Saturday's Critters # 553

  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!

Sharing various photos from June, our walks at the reservoir, my backyard and from the NCR bike trail. 

1. Below are images from our walk at Hemlock Gorge, A Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, plant leaves look like Hostas and a Louisiana Waterthrush.

2. The Gunpowder River at Hemlock Gorge Prettyboy is a place I always see the Louisiana Waterthrush. 

3. The nearby NCR Trail in Parkton Md, is one of our go to trails for easy walking. On this day we saw some pretty wildflowers, House Wren, Black & White Warbler, White-breasted Nuthatch, Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly, female Cardinal and possibly an Oriole?

4. I've been seeing more of the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterflies. 

5. This is a female Orchard Oriole, the female has olive green upper parts and yellow breast and bellies. They can be found near streams, eating insects and fruits and nectar. 

6. Back home on the deck railing I have the Carolina Chickadee. 

Another visitor to my deck railing is the Carolina Wren.

7. The neighbor's Peacock was missing for a few weeks and then it came back every day for the first week of June. It was seen on my deck railing, showing off on the driveway and on our roof.

Also the first week of June I started seeing the White-tailed deer in our yard.  

8. Below a daily June photo of our visiting friendly Peacock. Most days we could see the Peacock out our windows just sitting on our deck railing. 

I hope you enjoyed my bird and critters. 

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!

Saturday's Critters # 488

 Welcome to Saturday's Critters!

Hello and happy Saturday!   Happy Earth Day!  

 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!

These images are from our last morning in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. I have mish mash of birds photos and an iguana seen at our resort.  I love to travel and see new places, but the last travel day is not fun. The airports can be crowded and we spent 5 hours in the Houston Hobby airport going through the US immigrations and customs and then waiting for our last flight home. 

1.  Sightings from our last morning at the resort in Mexico, top row are the  Whimbrel and Sandpiper. Second Row are two different Orioles, the last row are the Frigatebirds, Oriole and Rock Pigeons.

Click on images for better viewing!

2. These two Orioles were seen from our balcony , the photos shows more of their backs, could the be the Streaked-back Orioles?

This Oriole was hanging out in the same trees as the two Orioles above. This bird is missing the white bars on the wings, possibly a young Oriole or female? 

3. This looks like the Orchard Oriole, the dark head and rust colored body. 

4. The Whimbrel was hanging out on the beach every day, close to the Sandpiper I am showing below. 

5.  The next two photos are the same bird, we saw it on the beach every morning. I was tossed between a Willet or a Sandpiper. 

6. Hubby and I on most mornings would sit on the beach at our resort and watch the birds, whales and dolphins. Sometimes they put on a great show.  

7. Dolphins playing around in the bay right in front of our resort. 

8. The whales were splishing and splashing, the dolphins were closer to the people kayaking. 

9.  Humpback Whale flapping it's long fin.  

10. We did not see many Iguanas during our stay in Mexico, this was one of two that we saw at the resort. 

11.  An extra from our birding tour on March 7th, I missed sharing a couple of Warblers we saw the Nashville Warbler on the left and a lifer the Lucy's Warbler and the right.  The Nashville Warbler I have seen in the fall in my yard eating berries.

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. 

Saturday's Critters # 483

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!

I booked this Southwest vacation trip back in early December,  a 5 night 6 day trip to Puerta Vallarta Mexico. I enjoyed birding at our resort for the first couple of days. The first day was a long day traveling, we flew from Baltimore to Phoenix with a short layover than on to Puerto Vallarta. The worst part of this day was sitting on the runway for 45 minutes at Puerta Vallarta waiting for a gate to open so we could unload. 

1. March 5, below are some of the birds seen at our hotel. First row: Great-tailed Grackle, Tropical Kingbird, Yellow-throated Warbler, Orchard Oriole. Second row: Cinnamon-rumped Seedeater, Heermann's Gull, Whimbrel, unknown Sandpiper. Third row: Frigatebirds, Northern Rough-winged Swallows, Rock Pigeon and Snowy Egret.

2. Snowy Egret and a unknown Sandpiper on the beach at the resort.

3. A Whimbrel on the beach at the resort. 

4. Tropical Kingbird, looks pretty with the yellow belly.

5. This couple is the Cinnamon-rumped Seedeater. 

6. Orchard Oriole also seen at the resort. 

7. Yellow-throated Warbler at the resort.

8. Horseback riders on the beach. 

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. 

Saturday's Critters #285

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!

These are images from our visit on May 18th to the Susquehanna River State Park in Maryland. The Conowingo Dam is known for attracting Bald Eagles, a Great Blue Heron rookery and possibly Cormorants nesting. The birds must find the fishing to be easy right below the dam. 

This is one of the 3 Bald Eagles we saw in the trees at the parking lot. 

Double-crested Cormorants perched on rocks in the middle of the river.

Way across the river the Bald Eagles were hanging out with the Great Blue Herons. I see 4 Bald Eagles and at least 3 Great Blue Herons.

 I missed seeing the Baltimore Orioles but I did see an Orchard Oriole. 

 The river trail is also known for seeing spring warblers, the only warbler I was able to get clear shots of was the Yellow-throated Warbler. 

Another Bald Eagle perched in a tree.  

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








Here is a list of my linky parties:

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

Bombay Hook NWR

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.

I am sure some of you have already seen these images on my facebook page weeks ago.I have a few of my post scheduled ahead of time, this was from an earlier trip on Aug 5th, hubby and I went to Bombay Hook NWR, we drove the wildlife drive twice. We had to stay in the car during the whole visit, the skeeters and flies were horrible. So all my photos were taken from the car window.

Above the Orchard Oriole family seen at Bombay Hook NWR in Delaware.

A juvenile Orchard Oriole is waiting on the adult male for food.

The mosaic above has my favorite Green Heron on the top row and the bottom are the juvenile Little Blue Herons and a Great Blue Heron all seen at the Finnis Pool almost at the end of the wildlife drive at Bombay Hook NWR.

The Green Heron will always be one of my favorite herons. For our viewing enjoyment this Green Heron sat in the same spot for quite a while.

Above are the Great Egrets and some Snowy Egret along with the American Avocets.

My NF tree is decorated with Egrets and a couple of Tri-colored Herons. On this day the Egrets were the most common bird during our visit.

 Thanks to Judith our  host of Mosaic Monday

Thanks to Monica for hosting NF Trees

Thanks to Michelle for hosting Nature Notes

 Thanks to Mersad for hosting Through My Lens.

Thanks to Stewart for hosting Wild Birds Wednesday

I hope you enjoyed our daytrip to the wildlife refuge. As always thank you for visiting my post and for the nice comments. Wishing everyone a happy Monday and new week ahead!

Orioles

I am linking up with Wild Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes

My prayers go out to the people of Moore Oklahoma.


This week's bird is the Oriole. Luckily I have seen different species of Orioles the last two weeks. These are the boys of summer. At the local park there were lots of Baltimore Orioles and during my last trip to Bombay Hook I was able to see the Orchard Oriole.

The Baltimore Oriole. The Baltimore Orioles can be found at backyard feeders, they like oranges and grape jelly and the sweet nectar found in the hummingbird feeders. Adult males are flame orange and black.

1st summer male Orchard Oriole, this male is similar to the female except for the black throat patch.

Orchard Oriole, is the smallest North American Oriole. The rich chestnut color can be so dark the bird can appear black.

I saw a lot of Orchard Orioles at Bombay Hook NWR.

My favorite shots of the Orioles are of the Orchard Oriole on this wheat colored grass.

I hope you enjoyed my Oriole post and  photos.
Thanks for stopping by and for leaving your nice comments. I always appreciate your visits.
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.
I wish everyone a happy week ahead and Happy Birding!

Hashawha Nature Center

I am linking up with Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday

These are some scenes we saw during our drive to and our hike at the Hashawha Nature Center on Saturday. I read the the word Hashawha is a Native American term meaning "old fields". During our hike we stopped at the raptor center, the raptors are birds that are injured in some way and can not live in the wild. The owls are some of my favorite raptors at the center. It is just sad for me to see them in cages.

We passed this field of sunflowers along the way, I could not pass up stopping the car for some photos.  I can just imagine how happy the birds with this field of sunflowers. They must be in heaven with a buffet of sunflower seeds.

While hiking on the loop trail we passed by this small pond. I see a large owl box towards to back of the pond. It would be cool to  be there when the box is in use.

At the Raptor Center I zoomed in on the Great Horned Owl's face trying to remove most of the wire fence in front of us. The owl has the coolest looking eyes. They also have a Bald Eagle, Red Tailed Hawks and a Barred Owl.

The loop trail also took us by this field, I like the layer of colors. I was hearing all kind of birds along the walk but except to see one flying away I could not report a specific bird.

We walked past this old 19th century log cabin, it is not in use except for historic reasons. I love the wood and the big stone chimney. Around here I saw some Cardinals and heard a very noisy wren.

We saw lots of American Goldfinches on this field of yellow goldenrod. There was also some pretty purple thistle mixed in that attracted the birds. I believe I had some quick glimpses of a few Orchard Orioles.

We ended our walk near alarger lake filled with lilypads. As you can see with the pretty sky and cooler temperatures, we had a beautiful day for our hike and some birding.



To see more wonderful photos and mosaics please visit Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday

Thanks to Mary of Mosaic Monday and to the hosting group of Our World Tuesday: Arija, Gattina, Lady Fi, Sylvia and Sandy .  Thanks also for stopping by to see my post. Have a safe and happy week!