Saturday's Critters # 592

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!

Wishing everyone a happy and blessed Easter!

Still over a month behind, I am sharing photos of my yard birds, photos from our walks with Miney and our outings. My post is a mish mash of photos and a few flashback images from our visits to Florida. 

Click on images for better viewing.

1. March 7th,  another morning walk on the local fire road with Miney.  

2. March 7th, our neighbors asked us to let their Goldendoodle out mid-day since they were away for the day. They mentioned we would not recognize Casey, she was groomed and looking more like a yellow lab. We took Miney with us so they could play.  

3. March 8th, another walk on the local fire road with Miney. During our walks I am still looking out for any birds.  Usually I hear more than I see, the Titmouse and Woodpeckers are vocal. I can hear the geese on the lake a little distance away. There were vultures flying around above us.    

4. March 9th, we took our walk on the local George's Creek trail. At this time everything is still looking brown, still winter here. I saw a couple of Brown Creepers, lots of Bluebirds and a Mockingbird. Near by I heard the Canada Geese, Woodpeckers, Song Sparrows, Chickadees and Cardinals.

5. March 9th, a closer look at a couple of the Brown Creepers.

6. March 9th, views from our walk at George's Creek, which flows into the Prettyboy Reservoir. 

March 9th, I heard lots of Bluebirds. They seem to be very vocal this morning.  

7. Flashback another Florida bird is the Little Blue Heron. The bicolored bill looks especially beautiful during the breeding time.

8. Florida Flashback, the Loggerhead Shrike was a common bird we saw in many Florida parks. 

Easter bonus image, we went to an Easter Breakfast with the family. Our grandsons are a little shy near the Easter bunny but Sophie does not mind at all.

For some reason I am not able to comment on Wordpress blogs even when I am signed in. I have tried various blogs and the same happens on each blog. 

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! 

Dyer Park, Winding Waters & Spanish River Park

Hello and Happy Monday!

I am taking you back to our Florida trip, on Jan 10th we went looking for a park in West Palm Beach called Winding Waters Natural Area. There are always signs warning about the alligators. 

A Loggerhead Shrike was a common bird seen at Dyer Park. 

We saw a large flock of Glossy Ibis while walking the loop trail at Dyer Park. On the left side of the top photo you can see the trail we walked. 

There must have been hundreds of Swallows, flying over the nearby landfill. This photo looks better if you click on the photo for a larger viewing. 

We walked a loop trail used mostly by joggers and walkers. Each day we were in Florida we racked up some steps walking. Below are some of the birds we saw during our walk, Wood Stork, Cattle Egret, White Ibis, Anhinga, Mockingbird, Loggerhead Shrike, Glossy Ibis, White Ibis with a Wood Stork and Moorhens and the Tricolored Heron. 

The Spanish River Park had a nice little nature trail. We did not see many birds, pretty plants a Palm Warbler and some colorful berries. 

Spanish River Park beach, to get to this beach we had to walk through a tunnel under the road. 

Spanish River Park Beach, Boca Raton Florida.

Thanks for your visit today!  I hope you enjoyed my post and photos.


Thanks to Angie the host of  Mosaic Monday

Thanks to LadyFi  the host of Our World Tuesday!

Check out the links, I hope to see you there. Thanks to the hosts today. Enjoy your day and new week.


As always I thank you for stopping by and as always I appreciate your comments.

Loggerhead Shrike

Hello,

Happy Memorial Day! God Bless our veterans, soldiers and those who have lost their lives to protect the USA.

This week I am sharing the Loggerhead Shrike another Florida bird.  The Loggerhead Shrike is a medium sized passerine. This bird has a cool looking black mask and it has a short black hooked beak.


This Loggerhead Shrike was seen at the Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park.

This Loggerhead Shrike Posed nice showing both sides and back plumage and that hooked beak.

This Shrike below was seen in Cape Coral Florida. These birds are known to skewer their kill on thorns or barbed wire.

Thank you for stopping by and as always I appreciate your comments.

My list of memes for today, I hope to see you there. Thanks to both of the host below.

Thanks to Michelle for hosting Nature Notes
Thanks to Stewart for hosting Wild Bird Wednesday

Cape Coral & Myakka River State Park, Florida

Hello

These are some images from our time in Florida, one day we visited the Myakka River State Park after a visit to the Cape Coral area to see the Burrowing Owls.  While watching the Burrowing Owls I also noticed the Loggerhead Shrike, seen below. It was also the spot were we saw the Monk Parakeets, I posted on a previous post.

Below is the Loggerhead Shrike seen on a wire near the ball field. It was a pretty blue sky above the Shrike.

 



The Burrowing Owls of Cape Coral Florida.







A scene from the Myakka River State Park

This is one of the many Roseate Spoonbills we saw at the Myakka River State Park. It was a pretty sky and sunny day.

 



For my list of thankful things this week:
I am thankful for the beautiful birds in the world.
I am thankful for my eyesight, I am able to see the beauty in the world.

I hope you enjoyed my post and photos.  Thanks so much for visiting and for your nice comments. Have a happy day!

Thank you Michelle for hosting. Thankful Thursday

Thank you to the hosts of   Skywatch Friday

Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park

Hello,

Happy Easter everyone!

I am sharing another great Florida park called Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park. This park consist of 54,000 acres or dry prairie. It is home to many endangered plants and animals. Two of my favorite sightings were of the Loggerhead Shrike and the Crested Caracara. Both of these birds were seen on the long 5 mile entrance road into the park. This is supposed to be a great park for viewing the night sky, we were only there for the day.


A Loggerhead Shrike, a songbird with raptor habits. It's nickname is the Butcherbird and is related to the Northern Shrike.

The Crested Caracara, one of my favorites.

Great Egrets have a party and invited the  Crested Carcara.

Egrets and herons and warnings of alligators.

One of the views of the trail, a pretty clear blue sky and some palm trees.

Near the visitor center, there was a sculpture of the Carolina Parakeet. This parakeet is now extinct and was the only parrot species native to the United States. The last known wild Carolina Parrot nesting location was in this park. Also in the collage is a  Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly.

A Wood Stork sky.

Eastern Meadowlark

American Kestrel

Most of our walk on the trail was out in the open, no shade to be found. I would suggest going to this park on a cool day.

On the trail at Kissimmee Prairie



"There is no happier person than a truly thankful, content person."


My thankful list for today:
I am thankful to find birds that are on my want to see list. :)
I am thankful for pretty days to take our walks.


Thank you for your visit and comments on my post. Enjoy your day and the weekend ahead!

Thanks to Michelle for the meme Thankful Thursday

I am also linking up to Skywatch Friday, I hope to see you there.

Thank you to Sylvia, Yogi and Sandy for hosting Skywatch Friday.

New Mexico

  I am linking up with Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday 

October 27, 2013

Hubby and I are back after  a week long vacation to New Mexico. We were kind of scared the week before leaving with the government shutdown. Our trip was planned around a few National Parks and Wildlife refuges all of which were closed during the shutdown. Luckily the politicians came to an agreement days before we were to leave.  Driving a loop we went from Albuquerque RT 40 to RT 285 to Carlsbad. One of our main stops was at the Carlsbad Caverns National Park. We drove along on RT 180 the national park highway stopping at the Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas. Continuing on to RT 25 to our next stop in the town of Truth or Consequences and a one night stay at a hot springs hotel. From there we stayed a couple of nights in Socorro and then back to Albuquerque. We put 1,250 miles on the rental car!

You can see some of the New Mexico sights we saw while on our first day. Rt 285 looks like it goes on forever. While driving I saw a couple of different herds of Antelope or I call them Pronghorn. After flying and driving for hours we started looking for food. The first town we came to was like a ghost town with tumbleweed blowing across the road.  In the next town of Vaughn we found a nice place with good food called Penny's Diner.

Above are the birds seen at the Bitter Lake NWR : lots of Sandhill Cranes, Pied-bill Grebe, Loggerhead Shrike, a few White Pelicans and a pretty shot of the full moon near Carlsbad.

When I plan our vacations, I try to find attractions that both hubby and I will enjoy. On this trip the main attraction for hubby was the Carlsbad Caverns and of course I managed to research all the great places for birding. We managed to break up our drive along the route 285 stopping at the Bitter Lake wildlife refuge near Roswell, New Mexico.  I have to report we did NOT see any aliens on our drive.

I will be showing more photos from our New Mexico vacation, so I hope you will stop back and check out my post.  It was a fun trip..


As always, I hope you enjoy my post and thanks for visiting my blog. 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!

Loggerhead Shrike and more

I am linking up with Wild Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes

I know you all find it hard to believe but I still have more Florida birds and even a lifer I have not posted. So with out further delay, here is one of my cool Florida lifers.... the Loggerhead Shrike.

My Loggerhead Shrike lifer happened on the same street as my Burrowing Owl lifer.  Cool, two lifers within blocks of each other. The Shrike was sitting on a wire across the road I was driving on, I had to turn around and do a double take to make sure of the birds id. The Loggerhead Shrike is also known as the Butcher Bird. It eats insects, lizards and small birds. I will not go into the gory details on what the Shrike does to its food before its eat them.

Not the best photos of my Loggerhead Shrike but you can definitely see the bird's features.  The Shrike has a large hook bill, the head and back are grey and the underparts are white. The wings and tail are black,  with white patches on the wings and white on the outer tail feather. The black face mask extends over its bill unlike that of the similar but larger Northern Shrike. I have seen the Northern Shrike here in Maryland.

So, in the same Florida neighborhood I saw my lifer the Burrowing Owl and the cool Loggerhead Shrike. I would not mind living on this street with the cool birds.

Seeing the Burrowing owls was one of the trip's highlights for me. So seeing them a couple of times in different places made my day and trip.

 Seeing a new bird for the first time is exciting, I hope you enjoyed my Loggerhead Shrike and Burrowing Owls.

Join in and post your birdies and to see more beautiful and wonderful bird photos please visit:
 Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday and Michelle's  Nature Notes.

Thanks to Stewart for hosting Wild Bird Wednesday and thanks to Michelle for hosting Nature Notes.

Thanks for stopping by and for leaving your nice comments. I always appreciate your visits.
I wish everyone a happy week ahead and Happy Birding!