Saturday's Critters # 527

 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 morning visit to the Edwin Forsythe NWR on day two of our little getaway to Atlantic City, New Jersey

1. Resting in the grass below are some Northern Pintails and below photos are a mixed of Pintails and Hooded Mergansers and a large group of Dunlins.

Below are a Northern Pintail, male and female Hooded Mergansers. 

Three Snow Geese floating in the water foraging for food.

Dunlins and gulls

Lots of waterfowl and shorebirds hanging out at this one pool area. 

I am guessing at the bird id below , the Dunlins have been listed in high numbers at this wildlife refuge.

The Snow Geese were seen flying in large groups all around the wildlife refuge.

There were 3 juvenile Black-crowned Night Herons hanging out below.

Can you find the 3 Black-crowned Night Herons below?

A pretty Great Egret seen near the Great Blue Heron. 

This is the end of our visit to Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in New Jersey. It is a great refuge to see the winter ducks, snow geese and shorebirds. 

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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 #258

Welcome to Saturday's Critters !


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 still have some more birds we saw at the Edwin B. Forsythe NWR in New Jersey.  Birds seen were the male and female Wood Ducks, House Finch, Clapper Rail and we saw a large flock of Brant Geese, Mallards, American Black Ducks, Brant Goose, Great Blue Heron, 


The male wood duck is a beauty! 

This looks like the female wood duck below. 

A male House Finch. 

You really have to look for the 2 Great Blue Herons chasing each other in this photo below. The tree colors are beautiful. 

Pretty sure this is the Clapper Rail, another great reason to be at the refuge during low tide. These secretive birds come out into the open looking for things to eat in the mud. 

Sorry, my photos of the Brant Geese are not the best. They were too far away, I wanted record a photo to show I did see them this day.

I am not sure about this Sparrow, possibly a SeasideSparrow? I do see a little line of yellow above the eyes. Any help is appreciated. 

This Great Blue Heron had a fishing spot all to himself until these ducks came by and would not leave. They swam up and down in front of the Heron.  They were Mallards and some Black Ducks. 

Lots of shorebirds, I am guessing Dunlin and maybe some Plovers? The taller birds could possibly Black-bellied Plovers?

Below Eastern Box Turtles and Praying Mantis.  I went years without seeing a Praying Mantis, on this day I saw two Mantis right on the path to the visitor center.

I appreciate and thank everyone who links up their post and for all the wonderful comments !









Here is a list of my linky parties;

Also visit:  I'd-Rather-B-Birdin. Thanks to the gracious host: Anni.



Happy Saturday, enjoy your weekend!

Saturday's Critters #256

Welcome to Saturday's Critters !


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 30-31st hubby and I visited Edwin B Forsythe NWR near Atlantic City NJ. We got a great deal on a one night stay in the new Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City New Jersey. The Edwin B. Forsythe wildlife refuge has an 8 mile wildlife drive, trails and a nice visitor center. We visited the wildlife refuge twice, once on Oct 30th and again on the 31st before heading home. Here are some of the birds we saw on the first day. I took a lot of photos.


The Yellow-rumped Warblers (butter-butt) were right next to the visitor parking lot. I think they may have been eating juniper berries, not positive though. BTW, if any of my id's are wrong I do not mind being corrected.

We saw a few Mute Swans at the beginning of the wildlife drive. 

There were lots of Snowy Egrets and Great Egrets.

The Northern Pintail ducks were plentiful. 

The American Black Duck is a common sight at this wildlife refuge. I think the little shorebirds are the Dunlin, but I could be wrong. Any id help is appreciated. 

The only duck I am sure of below is the Green-winged Teal, not so sure about the others? Maybe a female Northern Pintail and more Black Ducks.

Below the Great Blue Heron look pretty spreading it's wings and there is a Northern Shoveler off to the right.

I appreciate and thank everyone who links up their post and for all the wonderful comments !




Here is a list of my linky parties;

Also visit:  I'd-Rather-B-Birdin. Thanks to the gracious host: Anni.



Happy Saturday, enjoy your weekend!

Saturday's Critters #201

Welcome to Saturday's Critters!

If you love critters 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 some birds and critters I have not shown,  seen during our Washington Trip in May. We stayed overnight in Ocean Shores and walked on a few of the local beaches. We saw some shorebirds like the Semipalmated Plover, Dunlins, lots of gulls and a hummer and possibly other shorebirds mixed in.

I believe these are the Semipalmated Plovers

A flock of Dunlin, see their black bellies.

Is this a Crow or Raven? My field guide says Raven's have thick bills. Do you think this bird's bill is thick?

Semipalmated Plover.

American Pipit seen on the coast, walking along side the sandy road to the beach.

Rufous or Allen's Hummingbird.  I am not an expert on any hummer except for my local Ruby-throated Hummingbird. This bird was seen flying around the nearby flowers and like to perch on this pine tree.

Sorry, for the picture quality, the bird was a distance away and it was a cloudy day.

Neighborhood deer, near the beach. I think this is a Black-tailed Deer.

There are way too many gull species for me to id, my guess a  Western Gull.

I am not sure if this is a big flock of Dunlins or mixed group of shorebirds. What is upsetting is seeing the cars driving on the beach where these birds were resting.

I appreciate and thank everyone who links up their post and for all the wonderful comments! I hope you enjoy my post and photos too!

Here is a list of my linky parties;

Also visit:  I'd-Rather-B-Birdin. Thanks to the gracious host: Anni.

Happy Saturday, enjoy your weekend!

Dunlin

Happy Monday, enjoy your day!

My wild bird this week is the Dunlin.  These images are mostly from my trip to Washington State but I have seen the Dunlin in Maryland, Delaware and Florida. They are shorebirds with a short neck,  bright red back and a black belly. The black belly appears during the breeding season. Their legs and bills are black.

Their foraging has been compared to a sewing machine, with their bills going up and down picking up small food and insects.

I have seen large flocks of the Dunlins, they can be found on coastal mudflats or sandy beaches.

As always I thank you for stopping by and as always I appreciate your comments.

My list of memes for today, I hope to see you there. Thanks to both of the host below.


Thanks to Michelle for hosting Nature Notes

Thanks to Stewart for hosting Wild Bird Wednesday

Bombay Hook NWR

I am linking up with   Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday   and NC Sue WordlessThey are all fun memes to participate in...I hope you can join in with the fun  and check out some of the participating posts.

Happy Memorial Day weekend!

We have been so many different places since our Florida trip, a lot of day trips. This post is on a day trip when I took my older brother for his first time to Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Delaware.  Hubby stayed home and my brother (another amateur photographer like me) and I enjoyed checking out the birds and the wildlife.

The Tree Swallows had returned and there were numerous swallows flying over our heads.  My brother was enjoying taking shots of the swallows, he must have taken over a thousand photos during our visit to Bombay Hook NWR.

The boardwalk trail scene.

There were many Egrets, both Snowy and Great Egrets, Yellowlegs, Northern Shovelers and two Great Blue Herons.

The shorebirds were returning to the Delaware shore and the wildlife refuge. I believe this is a large group of Dunlin but there could be other species mixed in this group. I think there are some Egrets mixed in the group above.

This daytrip was late April so the trees were just starting to blush, some Ruddy Ducks and some American Coots.

Above are a few Glossy Ibis, Egrets, a Screech Owl in her nest and an adult Bald Eagle with two juvenile eagles. I had fun showing my brother one of my favorite wildlife refuges. I can assume by how many photos he was taking he had fun too.
Thank you for visiting and for all the nice comments.. Have a great day and week ahead!

I use Pic Monkey to create my mosaics, you can use Pic Monkey free or pay for an upgraded version.

I hope you can join in on our fun with Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday and NC Sue's Wordless.

 Thanks to Judith our host of Mosaic Monday and to the hosting group of Our World Tuesday: Arija, Gattina, Lady Fi, Sylvia, Sandy and Jennifer and to Sue for Wordless Wednesday on Tuesdays.