Saturday's Critters # 586

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!

Happy Women's Day!  Spring forward, change your clocks ahead one hour tonight.

This post includes our walks with our dog Miney, on our local Prettyboy fire roads and on the NCR bike trail. I included one of my back yard birds the male Northern Cardinal. Miney is becoming a regular sight to see on my blog. 

Click on images for better viewing.

1. Feb 2nd, our walk on the NCR bike trail. It was a little icy but we managed. We only saw one other person jogging, taking a chance jogging on the icy trail.

2. Miney on the bike trail. She loves going on walks, Miney enjoys meeting others walking especially loves to see other dogs. 

3. Feb 3rd, Our walk was on our local fire road. We are in a routine now taking Miney for a daily walk. 

4. Feb 4th, our walk was on another section of the bike trail, we did see more people walking their dogs and jogging. I heard more birds than I actually saw, I captured one Bluebird in horrible lighting. 

5. Feb 5th, another walk on the fire road. 

6. Feb 8th, we are still taking daily walks. It is nice that we are getting more exercise while walking Miney. 

7. Feb 8th, back in the yard is a male Cardinal.  He is looking a little chubby or maybe just puffed out trying to stay warm. 

8. March 2023, I am sharing archive image from our visit to Cape Henlopen Delaware. It is a great park to do some birdwatching. 

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 # 570

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!

These photos are from our Aug 21-22 visit to Delaware and the Bombay Hook NWR. This wildlife refuge always seem to have lots of birds. Some are birds are breeders and some are just visiting. My first post for this getaway is here Black-bellied Whistling Ducks in Delaware . 

1. Top left American Goldfinch, possible juvenile Cooper's Hawk, Yellowlegs, Monarch Butterfly, juvenile Little Blue Heron, I am guessing the last bottom right is an Eastern Phoebe. 

2. Bombay Hook NWR is always a good place to see the American Avocets. 

3. Blue Grosbeak looking handsome.

Eastern Kingbird and the top photo includes an American Goldfinch. 

4. Various shorebirds, I see a few Black-bellied Plovers. 

5. Various shots of the Great Egrets, there may be some Snowy Egrets mixed in. 

6. We did not have to go to Florida to see the Sandhill Cranes, these two spent most of the summer at Bombay Hook NWR. 

7. Sandhill Crane couple.

8. These two birds caused a traffic jam on the wildlife drive. 

9. Great Blue Heron with lunch.

10. Avocets, Great Egret and possibly Dunlins in flight.

I hope you enjoyed my photos from Bombay Hook NWR, it is one of my favorite places to see the wildlife.

Bonus image: my two grandsons were dinosaurs for Halloween. They looked so cute!

Hubby and I have both been sick this week, so I have missed visiting blogs this week. I hope we are both back to normal, it's not fun being sick. 

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 # 567

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!

Aug 21-22, Hubby and I enjoyed a little getaway to Delaware, the main reason was birdwatching of course. What else?  I read on facebook that there were some Black-bellied Whistling Ducks hanging out on a little neighborhood pond in Clayton Delaware which is only minutes from my favorite Bombay Hook wildlife refuge. I have loved these cute ducks ever since Tex Girl and her blog Run*A*Ranch introduced them on her blog. I think my first sighting of these cute ducks was in Florida. 

Click on images for larger views.

1. The Black-bellied Whistling Ducks seemed to have made this pond their home for the summer. They even had some ducklings, you can see in the top right image in the mosaic below. 

2. A good sized group of Black-bellied Whistling ducks with some Canada Geese and a few Mallards. 

3. The ducklings are growing fast but the adult Black-bellied Whistling duck is staying close by.

4. Other birds in the little pond were the Canada Geese, Mallards and a Great Blue Heron.

5. I believe these two ducks below are the American Black Ducks. 

6. Another shot of my favorite Whistling Ducks with the Mallard and Canada Geese.

7. This Black-bellied Whistling Duck seems to be albe to sleep standing up.  

8. Another cute Black-bellied Whistling Duck. 

9. Another shot of the Black-bellied Whistling ducklings. 

10. A Great Blue Heron just walking by! 

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!

Happy Monday!

 Wishing everyone a great day and a happy new week!

"New day, new strength, new thoughts."

Bombay Hook NWR, Delaware

"Find what brings you joy and go there."

"We take photos as a return ticket to a moment otherwise gone."

Comments off, enjoy your day!

Saturday's Critters # 509

 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!

These are photos from our Aug 16-17th overnight trip to Bombay Hook NWR and Dover Delaware.  After our 2 and 1/2 hour drive we arrived at the Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge. It will always be one of my favorite places to see the birds. These are the birds I saw on the first day, we saw a family of Wild Turkeys, lots of Snowy and Great Egrets, Great Blue Herons, Glossy Ibis, American Avocets, Osprey and various shorebirds like the Dunlin, Dowitchers, Yellowlegs, Semipalmated Plovers and Sandpipers, Willets, Black Bellied Plovers and Mute Swans. 

1. Below in the mosaic, top row is a family of Wild Turkeys, American Avocets and a guess at a Yellowlegs. Second row are the Snowy Egret and Great Egrets, Long-billed and Short Billed Dowitchers with a Black-bellied Plover, more Egrets with American Avocets and more shorebirds. Bottom row an Egret, Great Blue Heron and Canada Geese with Willets.

2. Forster's Tern, Semipalmated Plover, Caspian Tern with Gulls and Terns. Middle row is an Osprey, Swallows and Mute Swans. Bottom row is a Mute Swan, Egrets and Egrets with Glossy Ibis.

3. Below are various images of the American Avocets, various shorebirds, Osprey Egrets with Glossy Ibis.

4. The American Avocets, a pretty shorebird has black and white wings, the breeding adult can have the burnt orange head. 

5. The Great Egrets with the yellow bill mixed in with the group of Snowy Egrets.

6. Below is a mix of shorebirds, Great and Snowy Egrets and the American Avocets. 

7. There is one Black-belled Plover mixed with Dowitchers and possibly other shorebirds. 

8.  More of the attractive American Avocets.

 

9. A mix of Terns, Gulls and I see the Semipalmated Plover. 

10. We saw a few Osprey perched in trees around the refuge. 

11. This Mute Swan was giving me a look, all my photos were taken from my car window. 

12. Snowy Egrets with a Glossy Ibis. 

13. A view of the pool with various Egrets and more American Avocets. 

14.  Taken off the Glossy Ibis, Terns and shorebirds. The Canada Geese were settled on the ground.

15. A young fox was walking by our car. 

I hope you enjoyed these photos from the Bombay Hook NWR . 

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 # 481

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!

Sorry, I will be away from my computer and will catch up with my visits and comments as soon as possible. As always thank you for linking up and for your comments! 

Feb 7-8, 2023. I am sharing more photos from our Delaware shore getaway, we stayed one night in Lewes Delaware, just a short drive away from the Cape Henlopen State Park and the Indian River Inlet Park. 

1.  Cape Henlopen Point is where the Delaware Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean.  We watched at least 3 large groups of Snow Geese fly over our heads heading inland to the corn fields. Out in the ocean we could see the Common Loon, Gulls, on the ground near the parking lot I noticed various species like the Song Sparrows, Dark-eyed Juncos and a surprise lifer a Lark Sparrow. Eastern Bluebirds were nearby in a bare tree. 

2.  I enjoyed watching wave after wave of Snow Geese fly over our heads.

2A. More Snow Geese, besides the Snow Geese flying  we saw a huge flock just floating on the water. 

3.  I was just snapping away at some birds eating seeds on the ground, little did I know until later I saw the Lark Sparrow ( top right) a lifer # 504 for me.  I wish I knew at the time, I would have tried for a better photo. The Lark Sparrow has a unique head pattern of red, black and white colors. 

4. I snapped some photos of the birds at the Nature Center feeders. Most of the birds were the male and female House Finches, a few male and female Cardinals, White-throated Sparrow on the ground and a Red-breasted Nuthatch was also coming and going to the feeder. 

5. We walked to the end of the fishing pier at the Cape Henlopen State Park.  Here we could see the Cape May/Lewes Ferry, the Great Black-backed Gull, Ringed Billed Gull, Surf Scoter with Horned Grebe, lots of Double-crested Cormorants, Bufflehead duck and the lighthouse.

6. I am guessing a Horned Grebe with the Surf Scoter.

7. I thought the Double Crested Cormorants hanging out on the old pier pilings was a neat scene. 

  

8. The Great Black-backed Gulls look huge, 30 inches in length. We walked past them perched on the fishing pier, they did not move.

9. At the Indian River Inlet we saw Cormorants, Black Scoter, Common Loon, Long-tailed Ducks, Brant Geese, Surf Scoter and another Loon.  We missed seeing just by a short time a group of Razorbills hanging out at the inlet. 

10.  The Long-tailed Ducks are a favorite of mine, I usually can see them in the winter months along the Mid-Atlantic coast. 

I hope you enjoyed the birds I saw on our little visit to the Delaware shore. 

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.

If there are any problems with the linky, you can leave your link in the comment section, I will fix it as soon as I can.

Here is my linky:

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! Also, I am also linking up to Heidrun's Mosaic Monday  I hope you can stop by and visit Heidrun and check out the Mosaic Monday post.