Saturday's Critters # 312

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!


Happy Birthday Brian, today is my son's 27th birthday. Wow, 27 years have flown by. I wish him a happy life.


Below is a list of my yard birds and a few bird photos. I watched my yard birds for less than an hour on the afternoon of Nov 26th.  It was sunny and around 60°.  A warm day for the end of November.  

I have a Northern Cardinal couple visiting. They are here every day, all day long.  I think this guy should have a headache from banging on my windows off and on all day.

 The female Northern Cardinal is sitting in our Blueberry bush, this bush is protection for all the song birds.  I have a pond/bog nearby along and a wood/brush pile. There are plenty of trees/bushes and native berries in our yard. We are next to miles of forest and have the lake nearby.  The birds have plenty of protection in my yard and a nice habitat. We also have a little black tub pond, three bird baths, one bird bath is heated.

I have been seeing 4-5 Dark-eyed Juncos.  This is a male below, he is a dark slate color. The female looks a little brownish-gray to me. These birds are like the Mourning Doves eating seeds off the ground.  I do have a thistle feeder, 2 sunflower seed feeders and 2 suet feeders.

The House Sparrow is not a usual yard bird for me. I was surprised to see him at one of my bird houses.  The bird house was made by my son when he still lived at home, many years ago.  The bird house is four sided, like an apartment building. I have also recently seen the Chickadee and a Downy Woodpecker entering this bird house.  

Can you find the Carolina Wren? Did you know leaving a pile of leaves on the ground can help the critters? Caterpillars, moths and butterflies can be overwintering under the leaves. 

 The female Downy Woodpecker.  The female Downy  does not have the red spot on it's head.

I also see 4-5, maybe more of the Tufted Titmouse. 

 The Carolina Chickadee often just grabs a seed and leaves, it is hard trying to get a nice photo of the Chickadee. Below the Chickadee is at the feeder and the WB Nuthatch is waiting on the deck rail.

I usually see the White-throated Sparrow early in the morning or later in the afternoon.This sparrow is another bird that usually is seen eating the seed off the ground. 

Top row: White-breasted Nuthatch, Northern Cardinal. Second row: Tufted Titmouse and the House Sparrow. Third row; Dark-eyed Junco and some what hidden Carolina Wren. Bottom row, half hidden Pileated Woodpecker and the Downy Woodpecker. 

Later in the day I was able to catch the Blue Jays on the deck railing, the Red-bellied Woodpecker at the suet feeder and a couple of male House Finches at the sunflower seed feeder. 

My list of bird sightings on the afternoon of Nov 26th.  Some are in photos above or the mosaic. I was not able to get photos of the Mourning Doves, Ruby-crowned Kinglet and the Northern Mockingbird.

1. Northern Cardinal couple
2. Blue Jay, a few
3. Carolina Wren
4. Carolina Chickadee
5. Tufted Titmouse, 4-5
6. Mourning Dove, 2-3
7. Red-bellied Woodpecker, a couple
8. Pileated Woodpecker
9. Downy Woodpecker couple
10. House Sparrow
11. White-breasted Nuthatch, a couple
12. Northern Mockingbird
13. Dark-eyed Junco
14. Ruby-crowned Kinglet
15. White-throated Sparrow
16. House Finch, a couple




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

I am cutting back on sending reply emails, unless someone has a specific question. I will reply under the comment. Thanks Always!





Here is a list of my linky parties;

Also visit:  I'd-Rather-B-Birdin. Thanks to the host Anni.

Around the Yard

I have a list below of memes I am joining for this week, and to save time I am doing one post for all. 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. Special thanks to all the wonderful host and their memes, I hope you have some time to check them out.

These are the end of my photos taken in December 2015. Some of my yard birds and my moon photos. Now, I can clear out more of my files and make room for more.

Not the best photos considering the feeder and how it is hanging but, those dang squirrels kept knocking it off. I found a way to hang the feeder so it will not fall on the ground so often. Pictured in the mosaic are the House Finch, Blue Jay, Cardinals, Goldfinch, Titmouse and Chickadee.

I was enjoying that some of the birds like this Chickadee landed on my wind chime before heading to the feeder.

Above one of my many Chickadees and a Tufted Titmouse. I love wind chimes and have several of them hanging on our deck and pergola. Each one makes different sounds that I love.

On Dec 24th the moon almost full, it was mostly cloudy but I was able to snap off a few photos of the moon.

On Dec 27 , I had a couple of Pine Siskins stop by and lately I have been seeing 20-30 House Sparrows. I am not sure why all of a sudden I am seeing so many House Sparrows, they are not one of my favorite birds, but the male is handsome.

Above the moon on Dec 28th. I thank you for stoping by, I hope you enjoyed my post.

As always I appreciate your visits and nice comments. Thank you! Have a happy day and new week ahead!

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

Thanks to Judith our  host of Mosaic Monday 

Thanks to Michelle for hosting Nature Notes

Thanks to the hosting team of Our World Tuesday!

Thanks to Stewart for hosting Wild Bird Wednesday

Hershey Gardens Part II

Linking up with Skywatch Friday  and Good Fences  and NF Winged


 I have some more photos to share from my Hershey Gardens visit.. While at Hershey I was lucky to include some sky and fence shots for Skywatch Friday and Tex's Good Fence memes..Some other shots were of the moon from my yard and of course I had to throw in a yardbird.   

The day before I took a shot of the almost full moon and the almost Supermoon..

Before leaving for Hershey Gardens, I had to check out my yard birds. It seems I have become overrun with these House Sparrows.. This one is sitting on the pokeberry bush..

Another prettie from the Hershey Butterfly House.. A Queen butterfly..

The entrance to the children's garden and walkway to the butterfly house..this shot include a clear sky and some pretty fences too.

For Tex's Good Fence meme... here is a fence with some pretty roses was all around the pond. 

Above is a scene from the gardens showing the pretty blue sky with some puffy white clouds. It was perfect weather for walking around the gardens, not too hot and no humidity. I love these lovely plants.. Elephant Ears.

For the NF Winged part of my post. I am sharing another one of my favorite butterflies..It is called the Zebra Longwing..

Another shot of the Zebra Longwing...It is beautiful!

This colorful moon was also taken the morning before the actual supermoon..I like the color of this setting moon..The moon shots were all taken hand held using my Canon SX40HS, no special lenses were necessary.


I hope you enjoyed my post and photos
To see more pretty skies from around the world please visit  Skywatch Friday
and check more fence shots at Tex's Good Fences
and for anything that has wings check out NF Winged

Thanks to Tex @ The Run*A*Round Ranch for hosting Good Fences and to Sylvia, Yogi  and Sandy for hosting Skywatch Friday also thanks to Monica of NF Winged!   I wish everyone a safe and happy long weekend.