Saturday's Critters #168

Saturday's Critters #168

Happy Saturday, it's time to share your critters and post. Any kind of critter will do, even a new or old post.. I appreciate everyone who is linking in with this week's critter party.

If you have not guessed already from my other post, the Circle B Reserve in Lakeland is one of my favorite birding places in Florida. Sometimes we visit the Circle B twice in a week. Here are some more of my favorite scenes, birds and a butterfly from the reserve.

Two Wood Storks.

A Zebra Longwing Butterfly

Two baby gators.

A Roseate Spoonbill

A Pied-billed Grebe

Green Heron

Sandhill Cranes

As always thanks for the visits and the nice comments. I also thank everyone who is linking up and sharing their critters.. Happy Saturday, have a great weekend!

To see more beautiful birds and cute critters, check out these two memes below.

Also visit:  I'd-Rather-B-Birdin. Thanks to the gracious host: Anni.  Also check out Camera Critters. Thanks to Misty for hosting this fun meme.

Saturday's Critters #160

Saturday's Critters #160

Happy Saturday, it's time to share your critters and post. Any kind of critter will do, even a new or old post.. I appreciate everyone who is linking in with this week's critter party. 

These photos are from a visit to the park on Nov 10th. I hope you enjoy.
A Purple Gallinule is a common sight to see at Lake Parker Park.

Next two photos are of the Pied-billed Grebes

Wood Stork

Little Blue Heron

Look up, there's a raccoon waving at us.

Snowy Egret

I hope you enjoyed our walk and the birds.  As always thanks for the visits and the nice comments. I also thank everyone who is linking up and sharing their critters.. Happy Saturday, have a great weekend!

To see more beautiful birds and cute critters, check out these two memes below.

Also visit:  I'd-Rather-B-Birdin. Thanks to the gracious host: Anni.  Also check out Camera Critters. Thanks to Misty for hosting this fun meme.

Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive Part II

Hello,

I wanted to share some more photos from our visit to the Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive. It was a pretty day weather wise and a beautiful sky, lots of birds and a few gators.

For Tex's Good Fences, the entrance sign at the Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive. I am not sure what these grasses in front of the sign are called, but they are pretty.

A view of the lake and sky.

A cute Pied billed Grebe

Red Shouldered Hawk

Great Egret

The Great Blue Heron with his dinner, same bird and fish as in my last post. It took a while for the heron to eat this fish. This heron walked around for awhile turning the fish around different ways in his mouth before it was finally swallowed.

Sunrise from the neighborhood.

As always, I hope you enjoyed my photos. Thank you for your visit and comments on my post. Enjoy your day and the weekend ahead!


Here is a list of linky parties for part of the week, I hope to see you there.


Thanks to Theresa @ The Run*A*Round Ranch for hosting Good Fences.
Thank you to Sylvia, Yogi and Sandy for hosting Skywatch Friday.

Centennial Lake

I am linking up with Skywatch Friday  and Good Fences NF Trees and bushes
I hope you can join in on the fun and share your fence scenes and pretty skies.

A pretty blue sky and another great weather day. Hubby and I decided to take a walk around the Centennial Lake in Clarksville  located in Howard County Maryland. They have 2.6 mile paved pathway around the lake.  You can see below the lake, boat rentals and my fence shot for Tex's Good Fence meme.

And do I need to say it is known to be a real birdie spot for the local birders. So hubby and I get our exercise and I get to do some birding at the same time. The trail has some pretty views of the lake, forest and the birds.

Birds seen at the Centennial Lake: top row Canada Geese, Pied-bill Grebe, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, second row: Palm Warbler. Bottom Row: Black & White Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Eastern Kingbird.

Pretty view of the lake sparkeling and the clear blue sky.

A cute Yellow-rumped Warbler seen off the trail.

A blooming redbud tree and the pretty sky for my Skywatch Friday entry.

Another fence scene and a section of the trail that goes around the Centennial Lake. I like the shadow captured from the fencing on the bridge.

A pretty scene along the trail, with the redbud tree and the bench.

A cute Palm Warbler stopped just long enough for me to snap his photo. I hope you enjoyed our walk at the lake, my post and photos. Thanks for stopping by and for the nice comments.

To see more pretty skies from around the world please visit  Skywatch Friday
and check for more fence shots at Tex's Good Fences and NF Trees

Thanks to Theresa @ The Run*A*Round Ranch for hosting Good Fences and thanks to Sylvia, Yogi  and Sandy for hosting Skywatch Friday. Also thanks to Monica for hosting NF Trees and bushes.    I wish everyone a happy day and weekend ahead..

Viera Wetlands, Florida

I am linking up with   Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday   They are both fun memes to participate in...I hope you can join in with the fun  and check out some of the participating posts.

On March 17th we visited the Viera Wetlands, nearest city is Viera in Brevard County, Florida.   We drove down from our hotel near Merritt Island. This is another birding hotspot to visit while in Florida. Before leaving home I checked out the Florida Birding Trail  map for all the great birding spots around the areas we were visiting..It is a great source of information..  I was really happy with the birds we saw, below is a mosaic with just some of the birds we saw during our visit.

Top row starting from the left is a Sora, American Bittern and a Pied-bill Grebe.
Middle row is the American Bittern again, an alligator, Sandhill Crane.
Bottom row, a Tricolored Heron,  Limpkin and a White Ibis.

A look at one of the pond areas at the Viera Wetlands..You can bird by car, foot or bicycle. Birding by car can be great, because the car acts as a blind. All my photos were taken from the car except for the American Bittern shot. We climbed the observation tower and looked down at the American Bittern right below us..



I made a slideshow of the American Bittern, we were able to watch it walk right below were we stood on the observation tower.. It was a great sighting, to see this somewhat shy bird..

Some more images of a Sandhill Crane.

The American Coots were seen all over the place, every birding spot we visited the Coots were plentiful.

The Moorhen was another common bird we saw every place we visited.. If you are ever in the area I highly recommend visiting the Viera Wetlands.. A great spot for awesome birding.. I hope you enjoyed my post and photos.. Thank you for visiting and for all the nice comments.. Have a great day and week ahead!

I use Pic Monkey to create my mosaics, you can use Pic Monkey free or pay for an upgraded version.

I hope you can join in on our fun with Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday

 Thanks to Judith 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!

Saturday's Critters #70

Saturday's Critters #70

Happy weekend, everyone!  It's Saturday and it's time to share your critters.. Any kind of critter will do, even a new or old post.. I appreciate everyone who has linked up in the past and for those who are linking in on this week's critter party. And of course I always appreciate my blogging friends stopping by just for a visit.

Merritt island National Wildlife Refuge was one of my favorite places to visit during our Florida trip..We saw so many birds and critters..I am still overwhelmed with all the photos I took..

I love the cute Grebes! This is the Pied-bill Grebe.

I am sure someone could come up with a cute caption for this Green Heron shot.

I see whiskers..do you?  The Manatee is known as a Sea Cow. This canal is a busy place but still part of the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge.
The Manatees seemed at peace with some fishermen and  boats.

Above you can see the Manatees swimming in the Haulover Canal near the overlook. We saw twenty or more Manatees hanging around the viewing area at the Haulover Canal. The Manatees were an awesome sight to see..

A hug me shot... cute Manatee.

A Manatee hug.. you see them hugging with their paddle like flippers? There are about 4 Manatees in  the shot above..We went back to this spot the next day and the Manatees were not there. So, we lucked out with this sighting..

Hubby and I enjoyed watching this Common Moorhen with their chicks..

The chicks are an ugly cute...I enjoyed seeing them swimming along with their parents.. I have so much more from Merritt Island I will be saving them for another post.. Thanks for stopping by and I always appreciate the nice comments.. I am looking forward to seeing your critters now..HAPPY WEEKEND!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks to Tex Theresa aka Tex, I was able to add this link up button and thanks to  Jennifer for creating my photo badge.

<a href="http://viewingnaturewitheileen.blogspot.com/"><img src=" https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3915/15299083201_9709303697_m.jpg" width="185" height="240"></a>

To see more beautiful birds and cute critters, check out these two memes below.

Also visit:  I'd-Rather-B-Birdin. Thanks to the gracious host: Anni.  Also check out Camera Critters. Thanks to Misty for hosting this fun meme.

I can not say enough thank you's for the visits and for the nice comments.. As always I appreciate your participating with my critter party..Have a happy weekend!

Merritt Island NWR

I am linking up with   Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday   They are both fun memes to participate in...I hope you can join in with the fun  and check out some of the participating posts.

Happy Easter & Happy Passover to all!


I am sharing more from our Florida trip, so far I have only showed the first two days of our two trip.. Beware of trip photos overload..SORRY! I have mentioned before if there is a wildlife refuge near our travels we will always try to visit them.. Merritt Island NWR has a great visitor center and an awesome wildlife drive.

 One of my all time favorite birds is the Painted Bunting.. it was found right outside the Merritt Island Visitor Center..

Various flowers, oranges and buttterflies seen around the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge.

Above one of my Florida lifers.. the Reddish Egret.. egrets are not always white.

The Reddish Egret is a beautiful wader..wow look at the colors on it's bill. It was cool to watch this bird dance around.

There does not seem to be a problem with the American Coot population in Florida. We saw them everywhere we went..

Above are some of the Merritt Island NWR birds we saw: various ducks like the Blue-winged Teal, Northern Shoveler, American Avocet, Pied-billed Grebe, Common Moorhen, Glossy ibis, Green Heron, possible Boat-tailed Grackle

I hope you enjoyed my post. Thank you so much for stopping by for a visit. I appreciate the nice comments..

I use Pic Monkey to create my mosaics, you can use Pic Monkey free or pay for an upgraded version.

I hope you can join in on our fun at  Mosaic Monday and   Our World Tuesday

 Thanks to Judith 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!