Saturday's Critters # 606

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 continuing with a mish-mash of photos from the end of May and beginning of June. 

Click on images for better viewing.

1. May 26th,  Pretty Dam and reservoir, a good spot to watch the Cliff Swallows that nest on the dam. 

A walk with Miney on the Prettyboy fire road. A nice day for a walk, it was a pretty sky day. 

2. May 29th, another local fire road walk to the lake with Miney. As usual I hear more birds than I can see, I did find an Ovenbird. The photo is blurry but you can see the black stripes on the bird's head. 

3. Below are a few mosaics from May 30th, first are images of our walk with Miney on the NCR trail. The Mountain Laurels were blooming nicely. We saw a White-tailed Deer across the river. 

Back in the yard, the Eastern Bluebirds were coming and going from the birdhouse.

A Great-crested Flycatcher perched on our deck railing and posed for some photos.

4. June 1st, another day and another walk with Miney.  The peacock still comes for visits. This time he was hanging outside our basement door.  

June 1st, the Peacock found a spot by our basement door, Miney can not see him there so the bird feels safe.  

5. June 2nd, to keep a record of my backyard birds. I am sharing photos of an Eastern Kingbird, I am not sure what is in it's beak. The photos are not so good taken from a bedroom window.

6. June 3rd, Another walk on the local NCR bike trail with Miney. We saw a deer on the trail, luckily Miney did not see it, she pulls hard when she sees other critters. I captured one of two Damselflies hanging out near a picnic bench. A Black Rat snake was hanging on a fence over the creek and an American Goldfinch was perched high in a tree. 

The Merlin App from our NCR trail walk, I was surprised it picked up a Green Heron.  I have seen the Green Herons around the trail and bridge. 

Miney on the bike trail, she gets excited to see people and other dogs or wild critters on the trail.  

7. Flashback photos from our Ireland trip May 2023. The Eurasian Robin was one of my favorite Ireland birds.

Another sighting of my favorite Ireland bird the Robin was found on the grounds of the Kilkenny Castle.

Seeing sheep was a common sight while driving around the Ireland countryside. 

Update on hubby: Thanks so much for the kind words and healing prayers. On July 21st, hubby had his 1st visit with the home therapy. On July 22nd,  was his first session of outpatient dialysis. He seems to have his appetite back, he lost a lot of weight while he was in the hospital. He will be on a renal diet, I am sure he will not like it but I will be watching him closely. 

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! 

Our World, My World

Happy Monday everyone,

As July marches on, I have been enjoying the flowers outside my windows on the deck and around our yard.  It has been hot and dry here, so we are having to water our plants often.  


 Some blooms around the yard, the Purple Coneflowers, Zinnias, Red Salvia, Lantana and Upright Fuchsia called Firecracker.

 The Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are zipping around the yard, I am refilling my hummer feeders every other day. Can you find the 2 hummers below, the feeder is hanging near our butterfly bush?

 A few of my yard birds, the male Cardinal, Great Crested Flycatcher, Eastern Bluebird, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Sootywing Butterfly on Zinnia.

 The male Eastern Bluebird seen in his usual perch spot on the gutter above the birdhouse. I think the baby Bluebirds have fledged, they left without me even seeing one of their babies. 

Sometimes I would see both the male and female sitting on the gutter that is right above the birdhouse. I assume they were taking a break.. 

 The Common Sootywing is a black butterfly with speckled white spots on the wings. The Zinnia is looking pretty with lots of blooms.

I have seen a few different birds in my yard recently, I think this one was a juvenile Great Crested Flycatcher.

  We had one of our large pine trees just fall over in our yard, so it is a mess to clean up.  It fell on top of our blueberry bushes, a very sad sight to see.
 

"Today I will give thanks to all the things in my life that don't need fixing."  Mary Davis


In Maryland, we are still required to wear our mask in public areas and to keep the social distance.  The numbers of positive cases, deaths and hospitalizations are going down in Maryland.  The reopening of schools in Maryland maybe up to each community or county.  We are thankful for all the essential workers, especially the health care workers. I hope everyone takes care and is safe, happy and healthy.



What's happening in your corner of the world? Please check out and visit the following memes and links. I hope to see you there.


 
Thanks to Angie the host of  Mosaic Monday

Thanks to LadyFi  the host of Our World Tuesday!

Thanks for visiting and commenting. Have a happy day and a great new week!

Around the yard in June 2017

Hello  and  HAPPY Thursday,

June seemed to fly by, the weather has been a mix bag, hot, chilly, cloudy and rainy days.  I am hoping July will feel more like summer. I have various photos taken from around the yard.

The Great Blue Heron is on a nest in the woods across from our driveway.

The Stella D'Oro lilies bloomed nicely, I do not think the deer like to eat them.

This clematis blooming is mixing in with our blueberry bushes. If you look closely you can see the blueberries.

The waxing gibbous moon and Jupiter below taken on June 3rd.

The almost full moon rising on June 8th.

This Great-crested Flycatcher has been hanging around the yard and also banging himself on our front window. He is safe and finally stopped.

"Always be thankful for each other."


For my list of thankful things this week:
I am thankful for a bush full of blueberries, if not for me but for the birds to enjoy.
I am thankful for a clear sky to see the full moon, just beautiful.


I hope you enjoyed my post and photos.  Thanks so much for visiting and for your nice comments. Have a happy day!

Thank you Michelle for hosting. Thankful Thursday

Thank you to the hosts of   Skywatch Friday

Bird and Blooms

Hello,




I am sharing some more of our backyard blooms and birds. I am sad to say we lost our Weeping Cherry tree in our backyard. We have not removed it just yet, the birds love to sit in the tree waiting to take their turns at the feeders.

Above the Scarlet Tanagers were seen with a group of Waxwings by our mailbox. They were eating berries in one of the trees, a House Wren in the Weeping Cherry tree, A Catbird on the suet feeder and the Great-crested Flycatcher in the Weeping Cherry tree.

The Daylilies are starting to bloom next to our driveway and in the yard. These look like the same daylilies we see growing wild along the roads.

 The Jackmanii Clematis has taken off, growing well also near the Blueberry bushes.

This Clematis has been blooming for awhile, one of my favorites.

This Spirea bush has grown large over the years, it is starting to mix with our blueberry bushes.

The Stella D'oro lilies are also blooming nicely.

For Tom's Barn Collective this is a local barn we pass by often. It seems like the owners have done a lot of work on it lately.


Happy 4th of July! Wishing everyone a safe and happy 4th of July.

Have you enjoyed the birds and blooms? I hope so!  Thank you for visiting and for the nice comments. As always, thanks to the wonderful group of hosts listed below.

Here is a list of linky parties for part of the week, Sunday thru Wednesday. I hope to see you there.

Thanks to Jesh our host for Seasons

Thanks to Tom the host of the Barn Collective
Thanks to Monica for hosting NF Trees

Thanks to Michelle for hosting Nature Notes

Thanks to the hosting team of Our World Tuesday!

Thanks to Stewart for hosting Wild Bird Wednesday

Great Crested Flycatcher

Linking up with Wild Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes and NC Sue Wordless
I hope you can join in and share your wild birds and nature scenes.

For this week's wild bird I am sharing the Great Crested Flycatcher. It is one of my backyard birds in the summer season.

The flycatcher has a large head and a crest that is not always prominent. This bird also has a bright lemon yellow belly.

 This is a back view of the Great Crested Flycatcher, it seemed to be checking out the bird seed on my deck railing.

This image above and the one below were taken at a local park, this young Great Crested Flycatcher was begging for food on the boardwalk.

I hope this enjoyed my images of the Great Crested Flycatcher, it is one of my many favorite backyard birds.  I hope you enjoyed my wild bird post and photos. Till next week's wild bird post. Join in and post your birdies and to see more beautiful and wonderful bird and nature photos please visit:

 Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday and Michelle's Nature Notes  and NC Sue Wordless

Thanks to all of our hosts. Michelle for Nature Notes  and Stewart of Wild Bird Wednesday and thanks to Sue the host of Wordless Wednesday.


  Happy Birding and have a wonderful week!