Our World & My World

Happy Monday,

On June 30th, hubby and I spent some time at the Great Falls National Park located in Potomac Maryland. We walked the trails to the Olmsted island Bridges, the Great Falls Overlook and part of the River Trail. 

Below is the Great Falls NP Visitor Center and the  Mercer Canal Boat. A lock project is underway and the boat rides are not operating at this time. 

The bridges over Olmsted Island and the trail leads to the Potomac River and the Great Falls Overlook.

The Potomac River @ Great Falls National Park.

People kayaking are often seen at the Potomac River.

Some of the park's wildlife seen were the Black Vultures, Canada Goose, Swallowtail butterflies and there were lots of Great Blue Herons. The heron's rookery is nearby. 

The C&O Canal Trail and towpath. 

We had great views of the river and the Great Blue Herons from their nearby rookery. 

Double-crested Cormorants perched on a rock in the Potomac River. 

We saw a lot of Great Blue Herons from the River Trail.

The Potomac River @ Great Falls NP, Maryland

I hope you enjoyed our park visit and my post and photos. 

Thanks to Angie the host of  Mosaic Monday

Thanks to LadyFi  the host of Our World Tuesday!

Thanks for visiting and commenting, have a great day and new week!

Fifteen Mile Creek C&O trail

  I am linking up with Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday 

September 29, 2013

On Saturday, hubby and I headed to a new section of the C&O canal trail in western Maryland. The trail is 184.5 miles long. Usually we start our walking around mile 14 which is where the Great Falls National Park is located in Potomac, Md.  Yesterdays walk started around mile 140 at a place called Fifteen Mile Creek in the town of Little Orleans. The Autumns colors were here and there, definitely not the peak time yet.

Above is a view from the Sidelong Hill  rest area off of RT68.. not many fall colors here.

Across the river, we saw one pretty tree standing out among all the green leaves.Little glimpses of the Potomac River and some colorful leaves.

There were some pretty colors here and there along the canal trail, as you can see most of the trees were still green.We only walked up to mile 142, stopping along the way to check out the views and look for birds.

We saw a flock of Canada Geese in the Potomac River as we walked along the C&O canal trail. Other birds seen were the Pileated woodpecker and the Carolina Wren.  I also saw some Whitetail deer along the road. We headed a little further out to the Rocky Gap Casino, hubby had an offer of some free play and we figured why not since we were in the area. He played his free $15 and won $55.  Not bad, congrats to hubby.

Above, is the lake at Rocky Gap which you can see from the Rocky Gap Resort or the state park which is also nearby.  Rocky Gap is located in Cumberland Maryland off of RT68. You can have a great choice of activities at Rocky Gap, hiking, canoeing, golf course and the casino of course.
 

As always, I hope you enjoy my post and thanks for visiting my blog. I always appreciate your 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!

Birding the Riley's Lock

  I am linking up with Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday 

For this week's post I am sharing Saturday's walk at Riley's Lock on the C&O canal trail.  It is a pretty trail for walking, biking or jogging with beautiful views of the Potomac River. The 184 mile C&O canal trail goes from Georgetown, Md to Cumberland Md. I have birded parts of this trail at various times of the year.

Above the Potomac River, a Great Egret and Double-Crested Cormorants.

These are the Eastern Painted Turtles..part of the pond turtle family. The have bright yellow spots on either side of the head. It's skin can be olive to black with red, yellow or orange stripes.

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Above is the Green heron, Wood Ducks and a few turtles.

The Red-eared Slider turtle gets its name from the red stripe behind its eye. The sliders leave the water to bask in the sun.

The Green Heron is my favorite heron and I can almost be guaranteed to see a Green Heron at this spot during this time of the year. I was not disappointed hubby and I quickly found 6 Green Herons hunting out in the open. After leaving Riley's Lock we drove further down River Rd to one of our other favorite places the Vie de France bakery and cafe. We picked up a Turkey&Brie on a french roll along with some drinks and I can not forget their yummy chocolate chip cookies. We took our lunch down to the Great Falls Nat'l Park for our picnic and another walk on the trail.

Above scenes from the Great Falls National Park, C&O Canal, towpath horses, canal boat, deer.

There are seven locks along the Potomac River including Riley's Lock and the Great Falls National Park which is located on the Maryland side of the Potomac River.


As always, I hope you enjoy my post and thanks for visiting my blog. I always appreciate your 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!

Barred Owl

For this weeks World Bird Wednesday  and Nature Notes I am posting on the Barred owl hubby and I saw on a walk at Riley's Lock. The Potomac River and the C&O canal trail has been a great place for me to see birds. During this walk we saw two Barred owls together. One flew away but one stayed in a tree near the trail and watched us. We saw many other species of birds on our walk but the owl was my favorite sighting.


The Barred Owl is seen in  mixed woodlands and swamp forest. They prey on insects, vertebrates and amphibians.  Their call sounds a lot like "who cooks for you" .

The photo above shows the owl looking down, we watched as smaller birds were determined to make the owl leave and were trying to dive bomb him or her.

To see more great birds please visit Springman's World Bird Wednesday  and Michelle's  Nature Notes thanks to Springman  and Michelle for hosting and thanks for stopping by to see my post.

Birding the Potomac

For my post today I am linking up with a few memes, Mary's Mosaic Monday and Sally's Blue Monday and Marytheteach's Ruby Tuesday  You click on the link to visit these fun memes.

On Saturday we visited The C&O Canal and the Great Falls on the Potomac River. It was a beautiful day the weather and sky were perfect to be outside. I was looking birds and my hubby just enjoys the river and the falls. I can almost always be guaranteed to see the Great Blue Heron here because across the river is a Great Blue heron rookery. The Canada Geese, Mallard ducks, Cormorants and Turkey Vultures were another common sight. I did see a few warblers in the trees along the canal but they were too quick for me to snap a shot. It was neat to watch this kayaker near the Great Falls. We couldn't miss seeing him with the bright red kayak and his blue life vest and helmet.

Virginia Creeper

A great blue heron and if you look closely some turtles

A beautiful sky

Please visit these great memes listed above Mosaic Monday, Blue Monday and Ruby Tuesday. Thanks to the wonderful host of the fun memes. And thank you for stopping by to visit my post and blog.