Saturday's Critters # 397

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 sharing some yard birds and birds seen from our local walk at the Hemlock Gorge part of the Gunpowder Falls State Park and our Prettyboy Reservoir watershed. 

1. Eastern Bluebirds in our yard, they are back to using one of my birdhouses.  The male Bluebird is often perched in a tree in the side of our yard which overlooks the birdhouse. A young bluebird has been sitting in the back part of the yard, easily id by the speckled chest. 

2. I am pretty sure the Bluebird below was born this year. The bluebirds can have 2-3 broods each year.  The young Bluebirds are speckled with touches of blue on their wings. 

3. The male Eastern Bluebird is beautiful, a lovely color blue, rufous underparts and a white belly.

4.  The only feeders I left up it the Hummingbird feeder, I can change out the sugar water and clean the feeders often.

5. The deer has been a regular visitor in our yard and on the neighbors driveway.  I can watch the deer from my kitchen windows.  

6.  An area of the Gunpowder State Park is always a good spot to see the Louisiana Waterthrush in the summer months.  These are some photos from one our our recent walks to Hemlock Gorge. 

7. The Louisiana Waterthrush breeds near a fast moving stream. They nest in thickets on the ground, they can be found walking along the shoreline in search of insects.  

8. A young Lousiana Waterthush below has found a tasty grub or worm to eat. We watched at least 3 Waterthrush foraging along the river on this day. 

9.  Another guess below is an Eastern Wood-Pewee. they have olive gray with dark wings and thin white wing bars. I usually can hear these birds before I can see them. They like to perch in trees with good view points. 

10. I believe below is an Eastern Phoebe, they have a dark head with a gray back and they lack an eye ring. 

I am happy to find the birds on our walks, there are times I have some great bird sightings.  Happy Birding!  

I am also linking up to Anni's blog party found here I'd Rather B Birding   Anni always has some beautiful birds to be seen on her blog, check it out!

Here is my linky:

YOU are all # 1.

Thanks to all my visitors and for your comments. Stop back to see any replies to your comments. I appreciate everyone who loves critters and has linked up their critter post. 

Gunpowder River

I am linking up with   Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday    and NF Trees

They are all fun memes to participate in...I hope you can join in with the fun  and check out some of the participating posts.

I am sharing some scenes from our walk to the local park and river called Gunpowder River State Park. We went mainly to see the Mountain Laurels in bloom but it was a little early to see all the blooms they were just starting to look pretty.

 The Gunpowder river with some early morning fog, hubby chilling out on a rock, a hummingbird on the nest and a tulip poplar bloom.

While I was standing on one of the rocks at the river I saw a hummingbird flying high above me. I follow the hummer to the treetop and just snapped a photo. I lucked out getting this shot of the hummingbird on the nest. I did not know I got this shot until I looked at this photo on my computer. Can you find the hummingbird?

 For my NF Tree and bush entry I am sharing the Mountain Laurels, some were blooming and some were just starting to blooms. Pretty white and pink blooms. You can see the trail above lower right, the mountain laurels are taller than I am.

The skinny trail next to the river, it is getting crowded out by all the Mountain Laurels and greenery.

A view of the Gunpowder River, the trail headed down to the river and a friend gave me the correct name for the butterfly it is the Pale Beauty butterfly.

More of the foggy river scene, mountain laurel blooms, a Great Blue Heron flying above us and a Louisiana Waterthrush near the foggy river.

Sitting by the river is a cool spot to spend a summer day. Above you can see some fog just above the river created by the air temperature and the water temp. I hope you enjoyed our walk and my post. Thanks as always for your visit and nice comments. Have a great day and week ahead!

I use Pic Monkey to create my mosaics, you can use Pic Monkey free or pay for an upgraded version.

I hope you can join in on our fun with Mosaic Monday  and Our World Tuesday  and NF Trees

 Thanks to Judith our host of Mosaic Monday and to the hosting group of Our World Tuesday: Arija, Gattina, Lady Fi, Sylvia, Sandy and Jennifer and to Monica for hosting NF Trees & Bushes.  

Hemlock Gorge

I am linking up with   Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday 

I like that I can take my walks any time I want now, instead of waiting for the weekend..weather permitting of course.. These are some scenes from our walk to a local area called Hemlock Gorge.. The river is called the Gunpowder River and runs into the lake near our home..

I like the reflections captured in the photo on the left and the Hermit Thrush is seen in our area only in the winter months..

More river scenery and the sunlight coming thru the hemlock trees and some icicles..

Above the icy river and a cute Winter Wren we watch for a while hopping along the river's edge. It was a chilly and brisk walk, great exercise too. I hope you enjoyed my walk. I thank your for visiting and all the wonderful comments..

I use Pic Monkey to create my mosaics, you can use Pic Monkey free or pay for an upgraded version.
I hope you can join in on our fun at  Mosaic Monday and   Our World Tuesday

 Thanks to Judith our  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!

Birding the Gunpowder River

  I am linking up with   Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday

These photos are from last weekend's walk at the Gunpowder River. The trail is around the other side of our lake and below the dam. It is a favorite spot for trout fishing, tubing and kayaking. And of course the trail along the river is great for my favorite hobby... birding. That should not be a surprise, right?

We tried to pick a spot to sit, away from the fishermen, so our Goldie Girl could do some swimming in the river.

We chose last weekend to go to this spot at the river because we knew the mountain laurels were in full bloom. They look so pretty, pink and white mountain laurels all along the river, made for a beautiful scene.

The white mountain laurels are pretty but my favorite are the pink blooms.

It was a pretty day to sit on one of the large rocks, listen to the water and watch for the birds. I saw the Louisiana Waterthrush and the Carolina Chickadees. I could here some Vireo's and the Scarlet Tanagers in the treetops.

Goldie Girl enjoyed cooling off in the river.

More river scenes on our hike back up the trail, a Wood Pewee was calling in the woods. A tiny pretty moth no bigger than one of my fingernails.

I hope you enjoyed my post and photos. Thanks for visiting my blog and post. I always appreciate your comments.
Join in on the fun and for more wonderful photos please visit  Mosaic Monday and more from  Our World Tuesday
 Thanks to our host: Mary our 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!

Hemlock Gorge Walk

Hello, I am linking up with Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday.


These are some of the scenes from our walk at the Hemlock Gorge yesterday.Such a calm day before the big storm SANDY. I am hoping our electric stays on, they are already announcing school closings. If I am not around visiting your blogs the next couple of days, it will be because I will not have the internet access. I hope everyone in the path of SANDY ..Take care  and be careful and I hope no one has any serious damage.

Above we saw a few falls colors, hemlock trees and a cute Carolina Wren. I also saw the YC Kinglets in the same area as the Carolina Wren.

Our walk on the trail next to the river and goes into a Hemlock forest. We saw various hemlock trees that look like they are dying most likely from the insect called Hemlock Wooly Adelgid. It was sad to see that these same beautiful hemlock trees in the Smoky Mountains are also dying from this insect.

Above are some photos from around my yard: top right is our red maple tree, Clematis is blooming again, more of the red maple, our colorful weeping cherry tree and one of the many Pine Siskins I have been seeing at my feeders.

I love the colors on our Weeping Cherry tree.

More of the blooming Clematis.

Here are just of few of the Pine Siskins in my yard today. You can see their pretty yellow stripe on their sides. At the same time they were also on other feeders and in the weeping cherry tree. My biggest flock of Siskins so far this season.

They are a fun groups of birds to watch, sometimes getting a feisty with each other. I hope you enjoyed my walk and my Pine Siskins.

To see more wonderful photos and mosaics please visit Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday
 Thanks to Mary of Mosaic Monday and to the hosting group of Our World Tuesday: Arija, Gattina, Lady Fi, Sylvia and Sandy .  Thanks also for stopping by to see my post.  I wish everyone a happy week!

Birding and Hiking the Gunpowder River

A post for my Mosaic Monday and That's My World and a link to my you tube Mountain laurels along the trail

This week hubby and I hiked down the trail to the Gunpowder River to see the mountain laurels in bloom. The trail along the river has an amazing amount of white and pink  mountain laurels blooming. The weather was great for hiking and we sat and watched some kayakers playing around in the white water area of the river. It is also a river popular with the trout fishermen and people tubing.

I was also able to check out the birds along the river. I saw a beautiful Scarlet Tanager high in the tree tops. Acadian Flycatchers were all around and I am pretty sure I heard a Prothonotary Warbler.  One of the birds that popped up close to me was the Louisiana Waterthrush. This bird likes to nest in woodlands near rivers or fast moving streams. As you can see it has pinkish legs and a wide white supercilium. Which to me looks just like an eyebrow.

Goldie Girl got to play in the river and cool off.

The mountain laurel was blooming beautifully, I really loved the pink ones.

To see more great photos and mosaics please visit Mary's Mosaic Monday  and That's My World  thanks to Mary of Little Red House and to the group of hosts at That's My World : Sylvia, Wren, Sandy and Klaus.

Also thanks for visiting my post and I wish everyone a great week.