Saturday's Critters # 652

   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

Click on images for better viewing.

This post continues with our little getaway to the Eastern shore of Maryland, we stopped on the way home at the Blackwater Wildlife Refuge.  We saw so many birds, Eagles and Osprey were plentiful. There were Egrets, Herons, Red-headed Woodpecker, Brown-headed Nuthatches, various shorebirds and gulls. 

1. Below are an Osprey couple, one Osprey  eating a fish perched on the side of the nest.  

My Merlin App showed just some of the birds seen and heard at the Blackwater wildlife refuge in Cambridge Maryland. 

2. Seen below are the Brown-headed Nuthatch top left and the Eastern Bluebird top right. Bottom left is the red-headed Woodpecker and a Killdeer on the right. 

3. We saw some Great Egrets hanging about in the wetlands. 

The Great Blue Herons are a common sight to see along the wildlife drive. 

4. My Merlin App picked up both the Lesser Yellowlegs and the Greater Yellowlegs. 

5. The Ospreys and Eagle sightings were plentiful.  I think both the Ospreys and the Eagles are impressive beautiful birds.  

6. There were two Eaglets in the nest, this photo is heavily cropped.

7. This pair of Eagles posed in a pine tree that was next to the wildlife drive. 

8. The sun was reflecting on the Glossy Ibis

A Killdeer with two chicks at the visitor center. 

Killdeer chick looked cute, it was seen on the visitor center parking lot. 

I hope you enjoyed my bird sightings at the Blackwater Wildlife refuge, these photos were all taken from my car window. My reason for not being perfect photos.  

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 # 559

  Welcome to Saturday's Critters! Hello and Happy Saturday!

Happy Labor Day weekend everyone!

 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!

Our latest trip, July 31 through Aug 7th, hubby and I were on a trip to Alaska. Our first night was in Anchorage Alaska, we spent 3 nights close to Denali Nat'l Park and Preserve and the last 2 nights were in Glacier View Alaska. We flew on Alaska Airlines from BWI in Maryland to Seattle WA.  At Sea-Tac we had just over an hour for our next flight to Anchorage Alaska. Arriving in Anchorage we picked up our rental car and hit the road for some sightseeing. These are images from our first day in Anchorage. The daylight hours were long, the sun rose around 5:30 am and did not set until around 10:30. 

1. Only a 20 minute drive from our Anchorage hotel we drove on the Seward Hwy to Beluga Point, Cook Inlet. I read the Beluga whales could be seen in this area mid July through Sept when the salmon are plentiful. We did not see any whales but the views were beautiful. Sept 21, 2024 will be a day for the Beluga Count, open to the public. During the Sept 2023 count, 331 Beluga whales were counted. 

View from Beluga Point lookout, the Cook Inlet

2. Heading back toward our Anchorage hotel, we stopped at the Potters Marsh Coastal Refuge right off the Seward highway. The boardwalk is nice except part of it is right next to the Seward Hwy, with cars and trucks zooming by and the Alaska Railroad tracks, so it was very noisy.

3. A view of the coastal refuge, looking toward the Cook Inlet and the Seward Highway.

4. I am not sure when the birds in Alaska migrate south for the winter. We did not see many at the refuge.  I believe what we did see were the Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs and we saw the Wilson's Snipe.

5. I was told these birds could be the Greater Yellowlegs.

I wish I could balance this well on just one leg. 

6. We did see some ducks too, not sure which duck we saw here. 

Below are a Wilson's Snipe with another Yellowleg.

7. We did see the Belted Kingfishers, at one time I think there were 3 flying around us.  The bird on the right has a small fish in it's beak.

8. The Belted Kingfishers would fly around and then come back and land in the same bush. 

It was a long first day between flying and then driving to the Beluga Point, taking a walk on the refuge boardwalk. It was time for a dinner and check in to our Anchorage hotel for one night. My next Alaska post will be on our visit and stay near Denali National Park and Preserve.

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.

Here is my linky:

Thank you for sharing your critters and post!

Enjoying My Neighborhood

Happy Thursday, enjoy your day!

Have you ever notice all the variety of life in your neighborhood and nearby habitats? Definition of Biodiversity: the variety of life in the world, or in a particular habitat or ecosystem. 

I live near a lake and forest, in which there is always something to see. If you have a small pond, river or your very own backyard habitat, the ecosystem is amazing. The threats to the ecosystem are many, a few are loss of habitat, over exploitation and the spread of non-native species. 

The first time I saw the Green Heron at our lake. It is great to see such a variety of birds at our lake.

Lesser Yellowlegs, I was confused since this bird's leg colors look like bright orange to me?

A couple of Solitary Sandpipers at our lake.

Below some shorebirds, the Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs and a Solitary Sandpiper.

My mosiac from our walk on the local fire road lined with tall pine trees, next to the lake, some fall leaves and mushrooms, an Osprey in flight, our lake and a Belted Kingfisher across the lake.

A view of the sky and clouds, later the same day after our walk on the fire road. 

I am thankful to live in a state and neighborhood with such biodiversity. It is the variety of life,  I have only seen a small amount of species contained on earth. Biodiversity is important to people and the health of ecosystems. It is beautiful when you take in the wonder of it all. 

I am always thankful for your visits and your comments.

Thank you Michelle for hosting. Thankful Thursday

Thank you to the hosts of   Skywatch Friday


Thanks so much for visiting and for your nice comments. Have a happy day!

John Heinz NWR

  I am linking up with   Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday 

Lately I have been running a week or more behind in sharing photos from our weekend getaways or daytrips.. Last weekend hubby and I visited the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum.  It is located near Philadelphia Pennsylvania..  We arrived at the refuge before 9am and just in  time to join in on their free bird walk.. Below I am sharing some of the scenery from the wildlife refuge and some of the birds we saw during the bird walk.

 Above the male Wood Duck, possible female Common Yellowthroat and a Cooper's hawk.

A pretty male Wood Duck..

 We saw a lot of Great Egrets, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs and the Great Blue Herons..

I like the row of Great Egrets  above with the Great Blue Herons.. Can you find two GB Herons?

At one end of the boardwalk a Sora had been seen around the time we were there, we did hear it call.  But, it stayed hidden in the reeds.   Also seen above some turtles, various ducks, a cute Marsh Wren and some wildflowers..I had a total of about 42 bird species seen & heard and some turtles..

This is not the greatest photo above, but it is the only photo I have that has both the Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs together.. I was happy being with the others in bird walk, it helps when our leader pointed out these two birds being seen together..

A view of the river and some of the flowers..It was nice to add another wildlife refuge to my list of NWR we have already visited.. I have a goal to visit as many of the USA National Parks and National Wildlife Refuges as possible.. I have another new NWR to do a post on from our trip to Colorado..the post is coming soon.

I hope everyone enjoyed our visit to the wildlife refuge and photos..

As always I thank you in advance for stopping by and for the nice comments.

I hope you can join in on our at  Mosaic Monday and   Our World Tuesday

 Thanks to Judith our new host of Mosaic Monday and to the hosting group of Our World Tuesday: Arija, Gattina, Lady Fi, Sylvia, Sandy and Jennifer.  I wish everyone a happy week ahead!