Saturday's Critters # 576

  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!

Wow, December just flew by. This year 2024, has been good we enjoyed two big trips and lots of little getaways. In April we were traveling all over Arizona and in early August we enjoyed our trip to Alaska.  I am hoping to do some traveling in 2025. 

Click on images for better viewing.

1. As always still behind posting, these are from Oct 3rd. We were still seeing our flowers blooming and butterflies visiting. My backyard birds on this day were the Carolina Wren, Mockingbird and the Tufted Titmouse.

2. Oct 5th, a Praying Mantis sitting on our deck railing, possible butterfly id is a Fritillary, Red-bellied Woodpecker, a Downy Woodpecker seen on the NCR Bike trail. 

3. Oct 6th, I had about 6 Eastern Bluebirds checking out all my bird houses. They are always a treat to see.

4. Oct 10th, not a critter image but we were able to see the Northern Lights from our deck.  My son also saw the Northern Lights from his house, bottom left photo. 

5. Oct 12, the Northern Flicker and the Peacock sitting on our deck and in the side yard a Cooper's Hawk watching over our yard. We have not seen the peacock for over a month now, not sure why he is missing. I am hoping he is safe at his real home up the street. 

6. Oct 15th, the photos are from our walk to the lake. The only birds seen were the Double-crested Cormorants. The fall colors were looking pretty. We saw a couple of horseback riders on the trail across the lake.

7. Oct 17th, in my backyard the Eastern Bluebirds were still being seen around our birdhouses. The Downy Woodpecker on our deck and my first of the season a Dark-eye Junco. 

8. Oct 18th, we took a walk on the local NCR bike trail. The dog sled team was out for a practice run on the trail. A deer walked across the trail in front of me and second deer came running across the trail. We road past the Friendly Farms ponds and notice a Great Egret was still hanging out with the usual Canada Geese. 

9. Oct 27th, from our walk to another part of the Prettyboy Reservoir. A little group of Canada Geese in flight and a Northern Flicker. 

10. Oct 28th, another walk on the NCR trail. We saw a group of deer on the trail. They did not seem spooked and stood and watched us. A Dark-eyed Junco and an unknown Hawk perched in a nearby tree. 

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 in 2024. 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!

Happy Thankful Thursday!

Happy Thankful Thursday!

This post is a little backwards, I am starting off with a tour on the morning of Sept 4th and ending with an evening photo from Sept 3rd. I wanted to mention the temperatures while we were in Iceland, every day it was in the mid 50's-60's°. When the sun was out it actually felt warm. It was cold at night, in the mid 40's.

Sept 4th, we took the Golden Circle tour, we stopped at the Geysir Geothermal Area, next was the Gullfoss waterfall and last we went to  the Thingvellir Nat'l Park.

This Geysir Park is a smaller version of Yellowstone Nat'l Park in the USA.  We had some drizzle off and on during this day, mostly just cloudy skies. 

Below is the second stop of the tour at the Gullfoss Waterfalls.

I could feel the spray from this waterfall from my high up view point. 

The last stop was at the Thingvellir National Park, this park is where we watched the Northern Lights the night before. The park is located in a rift valley where the Eurasian and North American Tectonic Plates separate.

We had some drizzle during the day but heading back to the hotel I saw a rainbow from the bus.

Sept 3rd, after an all day tour we had a Northern Lights tour booked for that night. We were picked up 9:30 pm  at the hotel and driven outside the city to a nearby national park.  We watched the Northern Lights for about an hour, it took me awhile to adjust my camera to catch the colors of the Northern Lights. Below is the best I could do, the lights went across the sky in an arch almost like a rainbow. The bottom right light is a vehicle parked selling hot chocolate and waffles. 

I am thankful to see the Northern Lights, both on the plane to Iceland and at the park in Iceland.  There is no guarantee to see the Northern Lights, again we were lucky. They are an amazing sight to see. 

I am thankful for all your visits and comments. 


Thank you Michelle for hosting Thankful Thursday. 
Thank you to Yogi the host of   Skywatch Friday




Thanks so much for visiting and for your nice comments on my previous post. Have a happy day!