Bird & Blooms

  I am linking up with Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday 

I am sharing some of the birds and blooms we saw doing our walk at the local Irvine Nature Center in Maryland..

The trail from the parking lot starts off with a walk thru the woods. I like the texture of the bark on the tree. I am not sure of the structure in the small middle photo maybe it is a home built for the critters and birds to hide in and keep safe? The last bottom photo is one of two woodies we saw chasing each other around the tree.

The trail comes out of the woods to this open field, lots of wildflowers, a pretty sky. Just a gorgeous day for a walk.

 Along the meadow trail we saw lots of butterflies, dragonflies and birds..

 This was my first sighting this summer of the beautiful Monarch butterfly.. I do not remember seeing one Monarch last year..

 A few of the birds we saw were the Eastern Bluebird, American Robin and the American Goldfinch.

I love these Gaillardia blooms or Indian Blankets.


I hope you enjoyed my walk with the birds and blooms..Thanks for stopping by and for the 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 ahead!

Weekend Walk

Linking up with Skywatch Friday  and Good Fences  and NF Winged

 These are some shots from our walk at the local nature center, I started off my post with the moon setting on the morning of t July 17th.

 I love taking shots of the moon from our deck..

The sun was up and I still had a good view of the moon.

We must have saw thousands of dragonflies  at the nature center. This one has a pretty blue sky behind it.

Put a fence around it! This looks like  a garden fenced off to keep the critters away?

We actually saw two Red-tailed Hawks flying around and making loud calls.

I love these white puffy clouds over the nature center field..

 The sky and some pretty yellow coneflowers..

This House Wren seemed upset I was taking photos near its birdhouse..



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.

Irvine Nature center

  I am linking up with Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Happy Father's Day!

These photos were taken during last weekend's walk at the Irvine Nature Center. I have been there a few times with my bird club on walks and with my hubby. It has woodlands, fields and a marshy area.

A couple of my other posts on our visit to the Irvine Nature Center Le Contes-Sparrow and Birding Irvine Nature Center

Our walk at the nature center took us past the wigwam and the firepit. We also saw a lot of the Cabbage White Butterflies.

I loved walking along the trail next to the wildflowers. They were a bright cheery spot on the field. Do flowers make you happy and smile?

I am pretty sure this is an Eastern Wood-Pewee.

Seeing the Eastern Bluebirds is always a treat for me, they are one of my favorites. We also saw a lot of tree swallows and the Eastern Wood Pewee. I hope you enjoyed going on my walk and seeing the birds and wildflowers.


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!

Le Conte's Sparrow

I am linking up with World Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes

On Saturday, I added the Le Conte's Sparrow to my life list. I had been watching my listserve when I noticed the Le Conte's Sparrow was being seen at the local Irvine Nature Center. This bird breeds in Canada and winters in the South Eastern United States as far west as central Texas and as far north as central Illinois. Certainly no way near Maryland, it must have made a wrong turn somewhere.

The Le Conte's Sparrow is a small sparrow with a large head, with a short gray bill and short pointed tail. It has a buffy-orange yellow face, gray cheeks and a dark crown with a white central stripe. The neck has chestnut streaks, the back is streaked with brown and beige. Its belly is off white and the sides are buffy orange yellow with dark brown streaks.

This Le Conte's Sparrow enjoys moist open grassy areas with sufficient vegetation to provide cover. It's diet is seeds of grasses in the winter and insects in the summer.

The Le Conte's sparrow was seen in the grasses behind where I was standing when I took this photo.  I have posted about one of my previous birding outings with the bird club here Birding Irvine Nature Center.   At that time this field was covered in wildflowers and looked beautiful. It is always nice to add a new bird to my life list, especially so close to home.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my latest lifer and to see more beautiful and wonderful photos please visit: World Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes.  Thanks to Springman and Michelle for hosting these fun memes. Also, I thank everyone for stopping by my post and for leaving the lovely comments.

Birding the Irvine Nature Center

With my nature center post I am linking up with Scenic Sunday and Today's Flowers
and Mosaic Monday

During the month of October, I was able to visit the Irvine Nature Center twice. Once with my bird club and last weekend I went with my hubby. Of course the nature center trails were great for birding. But it was also nice to see some of the trees looking beautiful with their fall foilage.

 I was amazed at the amount of wildflowers we saw growing on the field. It was the third weekend in October and these flowers were looking gorgeous and still attracting the Fritallary and Buckeye butterflies and Sulfurs. 

Can you find the Fritillary above, the butterfly almost blends in witht he flowers and background.

The fields are great for attracting sparrows and this is a great time of year to see new and to compare different sparrows. They are one of the hardest birds for me to id, so many of them resemble other sparrows. My lifer seen at the nature center with the bird club was the Lincoln Sparrow. I tried hard to get photos of these sparrows but they seemed very camera shy.

Talking about camera shy, can you find the sparrow hidden in the bush above?  Sparrows seen both days were the Lincoln, White Throated, White Crowned, Swamp, Chipping, Field and Song Sparrows.  I was hoping for a sighting of a Vespar or Grasshopper Sparrow. But, I was still happy with my Lincoln Sparrow lifer.

Above the mosaic, shows a sparrow, trails coming out of the woods onto the field, some fall foilage, the field of wildflowers and tons of sparrows. I was amazed at the amount of sparrow we saw here. Other birds seen were the Eastern Phoebe, woodpeckers, Hawks, Kestrel, Palm Warblers, Towhees, Canada Geese and we flushed a Snipe twice.

 It is hard to believe that this field today is most likely covered in snow. I was so happy that I was able to visit this Nature Center while these beautiful flowers were still blooming.

I hope you enjoyed my visit to the Irvine Nature Center and I hope you are able to
visit with Today's Flowers and Scenic Sunday and Mosaic Monday.  Thanks to all the wonderful hosts and thank you for stopping by to see my post.  I hope everyone has a Happy Sunday and a wonderful week ahead.