Saturday's Critters # 601

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 Summer everyone! Our first week of summer is supposed to be really hot and humid.

My critter post is a mish mash of birds and of course our dog Miney, there may be a bonus image thrown in and some flashback photos.

Click on images for better viewing.

"My favorite weather is bird chirping weather."

1. May 3rd, the Peacock was sitting in a tree in the back part of our yard.  

I took Miney for a walk on the local fire road.  

A bonus image from our visit and lunch with our son and family, it is always a joy to spend time with our grandchildren. They are growing so fast. 

2. May 5th, we took Miney for a walk along George's Creek. 

Foraging among the rocks in the creek, I found two Sandpipers, the Spotted Sandpiper and possibly a Solitary Sandpiper on the top row. 

On a parking lot near the boat dock I found a family of Canada Geese, the gosling is adorable. 

3. May 6th,  We walked on a different section of the NCR trail, I captured an Indigo Bunting in awful lighting. It is was nice to see some wildflowers and the wild azaleas blooming. 

My Merlin app for our walk on the NCR trail, I heard a lot of great birds some new summer birds have returned. Most of the birds listed are either breeders in our area or they are moving through, more north of us. 

Most of these bird sounds I can recognize before the app announces them. On the list below is a winter bird in our area the Brown Creeper, maybe he has not headed north yet? 

I have have become better at iding the Baltimore Oriole sounds and have been hearing them on every one of our walks lately. 

4. May 7th, another walk with Miney to the front section of the lake. I saw three Double-crested Cormorants, I heard more birds than I actually saw. I did get a glimpse of an Osprey flying away. 

5. May 8th, below on the top row is the Gray Catbird and the Eastern Bluebird in my yard. The rhododendron is growing next to our house and driveway. It has lots of beautiful blooms.

6. May 8th, we enjoy our walks with Miney on this day we took a walk to the lake. I am into a routine of using the Merlin App to see what birds are around my area. 

7. May 8th, below are two larger images of the Eastern Wood Pewee and the Scarlet Tanager. 

The female Scarlet Tanager is lovely, she is yellow-greenish with dark wings.  They usually stay high in the tree canopy. We are lucky to have these beautiful birds breed in the forest around our home. 

8. Flashback June 2019,  I miss the Great Blue Herons nesting in our little Prettyboy Neighborhood. 

The Heron's nest were in trees across from our driveway, I could stand on my deck and watch the herons and their chick in the nest. 

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.

Check out  Catblogosphere.com

Here is my linky:

Thank you for sharing your critters and post! 

Saturday's Critters # 502

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 still skipping all around, I am way behind sharing photos from my backyard, neighborhood, our outings and our trip to Ireland. I try to make my post short and not too many photos. The mosaics help to share more photos at one glance. Sorry they are not the larger images. 

You can click on the image to see a larger view.

1. Our walks on the local fire roads and to the lake. Top row is a Green Heron in flight and a group of Canada Geese on the lake, a Great Blue Heron. Bottom row: An Ovenbird, Baltimore Oriole and a deer.

2. Our walk at North Point State Park in Baltimore County. Top row: Mallard Duck pair, Osprey, Slider Turtles. Middle Row: Blue Dragonfly, pair of Tree Swallows, Osprey on nest. Bottom row: Great Blue heron times two and another Slider Turtle. 

3. Our walk at Prettyboy George's Creek. Top row: Eastern Kingbird, Yellow-throated Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo and a White-tailed Skimmer. Bottom row: group of Slider Turtles, a group of Canada Geese with goslings and a Canada Goose with fishing boat nearby. 

4. In our back yard and on our roof: top row is the male Eastern Bluebird and a juvenile Red-bellied Woodpecker. Bottom Row two deer seen in our yard. 

5. Every year hubby and try to visit the York PA rookery. We can see the Black-crowned Night Herons and the Great Egret rookeries. Below are two of the juvenile Black-crowned Night Herons. 

6. Then we saw three more juvenile Black-crowned Night Herons.  The adults stayed mostly hidden in leaves and tree branches. 

7.  One of the many Great Egret nest seen at the York Pa rookery. 

8.  It was neat seeing the Egret chicks, they grow so quickly.

9. Some of the nest were in dead looking trees, below you can see two nest close together with 5 or more Great Egrets. 

10. Also seen at the park and rookery an American Robin. 

11. I also saw a Northern Flicker. A large woodpecker that finds it's food on the ground.

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 # 489

  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 behind a bit on sharing birds from my yard, neighborhood and various walks.  These photos are from the end of March up to the beginning of April. 

1.  March 26th,  the White-breasted Nuthatch is a common bird seen in my yard and around the Prettyboy watershed. 

Click on photos for larger viewing.

2. March 27th , a walk to the lake, a vulture taking care of some road kill, the fire road, a Pied-billed Grebe, Canada Geese, Double-crested Cormorants, juvenile Bald Eagle, Downy Woodpecker and an Eastern Phoebe.  

3. March 27th, the Eastern Phoebe is a bird I can easily id by it's song. The song sounds like they are saying their name fee-bee. 

4. March 29, in the back yard the Dark-eyed Juncos are still here, a winter bird in this area.  We are starting to see some spring and summer birds move back to the area. 

5. March 29th, I have a pair of Eastern Bluebirds using one of our nesting boxes in the back yard.  

6. March 29th, it is a treat to see the Bluebirds using one of our nest boxes.  I hope their nesting is successful.  

7. March 31, our walk was on the trail at the nearby George's Creek. We saw a Winter Wren, White-throated Sparrow, Bald Eagle, Carolina Chickadee, Eastern Phoebe, Green-winged Teal and lots of Canada Geese. 

8. March 31, the past few months have been great for seeing various duck species at our Prettyboy Reservoir. One this day we saw a group of Green-winged Teal. I was far away and the photo is not sharp but you can id these ducks.  They have a rufous head with a teal green patch near their eyes, there is a white bar on the side of the breast. 

9. April 1st, I have been enjoying seeing the Eastern Bluebirds in my yard. I hope to see their babies soon.  

10. April 3rd, we took a walk on a close by fire road. I heard lots of birds singing, I am pretty sure I heard a Pine Warbler, Worm-eating Warbler and an Ovenbird, these birds are breeders in the forest next to our home. Next to the fire road I found a couple of Hermit Thrush. 

11.  Various dates in April: Butterflies and blooms around our yard. Swallowtails, Azaleas, Dogwood and Redbud blooms.

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 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. 

Saturday's Critters # 392

Welcome to Saturday's Critters!

Hello and happy Saturday!

Happy Father's Day weekend!  Sending out my happy Father's Day wishes for my hubby and son. This will be my son's first Daddy's day, I know he is really happy to be a Dad! 

 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 photos from our local walks, a visit to a local county park called Hashawha Nature Center, most of the photos are from walks on our local fire roads. 

Click on photos for larger viewing or slides.

1.....May 21st...We took a walk on the fire road to the lake. the following birds were seen or heard Osprey, Eastern Phoebe or Wood Pewee, White-breasted Nuthatch, a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Scarlet Tanagers, Ovenbirds and Wood Thrush were calling. I could see fish swimming right next to the lake shore. A Great Blue Heron flew across the lake and landed on a tree and the wild Azaleas were blooming. I noticed an American Toad on the trail and a few cute tiny flowers. 

2. While sitting by the lake, I watched this White-breasted Nuthatch going in and coming out of a hole in the tree. Maybe a nest?

3.  May 26th...another fire road walk. We watched the Osprey fishing at the lake, I saw various wildflowers and flowering shrubs, a Great Blue Heron and my first time seeing a Prothonotary Warbler at the lake shore.  The Prothonotary is a bright yellow bird with dark wings. My warbler photos did not come very good, I watched it for a while moving around catching bugs. 

4. My terrible photos of the Prothonotary Warbler, on the largest image below you can see his beak, his bright yellow color and the dark wings. Can you find the Warbler? He landed on a downed tree in one of the coves and then he flew across to where I was standing and went inside a shrub. 

5.  May 28th, we are back on the same fire road to the lake. The Gray Catbirds seemed to be out in numbers, we saw a Belted Kingfisher banging a fish on a tree branch, some pretty ferns and yellow iris and the ugly cicada shells.  The sounds of the cicadas are so loud, I could not hear the birds singing. 

6.  June 1st, at another part of the lake we hiked the local George's Creek trail, the creek flows into our lake.  On this day, we saw a young Barred Owl right above the trail. He/she looked down at us and then flew off, a view of the George's Creek, a Gray Catbird, A Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, flowering shrub with a Canada Goose family, a log with a group of Turtles. 

7. June 1st.. I missed the shot when this Barred Owl turned his head and looked down at us.  

8.  June 2nd.. Another local walk on the fire road and to the lake. Prettyboy Reservoir, a Green Heron with a turtle, wildflowers, Green heron again, the lake trail, Cicadas and a view of a lake cove.

9. June 2nd...this was my first sighting of a Green heron at our lake.

I know other birders have mentioned seeing it here, it is just my first time seeing the Green Heron in our neighborhood.

10.  June 2nd.. a couple of back yard birds. The Eastern Blue couple and an American Goldfinch. 

11.  June 5th.. Hashawha Nature Center..waterlilies and wildflowers, Indigo Bunting, rabbit, Black Rat Snake and a view of Lake Hashawha and the trail.

12.. Hashawha. Indigo Bunting. 

13.    June 6th..a view of the reservoir, turtles on a log, Canada Geese, Swallowtail Butterfly, male Downy Woodpecker, more Canada Geese.  

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!

Thanks to all my visitors and for your comments. Stop back to see any replies to your comments. I appreciate everyone who loves critters and has linked up their critter post. 

Here is my linky:

YOU are all # 1.