Smoky Mtn Critters

I am sharing some of our birds, critters and scenes from the Great Smoky Mountains Nat'l Park  for Green Day and Camera Critters

 This post takes me and you back to the Great Smoky Mountain Nat'l Park to see some critters there.  As I said in a previous post most of the birds in the Smoky Mountains were camera shy. Except for these chickens, I guess chickens are still in the bird family. We also saw bears and elk.

The chickens were seen at the homestead at the Cherokee Visitor center.

This is the Mingus Mill not far from the Cherokee visitor center in the Great Smoky Mountain Nat'l Park.

The Elk was seen in a field not far from the Cherokee visitor center.

 This bear was seen on the Roaring Fork Motor Drive.

This was a bear we saw along the Skyline Drive on the way home, we were in the southern most part of Shenandoah Nat'l Park. Seeing the bears is exciting to me and they are one of my favorite critters. I maybe be putting a post on my travel blog on the Smokies and Gatlingburg so for now I am done with the Smoky photos. I hope you enjoyed my critters.



To see more beautiful photos and cute critters please visit: Green Day  and Camera Critters . Thanks to the gracious host Fiona of Green Day, Misty Dawn of Camera Critters.  Thanks for visiting my blog and post. I wish everyone a very safe and happy weekend.

Great Smoky Mountains Nat'l Park

I am sharing some of our birds, critters and scenes from the Great Smoky Mountains Nat'l Park  for Green Day and Camera Critters and I'd-Rather-B-Birdin.

 I did not have much luck birding in the Smokies, some of the common birds I saw were the Dark-eyed Junco and lots of Wild Turkeys. I could hear Blue Jays, American Crows, Turkeys Vultures,  unknown Warblers, Titmouse, Chickadees and Nuthatches but none of them wanted their photo taken. In the creek near our hotel and town  I saw some Mallard Ducks.

 Above are shots of the Grotto Falls, A Dark-eyed Junco, Fall colors, Cades Cove horses, Wild Turkey, behind Grotto Falls, Smoky Mountain colors, deer, Cades Cove.



On our first full day, hubby and I drove to the Roaring Fork Motor Drive and headed for the parking lot for the Grotto Falls before it got too crowded. At the beginning of the drive we saw a black bear, I did manage a blurry photo before the park ranger clapped it away. We did the 2.6 mile roundtrip hike to the waterfall. I even walked behind the waterfall, a first for me after many different waterfall visits.

I was checking out the color along the Grotto Falls trail.

Later in the day we headed to the Cades Cove drive, here we saw horses, wild turkeys and some deer.  It was very crowded and took a while to do the 11 miles of the motor tour.

Some of the pretty Smoky Mountain colors.

Since, the birds were hiding from me and my camera I decided to take some shots of the horses. They are pretty.

I was happy hearing and seeing the birds moving quickly all along this Grotto Falls trail. It was very birdy trail, just not a good day for taking bird photos.  I hope you enjoyed hiking to the waterfall with me and seeing the Cades Cove Horses.


To see more beautiful photos and cute critters please visit: Green Day  and Camera Critters and I'd-Rather-B-Birdin. Thanks to the gracious host Fiona of Green Day, Misty Dawn of Camera Critters and to Anni of I'd Rather-B-birdin.  Thanks for visiting my blog and post. I wish everyone a very safe and happy weekend.

Wild Turkeys in the Smokies

With my Wild Turkeys in the Smokies, I am linking up with Wild Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes

Hubby and I came home yesterday from a 4night 5day road trip to the Smoky Mountain National Park. We stayed in Gatlinburg Tennessee and visited various parts of the Smoky Mountain National Park. One of the most common birds I saw while driving around the Smokies were the Wild Turkeys. We saw them while on the Cades Cove Motor drive and on the Roaring Fork Motor drive.

We drove the Roaring Fork Motor Drive three times during our visit to the Smoky Mountain National Park. On this day it was really foggy.

Benjamin Franklin preferred the Turkey over the Bald Eagle as the national bird of the United States. Benjamin remarked that the turkey is a true original native of America. He called the turkey a little vain and silly but, a bird of courage that would protect his farm yard.

 The Wild Turkey is native to North America and is the heaviest member of chicken-like group called Galliformes.

These are the Wild Turkeys we saw while driving the Roaring Fork Motor drive, but we saw the wild turkeys all around the park mostly standing next to the roads. This group did not seem to mind people stopping to see them. I hope they stay safe.

I guess with this heavy fog we were lucky to see anything.



To see more beautiful and wonderful photos please visit: Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes.
Thanks to Stewart for hosting Wild Bird Wednesday and thanks to Michelle for hosting Nature Notes.