Snow Bunting in sight only a few gulls hanging around.

The beach at Cape Henlopen State Park, it is just around the corner from the Cape May/Lewes Ferry.

A few gulls and a Horned Grebe

The House Finches perched in a tree near the nature center's feeders.

Above the House Finches look like ornaments on this bare tree. And the Brown-headed Nuthatches are so cute, they were one of my favorite sightings.

We were walking back up the trail when this Turkey Vulture flew low over our heads. It was a pretty sky but a very cold day on the beach.

Even though is was a cold day and I missed seeing the Snow Buntings we still had a fun time walking on the beach. I did get to see my favorite Brown-headed Nuthatches..  I hope you enjoyed our walk around the Cape Henlopen beach.

I was happy to take some photos of my great - nephew on Thanksgiving.. Baby Neill is so cute and was one of my favorite guests for Thanksgiving this year...

I have starting a new MEME called Saturday Critters..posted early on Saturday Mornings...join in on the party and post your cute critters.

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!

Brown-headed Nuthatch

I am linking up with Wild Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes

December 10, 2013

The Brown-headed Nuthatch is usually seen in the pine forests of the Southeastern United States. It's sharp beak is a tool to dig for the insects.  The Brown-headed Nuthatch and the Pygmy Nuthatch are the two smallest of the worlds Nuthatch Species.

There are four species of Nuthatches in the US. I have seen three of them, this Brown-headed Nuthatch, the Red Breasted Nuthatch and the White Breasted Nuthatch.. I am missing the Pygmy Nuthatch, somehow and someday I hope to add the Pygmy Nuthatch to my lifelist.  This is a link to one of my other Nuthatches post

For comparison, above is a mosaic showing  both the Red-breasted Nuthatch and the White-breasted Nuthatch in my backyard.

While walking on the trail at the Cape Henlopen State Park in Delaware we noticed 5-6 of these cuties all poking around the same tree. It was hard to focusing on one of the Nuthatches while they were all moving about the tree limb.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my cute Brown-headed Nuthatches.. Thanks for visiting my post and for the nice comments.

 I am starting a new MEME called Saturday Critters..early on Saturday Mornings ...join in with the party and post your cute critters.

Join in and post your birdies and to see more beautiful and wonderful bird photos please visit:
 Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday and Michelle's  Nature Notes.  Thanks to our host Michelle our host Stewart.  Happy Birding and have a wonderful week!

Delware birds

I want to wish everyone a very HAPPY & HEALTHY NEW YEAR. And to all the birders and ME (ha-ha), I wish many great bird sightings in 2012.




For my last Camera Critters post for 2011 I have some of the birds we saw last week in Delaware.
One of my main birds to look for at Cape Henlopen, Delaware are the Snow Buntings. In the winter they can be seen around the dunes at Cape Henlopen State Park.

Across the bay from Cape Henlopen Park we could see the Lighthouse at Cape May, NJ. The entrance to the Lewes/Cape May ferry is right next to Cape Henlopen State Park.

 I did see the Snow Buntings flying around the dunes. It was kind of funny, while we walked toward the point on the bay side I could see the Snow Buntings flying toward the ocean side of the point. So we walked around the point to the ocean side and again saw the Snow Buntings flying toward the bayside. I was beginning to think they were playing games with me, like my dog wanting me to chase her and play keep away. Well, I did not see the Snow Buntings on the ground but I did see two groups in flight. Another bird that can be seen at Cape Henlopen is the Brown Headed Nuthatch. I could hear these birds all around the Nature Center. Sometimes, they would land at the feeder take and seed and fly off quickly. As far as photos of both the Snow Bunting and the Brown Headed Nuthatch it was not happening on this trip.

My only Brown-head Nuthatch photo is a silhouette. You can see their cute little bill.

The white tailed deer could be seen from the nature center's parking lot.

The deer didn't seem to mind me taking their picture.

I had a tough time trying to focus on what I believe is a Cooper Hawk perched in a tree off the seaside trail at Cape Henlopen. Forget the bird, I think I did a good job focusing on the pine tree branches. LOL!

Two female House Finches were chowing down at the nature center's feeder. I was a worried that one of these house finches could have the eye disease.

We were not the only people at the beach we did see a couple of horseback riders and a fisherman driving his vehicle on the beach.

Please visit Misty Dawn's Camera Critters . Thanks to Misty for hosting this fun critter meme all year round. Being an animal lover, I have enjoyed visiting everyone's critter post. 

 I hope to see even more cute critters in 2012.

Thanks for visiting my blog and for commenting thru 2011. I appreciate all the visits and comments.

Happy New Year to everyone, Be safe and have fun! Happy Birding!!!

Wordless Wednesday..The Loon

To see more Wordless Wednesday and to see more of Watery Wednesday  Thanks for stopping by and I hope the rest of your week is great.

Birding the shores

Hubby and I decided to take a last minute trip to Delaware and the Maryland shore. I was hoping to add some lifers to my list. So we left early in the morning on New Year's Eve and drove to Cape Henlopen State Park in Delaware.  The first bird I saw on the trail to the beach was a Hermit Thrush..a lifer for me. The Hermit Thrush ..my field guide says it is grayish brown, eye ring and spotted chest. Cool, I was off to a good start adding to my lifer list for the end of the year.

In the mosaic above pictures included are the sunrise, Cape Henlopen dune, Hermit Thrush, White Winged Scoter, Red Throated Loon and the Cape Henlopen beach.


As we got to the beach I started scanning the dunes and beach for the Snow Bunting, a bird I have been wanting to see since I started birding. We walked along the beach and I was able to pick up two more lifers..the Surf Scoter and the White Winged Scoter. Then we drove down to the point, a place where the Snow Buntings have been seen in the past. Walking along the beach a large flock of birds flew  past quickly and I just had a feeling that they were the Snow Buntings. An awful photo enlarged and cropped did verify they were the Snow Buntings.  I do not like including a bird as a lifer unless I get a good look at the bird. It would have been great if they could have stopped and landed but no luck there. So this winter I will still be on my quest to see a good sighting of a Snow Bunting. Here is a link to Cornell's All about Birds with some facts about the  Snow Bunting .



Below, is my quick point and shoot shot of the flock of Snow Buntings. They flew by so fast, I as surprised I ended up with any of the birds in my photo. I thought it would be one of my famous blue sky shots. The male Snow Bunting is mostly white and has dark wing tips.

Since we finished kind of early at Cape Henlopen we decided to do a loop and drive to Ocean City Maryland and Assateague Island. Ocean City's inlet is usually great for birding. We stopped for lunch at a place called Dumsers famous for their ice cream. We had started with delicious seafood bisque (it was filled with scallops, shrimp and crab meat) and hubby had a crab cake and I had a tasty barbeque pork sandwich. A great place for lunch,  I would highly recommend Dumser's on Coastal Hwy. After lunch we were onto the inlet to check out the birds there. The birds I saw at the inlet were not lifers but I enjoyed seeing the Common Loon, Purple Sandpipers, Ruddy Turnstones and Sanderlings. There was still some snow around, this was the first time I had seen snow on Ocean City's beach. We even saw a snowman near the jetty at the inlet.

In the mosaic above, pic's of some cute birdhouses on the dunes at Ocean City, Purple Sandpiper, Common Loon, Snowman and the sunset at Assateague Island. We were making so many stops we decided to spend the night and continue having more fun at Ocean City and Assteague on New Years Day.

Above is one of Assateague Island famous wild ponies. Assateague Island and the beach is another spot known to have Snow Bunting sightings. Hubby and I enjoyed another walk down the beach looking for the  Snow Buntings. I was determined to find a Snow Bunting before the end of the year.

Above is the beautiful sunset we were lucky to see at Assateague Island. Even though I did not see my Snow Bunting hubby and I had a great New Year's eve.

I am linking up with Mary's Mosaic Monday  and to show off the pretty blue skies check out Sally's Blue Monday  and That's My World . Click on the links to visit these fun memes. Thanks to both Mary and Sally and the hosting team at That's My World for hosting and thank you for stopping by to see my post.

Green Heron...Wordless Wednesday

Click here to to view more of Wordless Wednesday  and Watery Wednesday

Thanks to the host of Wordless Wednesday and to 2sweetnsaxy the host of Watery Wednesday

Happy WW and thanks for stopping by to see my Green Heron.