Saturday's Critters # 469

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!

Hubby and I enjoy our little getaways, in this case on Nov 2nd-4th we visited one of my favorite places Chincoteague Island NWR in Virginia. We like going on these getaways at the last minute, just so we can pick the good weather days. The Chincoteague ponies are always a treat to see along with all the wild birds. 

Click on photos for better viewing!

1. Various photos from Chincoteague Island NWR, the Chincoteague Ponies, Merlin, Yellowlegs, Egret with ponies, Great Egret, Osprey, White Ibis, Assateague Lighthouse, Forster's Tern, Osprey, Sanderlings, Green-winged Teals, Bald Eagles, Great Blue Heron, sunrise

2. Great Egrets were seen in the same spot every day, one of their favorite fishing spots.

3. Merlin, this bird was seen from the trail to the pony overlook.

4. Various ducks, a good distance away for me to id them. A Bald Eagle did a fly by and caused a raucous. 

5. We found a few Yellowlegs off the wildlife drive. 

6.  After flying over the ducks that were hanging out, the Bald Eagle couple hung out on the ground for awhile. 

7.  Below one Great Blue Heron on the far left with a group of Cormorants, this was taken close to the sunset at Tom's Cove.. 

8.  A few Forster's Terns perched on the bridge leading into the wildlife refuge. 

9.  A Northern Flicker high in one of the tree tops off the trail. 

10.  An Osprey was seen each day almost in the same spot, maybe it was a good fishing spot. 

11. A Pied-billed Grebe was seen off the wildlife drive. 

I came home from 2 nights and 3 days in Chincoteague with over 500 photos and a few awful mosquito bites. These are some of my favorite birds, from the first day and half of the second day. 

12. My bonus photo is from Thanksgiving Day, my son, DIL and grandsons Wyatt and Mason came over for Thanksgiving dinner.

Thank you for sharing your critters and 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:

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!  Also, I am also linking up to Heidrun's Mosaic Monday  I hope you can stop by and visit Heidrun and check out the Mosaic Monday post. 

Merlin.....My latest lifer

Hello again, I am linking up with World Bird Wednesday   and Nature Notes

My post this week is my latest lifer the Merlin.  We got to see a few of these birds while visiting Chincoteague NWR recently. The merlin  is a small falcon and my field guide says they will winter on the coast. Merlins will go out after birds and insects on the wing. They can accelerate to incredible speeds to snatch their prey.  The adult is steely gray above and a streaky pattern below.

The Merlin above was seen during our sunset tour on the wildlife drive.

This Merlin was seen closer to Tom's Cove and the beach. We were watching the Merlin perched in a tree when all of a sudden it swooped down next to our car and grabbed a huge dragonfly and flew back to the perch to enjoy its catch.

The Merlins are migrating and I do believe we were seeing more than just the one during our weekend visit to Chincoteague.

To see more beautiful and great birds please visit World Bird Wednesday  and for
more nature scenes check out Nature Notes  Thanks to Springman of World Bird Wednesday and to Michelle of Nature Notes. I also appreciate your visit and comments. Thanks for stopping by. I hope everyone has a wonderful week.

More from Chincoteague

Hi everyone, I am linking up with Mosaic Monday  and Our World Tuesday.. I hope everyone is a having a Happy Columbus Day weekend. It is great to have a long weekend.  But, this post on last weekend's visit to Chincoteague Island, Virginia. It was a great weekend seeing lots of great birds, the famous Chincoteague wild ponies and a climb to the top of the lighthouse.

In the mosaic above, the top first row photos is a Merlin and was a lifer for me, the second I was told it is a juvenile Black Bellied Plover. They look nothing like the adult black Bellied Plover but I thought it was a cute bird. The last top row photo is one of the Chincoteague ponies. Bottom photos are what I think is a juvenile Snowy Egret and a single Pelican and last shot is a group of pelicans over the flying over the ocean.

In this mosaic, the top row includes the Assateague Lighthouse and it celebrated its 144th birthday last weekend. I was surprised it is called the Assateague Lighthouse and not the Chincoteague Lighthouse. We visited both the Chincoteague National wildlife refuge and the refuge is connected to the Assateague National Seashore. Next to the lighthouse is a Little Blue Heron and last top row photo is a Great Egret. On the bottom row I have a Cattle Egret sitting on one of the Chincoteague ponies, a Bald Eagle and a few Willets at the beach.

I always think it is neat to see the Cattle Egrets riding the ponies.

This Merlin swooped down next to our car to catch it's dinner, a huge dragonfly.

I could be wrong but I believe this yellow legged egret is a juvenile Snowy Egret.

We climbed the stairs to the top of lighthouse and had a great view of Chincoteague Island and the ponies. We could even see the egrets below and watched Ospreys flying nearby.

We were told there are at least two nesting pairs of Eagles on the wildlife refuge. This Eagle was perched in a great spot with the evening sunlight shining on him/her.

This weekend is the Columbus Day holiday weekend and it seems to be going by so fast already. Yesterday, I joined in with my bird club on a walk at a nearby nature center which was a lot of fun. Great birds and surprisingly saw some beautiful late blooming wildflowers. I see another post coming up on my bird club outing and a new lifer. And today I spent most of the day with two of my cousins visiting with them and going to two cemeteries where my grandparents and great grandparents are buried. Besides blogging I have become interested in working on my family tree at Ancestry.com.


To see more wonderful mosaics, please visit Mary's Mosaic Monday and for more great photos and posts check out Our World Tuesday.  Thanks to Mary for hosting Mosaic Monday and to the nice gang at Our World Tuesday: Arija, Gattina, Sanday, Lady Fi and Sylvia.  I hope you enjoyed my post and I hope everyone has a wonderful week.