Saturday's Critters #228

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!


These are some more images from our visit to Kiwanis Lake in York Pa. The Canada Geese have claimed most of the park area for themselves. Just watch where you walk.

It was a windy day, check out the feathers on this Great Egret below.

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

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!

York PA Rookery

It's time to link up with Skywatch Friday  and Good Fences and Random 5 Friday and Friday's Hunt . Join in on the fun and share your post with these fun memes.

Teresa's Friday's Hunt
1. Start's with R
2. Weeks Favorite
3.  Texture

April 10th hubby and I visited the York Pa Great Egret and Black Crowned Night Heron rookery. I thought it maybe a little early to see these birds working on their nest at the rookery, I counted at least 14 egrets and maybe 4 Night Herons.

For Tex's Good Fences meme I have an overall view of the lake and Rookery in York Pennsylvania.

1. Great Egrets were hunted for their plumes nearly to extinction in the early 1900's. Luckily laws were created to protect these birds. The Egret below is one of my favorite photos for my Friday's Hunt.

2. Not bird related, one morning while watching "The View" I heard Donny Osmond say he has been performing for nearly 50 years. Donny's deput was on the Andy Williams Show in 1962. I would have been 6 yrs old, this makes me feel old, LOL. Do you remember the Andy Williams Show and the Donny and Marie Osmond show?

3. A fun fact about the Egret, during their breeding season they have a patch of neon green near show up on their faces near their eyes.

For Teresa's Friday's hunt I think the features on the Egret above is great for the prompt Texture.

4. I just read this fact about the Black Crowned Night Heron seen below. A breeding Night Heron will brood any chick that placed in it's nest.

For Good Fences and for Skywatch Friday I have the pretty sky above and my moon addiction photo below.


5. On April 10th I was able to catch the waxing crescent moon and the star Aldebaran close by. Can you see the tiny star near the moon in my photo? The star is just a tiny dot near the bottom right side of the photo.  BTW, for Teresa's Friday's Hunt this is also my favorite photo for the week.

"When it rains, look for rainbows. When it's dark, look for stars." unknown

To see more pretty skies, fences and fantastic photos from around the world please visit the memes below.  Thanks for visiting and for all the nice comments. I wish everyone a happy day and weekend ahead.

Thanks to Theresa @ The Run*A*Round Ranch for hosting Good Fences.

Thank you to Sylvia, Yogi  and Sandy for hosting Skywatch Friday.

Thank you to Nancy the host of Random 5 Friday

Thanks also to Teresa Friday's Hunt  

York, PA Rookery

Linking up with Skywatch Friday  and Good Fences  

For this week's Good Fence and Skywatch Friday memes I am sharing our visit to the York, Pennsylvania Heron and Egret rookery.. This may have been our earliest visit to the rookery. It was on April 1st, still a little chill in the early morning. But, the sky was a pretty blue with some white puffy clouds..a nice day to be outdoors. We only saw two of the Black Crowned Night Herons, a couple Great Egrets on their nest and lots of ducks.

Above the pretty sky.. We walked the loop around the lake, checking for the heron and egret nests along the way. The ducks and geese are used to being fed, they ran up to us as we walked toward the lake.

Above is the Black Crowned Night Heron at the York Pa rookery.

A view of the lake and the tallest trees in the distance hold the Night Heron and Egret rookery..A distant view of the fence on the right and a pretty sky.

A couple of Great Egrets on their nest..

A pretty view of the sky and lake..and a fence scene for Tex's Good Fences..

 I hope you enjoyed our walk, sky and rookery visit..Thanks for stopping by and for the nice comments..

To see more pretty skies from around the world please visit  Skywatch Friday
and check for more fence shots at Tex's Good Fences

Thanks to Theresa @ The Run*A*Round Ranch for hosting Good Fences and thanks to Sylvia, Yogi  and Sandy for hosting Skywatch Friday.    I wish everyone a happy day and weekend ahead..

Saturday's Critters #28

Saturday's Critters #28



Hello and happy weekend!  It's that time to share your critters. I hope to see you join in with the Saturday Critter Party.

My critter post is on our visit to the York, Pennsylvania Great Egret rookery.. I posted about last years visit here: Great Egret rookery
The Black-crowned Night Herons can also be found at this same spot, a local neighborhood park and lake called Kiwanis Lake .

Hubby and I walked around the lake looking up at the trees with these beautiful Great Egrets. It is still amazing that these birds nest in the treetops..

The male made several trips for new sticks or twigs, they were transferred to the female on the nest and she would place the sticks or twigs just were they were needed..It is neat to see how they balance themselves with those big feet on the pine branches..

A Great Egret rookery is a communal nesting ground from a few to hundreds of nesting birds. The same rookery and trees can be used for years. The rookery is usually a protected area to keep the birds safe while while raising their babies..

The rookery is located at the Kiwanis Lake above and the trees that surround the lake. It has been listed on the Important Bird Area (IBA).  Just a walk along the path and looking up at the trees you would be amazed at the Egrets and Night Herons nesting right near the people fishing, children playing and houses across the street and cars riding by.

Above you can just barely make out the eyes and bill of one of the Egret chicks.

Hubby and I enjoy walking around the lake while watching these birds, I would think soon some of the chicks could be out foraging for themselves.. I hope you enjoyed my Great Egret Post..

An InLinkz Link-up

Thank you for linking up to the critter party. I appreciate the visits, comments and the support of my blogging friends..


To see more beautiful birds and cute critters, check out these two memes below.

Please visit:  I'd-Rather-B-Birdin. Thanks to the gracious host: Anni of I'd Rather-B-birdin. Also, sharing with Camera Critters. Thanks to Misty for hosting.

The Rookery, Aug 1

I am linking up with NF Winged   and  Skywatch Friday

August 1, 2013

Wow, can you believe it is August already? I wish I could slow summer down, it is going way too fast. Ok, it is time for NF Winged with some Egret shots from the rookery and a couple moon shots for my Skywatch post.

This is a little off center, but I love this moon shot straight out of my camera. I just love the zoom on my camera and that no extra lenses are necessary. This photo of the moon (Waning Gibbous) was taken on July 25, 2013.

Another Waning Gibbous moon shot was taken the next day July 26, 2013.

A few people have been asking what camera I am using it is a Canon SX40.  I can zoom from 24-840mm and it has image stabilization built in the camera. No extra lenses are needed has the superzoom at 35X. They also came out with a SX50 but I really love this SX40. The photos come out clear even with the zoom as far as I can take it.

If something happened to it, I would go and buy the same camera.

Hubby and I visited the York, Pa rookery on July 27, 2013.

It was fun seeing the egrets chicks..they are almost the size of the adult now. They are still very cute.

There were still a few of Black Crowned Night Herons at the nest but the egrets stole the show.

It is amazing to see these big chicks still begging for food. I think it is time they start learning to feed themselves.

We watched one adult fly across the lake and land on the top of a pine tree. Maybe it needed a break from the chicks. It was a gray overcast sky and luckily the rain held off until our ride home.

Even the Black Crowned Night Herons looked older, they have all grown since my last visit to the rookery. The are two herons in this shot above one on the nest with its backside towards me and the other heron is giving me a look.

I hope you enjoy my post and the Egret Rookery.  Happy Skywatching everyone!

Thanks for visiting my post and  blog and I always appreciate your comments.

To see more pretty skies from around the world please visit  Skywatch Friday
and to see more of the winged critters check out NF Winged

Thanks to Sylvia, Yogi  and Sandy for hosting Skywatch Friday! Thanks to Monica the host of NF Winged.   I wish everyone a safe and happy weekend.