Saturday's Critters # 639

 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!

"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." John Muir

I am sharing recent back yard birds and critters and some critters seen in various national parks are from my archives.

Click on images for better viewing.

1. The Eastern Blue Bird has always been a favorite of mine, I love to see them visiting my yard.  It would be great to see them using my birdhouses for their nest. 

2. Below are two frequent visitors, the White-throated Sparrow and a Gray Squirrel. 

3. Blue Jays are another common bird visiting my yard, sorry about the photo quality, it was taken through a kitchen window. 

4. From my archives I am sharing some critters from our visits to various national parks. Below are some Elk seen in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. 

5. Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons are two of my favorite parks.  There were always critters to be seen. Below is a bull moose, seen off the Heron Pond and Swan Lake loop. The moose below was wearing a tracking collar, there was also a female moose and an elk standing nearby. 

The Buffalo at Yellowstone were plentiful.  It was nice to see the cute calves.  

We watched this Grizzly Bear not far from the Jackson Lake Lodge in the Grand Tetons National Park. 

6. Seen in the Rocky Mountain National Park we watched a mama moose with a calf.  

7. Everglades National Park, a great park to see critters and lots of birds.  

Near the Flamingo marina, Everglades National Park we saw the Crocodile. It is the only place were the Crocodiles and Alligators coexist. The American Crocodile has a v-shaped snout and the Alligators seen in the photo above have a u-shaped snout.  

The Manatees were also seen at the Everglades National Park Flamingo marina area.  

8. Shenandoah National Park, Skyline Drive.  It was always a treat to see a Black Bear during our visits to Shenandoah National Park. The mosaic below and next few photos are all from Shenandoah National Park. 

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! 

Happy Monday!

Happy Monday!

Wishing everyone a great day and a happy new week! 

Elk seen near the Oconaluftee Visitor Center, Great Smoky National Park in Cherokee North Carolina. 

"Animals are such agreeable friends, they ask no questions and they pass no criticisms."

"Animals have few rights, but they have every right to be here."

Mingus Mill, Cherokee North Carolina

"We take photos as a return ticket to a moment otherwise gone."

Comments off, enjoy your day!

Our World, My World

 Happy Monday!

I am continuing with some of my favorite National Park visits and archived photos.  Hubby and I are not traveling as of yet, we are waiting for the vaccine and to feel safe.  I feel like a LONG road trip is in our future, post Covid times of course! Mean time I have some virtual visits and memories of our country's beautiful National Parks. 

1. Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, hubby taking a break at the lake, I stayed behind and watched hubby climb the steps to the top, one of the many elk we saw in the park, a Grouse was seen next to the road.

2. Moose seen from the trail, a young moose was taking a drink from the river. 

3. This is a view of Alberta Falls, one of the most prominent waterfalls in Rocky Mtn NP.

4.  A herd of Elk in the Rocky National Park not far from the town of Estes Park Colorado. 

5.  Some of the Rocky Mountain NP birds seen during our visit, the Black-billed Magpie, Lincoln Sparrow, Pygmy Nuthatch, Barn Swallows, Mountain Bluebird and  Dusky Grouse. 

6.  Great Smoky Mtn NP Tennessee: Grotto Falls, Dark-eyed Junco, Autumn colors, Cades Cove horses, Wild Turkey, behind Grotto Falls, Autumn colors, deer, view of Cades Cove.

7.  Elk herd, Great Smoky Mtn NP

8.  Laurel Falls, Great Smoky Mtn NP Tennessee

9.   Black Bears were plentiful along the Roaring Fork Motor Trail in the Great Smokies. 

10.  Autumn colors in the Great Smokies, a beautiful sight. 

I think to myself, what a wonderful and beautiful world!  It is hard trying to pick out a few photos to share on this post, I have so many photos.  These are just a few favorites images from happy times traveling with my hubby.  

 Please keep wearing your mask and keep your distance!  Be safe, stay safe!

 

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!

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.