Robert E. Lee Park

Happy Labor Day Monday!

My post is for all the memes I have listed below.  I thank all the hosts for taking their time and holding these fun linky parties.

If you have been following my blog for a while you already know hubby and I enjoy taking our walks in various parks. It is our way of getting outdoors for exercise and I enjoy birding. On this day we visited the Robert E. Lee Park in Baltimore County and the Lake Roland Dam. The park consists of 450 acres has numerous trails, a dog park, pavilions, nature programs, canoeing and kayaking.

Above is the boardwalk from the parking lot to Lake Roland. For my Wild Bird post I am sharing the Great Blue heron, Great Egrets and some Mallard Ducks.  We also saw various woodpeckers, a kingfisher and some sparrows. They also have a nice doggie park and playground.

Another wild bird photo, the Great Blue Heron.

The mosaic above includes some scenes from the park, the trail crosses the lightrail train tracks, the trail along side the lake and dam area, goose at the top of the dam, is the Virginia Creeper turning fall colors, Lake Roland Dam.

At the doggie park, the dogs have their own swimming spot in the lake.

The Lake Roland Dam is somewhat surrounded by a mature forest. The stream Roland Run above flows into the Jones Falls and eventually into the Baltimore Harbor. The Lake Roland was at one time the first water supply for the City of Baltimore.

As we hiked on the trail we were noticing the Art on the trail 2015, which celebrates both art and nature and allows some Maryland artist to show off their work. I like the cool Baby Mastodon and the next two are interesting and the bottom row with the trees wrapped with yellow is called the Sacred Grove.

My favorite art piece was this Baby Mastodon.
I hope you enjoyed our walk and my post. I hope to see you linking up and have some fun visiting each other. Thank you, as always for visiting my post. Have a happy new week ahead!

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 Sue for hosting Wordless Wednesday
Thanks to the hosting team of Our World Tuesday!
Thanks to Stewart for hosting Wild Bird Wednesday

Weekend walk_July27

  I am linking up with Mary's last  Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday 

Edited: I did not know at the time of creating this post that we would be saying Goodbye to Mosaic Monday.. I wish Mary the host of Mosaic Monday all the best with her photography and future projects.. I will miss Mosaic Monday!!

This is our walk from last weekend, an easy walking trail in a local park..We picked this spot because it was close to the gas station where I fill up my car for the week's ride to work..  As hubby and I did our two loops around the trail, I was looking for birds, butterflies and blooms..

 In my mosaic above, I have the Eastern Bluebird, American Goldfinch, Northern Mockingbird and an Eastern Towhee.

The Eastern Towhee seems to be a common bird, seen often in forest during our walks..

A monarch, a swallowtail and  I believe the middle is a Cabbage White and  the yellow is a Sulfur.

The Monarach butterfly.. I have happy to see them during my walks the last two weeks..

 Above is some milkweed and Queen Anne's Lace.

And here are some shots from the trail, it was a beautiful day with a pretty sky.. It was neat seeing some swallows and maybe some purple martins flying low over the fields..They are so quick, it was too hard trying to get a shot of the swallows..

I hope you enjoyed our weekend walk with the birds, butterflies 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!

Ricketts Glen Falls Trail

April 2012, 

On Saturday hubby and I hiked the Falls trail at Ricketts Glen State Park. Ricketts Glen State Park is located 30 miles north of Bloomsburg, Pa. The falls trail is a 3.2 mile loop passing by 21 waterfalls. The other waterfalls are located off other trails. It is a very steep and sometimes difficult trail. We took our time stopping to enjoy the waterfalls and I was listening for the birds and taking photos. We did spook a turkey off the trail. And I saw a few Chickadees and turkey vultures soaring above us. It is a little early for the warblers though I do think I heard one off the trail. Ricketts Glen is noted for 23 varieties of warblers and the Bald Eagle. The park is also included in the Susquehanna River Birding trail.

 

The sign shows the Falls Trail and list the names of each waterfall that we saw, they range from 11ft to 94ft being the tallest.

Ricketts Glen has a total 23 waterfalls, beautiful hemlock trees, lots of pretty ferns and moss and bridges that cross the rivers.

The steps were steep and uneven and now my legs are feeling like I used muscles that I did not even know I had. LOL!

We crossed several different bridges along the way criss-crossing back and forth over the river.

After spending about 4 hours hiking on the Falls trail and at the park we headed to Wilkes Barre, Pa to spend the night at a Best Western hotel. After checking into to our room we headed to the Mohegan Sun casino at Pocono Downs. We had dinner at their Timber buffet, lots of good seafood and dinner choices. They also had other restaurants like a Ruth Chris and a Johnny Rockets, a great variety. The casino was very crowded, also included a long line of people waiting to see and get autographs of an actress on  the show Jerseylicious? After dinner we were ready to head back to our room for the night.


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

Thanks to all the great host, Louis of Sunday Bridges, Mary of Mosaic Monday and the gang at Our World Tuesday: Arija, Gattina, Lady Fi, Sandy and Sylvia.  I hope you enjoyed my post, thanks for stopping by.

I wish everyone a safe and happy week ahead.

Birding HarveDeGrace, Maryland

For my Our World post and to show my Tern's I am linking with World Bird Wednesday

On Saturday, hubby and I decided to do some walking and birding at HarveDeGrace, Md. It is a waterfront town and has a nice boardwalk on the waterfront. We spent a good part of our visit watching the Terns diving into the water. They are amazing to watch as they just kind of fall from the sky and dive into the water. They kind of reminded me of how the Northern Gannets dive into the water.

The Forster's Tern is about 14 inches in length. They nest in salt marshes and on barrier beaches. My field guide has that the older juvenile has a black eye patch.

After checking out the dark spot around the eye and the beak color I am still guessing at this id. But, I believe it is the juvenile Forster's tern.

So far I have been seeing Forster's Terns, Common Terns and Caspian Terns. I am still on the lookout for the Black Terns.

HarveDeGrace, Md is a fun town with a nice park, marina, lots of antique stores and great restaurants. Hubby and I chose to eat an early dinner at Chipparelli's Italian restaurant. We were familiar wth the famous Chiparelli's restaurant of Little Italy in Baltimore City. It is nice that they opened a new place in HarveDeGrace.

A walk along the boardwalk was mostly birdless except for the Terns and some seagulls. The water was a high level and the herons we usually see were not around on this day.

The lighthouse look small in size but I always enjoy seeing lighthouses so, I had to have a photo of this HarveDeGrace lighthouse.

There were many people in the park area enjoying Labor Day weekend picnics.

I hope you enjoyed my Tern and tour of HarveDeGrace, Md. Please visit Our World for more wonderful post and photos and to see more great birds make you sure you visit Springman's World Bird Wednesday.

Thanks to the host of Our World: Arija, Gattna, Lady Fi, Sylvia and Sandy and also thanks to Springman of World Bird Wednesday.

Thanks also for visiting my post and blog, I hope everyone has a great week.