Backyard Skywatch

It's time for some of my favorites memes Skywatch Friday and  NF Winged.

Just another post from my backyard, I have not really been anywhere beside work and home. These shots were taken a few days before the big storm. The sky was mostly clear except for a few line of contrails across my sky. When the sun was setting the contrails turned a pretty pink. Also, for the NF Winged entry I some of my Pine Siskins. They seem to be visiting my feeders everyday now. They are fun to watch.

A few Pine Siskins and one of my Goldfinches.

Above is a shot showing the difference between a Goldfinch and the Pine Siskin. The main difference I think is the yellow stripe on the side of their wings. The Siskin has stripes on its belly and the Goldfinch has more of an off-white belly.

Looks like a caught a few geese flying by, the contrails turned a pretty pink when the sun was setting.

 

Above I could watch the jets and the contrails in action.

A couple of my Purple Finches, they also seem to be daily visitors now.

Yesterday, hubby and I drove around our lake to see how much water was going over the dam after all the rain we received from the storm Sandy.

I took this shot standing on the dam looking over at the river below the dam is overflowing its banks.  On good days this river is popular with the trout fisherman. It will be awhile for this river to recede enough for fishing.

I am hoping with the time change coming up I can look forward to seeing some great sunrises on my way to work.  I saw a beautiful sky this morning from my office window,  I was upset I did not have my camera with me. Next time I will be prepared.

To see more beautiful photos and pretty skies please visit Skywatch Friday
and to see more of the winged critters check out NF Winged

Thanks to Sylvia and Sandy for hosting Skywatch Friday! Thanks to Monica the host of NF Winged. Also, thank you for stopping by to see my post. I wish everyone a safe and happy weekend.

Morning walk at the river

Hubby and I went out for an early morning walk, I like to go early to see the early birds. We usually go to the lake on a fireroad which is close to our house. But this morning we decided to go to the river for our walk. First Stop was to see if the Dam was overflowing. We had lots of rain yesterday!



Hubby was happy to see the dam was overflowing, he likes to sit in the rapids further downstream for what he calls a massage. Apparently the water is not as cold for him when it is overflowing than the water that comes from the bottom gates of the dam.



After checking out the dam we drove to the park parking lot close to the river. We walked until we were at the rivers edge where we were able to watch some kayakers practicing their rolls.






We walked on the trail until we got to where the water was on the trail. We had to turn back or try walking in the water. I knew that wasn't going to happen.




At the bridge we watch a kayaker help a couple with their overturned canoe. They seemed alright and were actually laughing about being dumped in the river.














My hubby just enjoys hiking and I enjoy looking for the birds while I am hiking. This mornings walk started off with a very loud Pileated Woodpecker and a Cuckoo. This trail along the river is mostly mountain laurels and in some spots hemlock trees and some wildflowers and a variety of ferns. I have to say I heard more birds than ones I actaully could see. I did see some medium size brown birds moving about the trees, I believe they were some kind of Thrush.

Black and White Warblers were moving quickly in the trees along the rivers edge.






After hiking the rivers trail, hubby and I went separate ways. he took another trail to see the river at another spot and I took a nice flat trail in the woods that crosses under power lines. I was hoping to see some birds in the fields near the power lines. All I could see were some Turkey Vultures soaring above, some Bluejays, Crows, Carolina Chickadees were fussing and I could hear a hawk. I had a nice walk but was a little disappointed with the birding. Oh Well, maybe tomorrow I'll have better luck.

River Rider

Yesterday I spent the day with my DH and a group of friends tubing on the Shenandoah River near Harpers Ferry. We opted for the lazy flat river over the more exciting white water trip. The weather was wonderful and after getting our tubes on the river we could tell we were not the only ones who waned to go tubing. The river in front of us was filled with a rainbow of colors, the colors of a hundred or more tubes.

I do have to say the flat river option was very slow...it was slower than the lazy rivers at the themed water parks. The white water option also looked slow. The water levels in July are just not high enough to make for an exciting white water trip. Needless to say as were floating down the river I was enjoying the company of friends,the scenery and of course the birds. I was also amazed at how many dragonflies were on the water and on us as we floated down the river. I thought it was kind of cool to have the dragonflies land on our legs and arms while we were tubing. I guess they wanted to hitch a ride down river.

Being a birder I couldn't help but notice the birds flying around the river and in the sky above me. Some of the birds were various species of Hawks, Swallows, Great Blue Heron and the Baltimore Orioles seemed numerous. A highlight was seeing a Green Heron low over the river in front of our tubes.





We decided our next tubing trip will have to be a more exciting trip. Something that will make our heart beat just a little faster.