Saturday's Critters #325

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!


I seem to be posting a lot of woodpeckers lately. But, I do not think I have posted these woodpeckers we saw at the Merritt Island National Wildlife refuge in Florida.  We saw two Pileated Woodpeckers on the same tree. I was able to park the car and just sit and watch them for awhile.

 The male and female Pileated Woodpeckers were seen on this dead tree @  Merritt Island NWR.

"The wildlife and it's habitat can not speak, so we must and we will." Theodore Roosevelt

The male and female Red-bellied Wodpecker seen on the wildlife drive at Merritt Island.

 If you look closely , you can see some of the red belly on this woodpecker below.

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Thanks to all my visitors and for all the wonderful comments. I appreciate everyone who loves critters and has linked up their post.


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

Saturday's Critters #322

Welcome to Saturday's Critters!


Happy President's Day weekend!
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!

Just a heads up if you are interested this is the weekend Feb 14-17th for the (GBBC) Great Backyard Bird Count. You can click here for more GBBC info.

I am sharing some more Florida birds, these Brown Pelicans were seen at the Port Orange, Dunlawton Causeway Park. This park is small but you have views of the Port Orange Wildlife Sanctuary.  It is a popular place for the local fishermen. The Sanctuary is a 4 mile stretch of islands in the Halifax River/Intracoastal Waterway.  This critical wildlife area is a nesting site for 400 pairs of Brown Pelicans.

 

The Snowy Egrets were calm, I think they were waiting for some left over fish. 

 I think this little girl was chasing the Brown Pelicans, the Great Egret did not seem to mind.

 Snowy Egret, perched on the fishing pier.

 Little Blue Heron

 The Brown Pelican below was having problems swallowing, the bird rescue was called. 

The Brown Pelicans were hoping for some handouts, the fishermen nearby maybe have been dropping bait or fish parts? 

 Brown Pelican and a Great Egret. 

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Thanks to all my visitors and for all the wonderful comments. I appreciate everyone who loves critters and has linked up their post.


Here is a list of my linky parties;

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

Happy Thankful Thursday!

 Happy Thankful Thursday!

On December 26th we spent the day at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in Florida. We drove the wildlife drive and saw a beautiful rainbow. This was our last full day in Florida, we saved the best place for last. 

"There is a rainbow of hope at the end of every storm."

 "Nature always wears the colors of the spirit." Ralph Waldo Emerson

The birds seen were colorful too, the Little Blue Heron and the Roseate Spoonbill in the photo below. 

 "Colors are the smiles of nature."

 We saw lots of Tricolored Herons, White Ibis and the pretty Roseate Spoonbills.

 This Tricolored Heron posed nicely for me.

 "Nothing last forever, make every moment special."

 A bush full of Roseate Spoonbills.

 "Be a rainbow in someone else's cloud." Maya Angelou





At the visitor center we saw the Painted Buntings, the male is a beautiful bird with a rainbow of colorful feathers.

 A pretty sky and walk on the trail to the lookout tower.

 "Life is like a rainbow. You need both the sun and the rain to make it's colors appear."

I am thankful to see a rainbow, I do not see them often.
I am thankful for the colors of nature.
I am always thankful for your visit and comments. 

Live simple and be happy!  😊




Thank you Michelle for hosting Thankful Thursday. 
Thank you to Yogi the host of   Skywatch Friday




Thanks so much for visiting and for your nice comments on my previous post. Have a happy day!

Our World, My World

Happy Monday,

Happy February, the days are flying by. I am sharing our last day in Florida 2019, we visited the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.  We walked on the boardwalk trail at the visitor center, saw various turtles including the Florida Soft-shelled Turtle, an alligator, next to the boardwalk we saw orange trees and a giant lather fern.



"Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder."   E.B. White

 I hope you all are not tired of seeing bird photos and post from me. I took close to 300 hundred photos just at the wildlife refuge.

 I love these Northern Shovelers, they have comical look to them. I think it is the big bill. 

Below are the Roseate Spoonbill, Spoonbill and Great Egret in flight, Belted Kingfisher, Northern Shoveler, American Avocets with gulls.

We have had many cold, cloudy and damp feeling days in January. On these days I tend to vegetate or what I call hibernate. I am reading a lot ebooks from my library and from Kindle Unlimited. Some of my recent favorite books are: The Long Call by Ann Cleeves, and I started an old series Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear, my latest read now is The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides.

Please check out and visit the following memes and links. I hope to see you there.


Check out My Corner of the World  Thanks to Betty the host. 
 
Thanks to Angie the host of  Mosaic Monday

Thanks to LadyFi  the host of Our World Tuesday!

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

Happy Thankful Thursday

 Happy Thankful Thursday!

I have always tried to visit any National Wildlife Refuge located in an area we are visiting. While in Florida I found the Lake Woodruff NWR located in DeLeon Springs Florida. This refuge was established in 1964 as a migratory bird refuge, one of many refuges purchased through the Federal Duck Stamp program.  The refuge contains various habitats of marshes, swamps, creeks, hammocks and uplands. Over 230 species of birds can be found  in the refuge seasonally. 

The trail map showing miles of man made dikes that form the pools attracting all kinds of birds. There was a Bald Eagle nest, which was seen not far from the parking lot. We saw 2 Bald Eagles in flight, an Osprey, Northern Harrier, Turkey Vultures, American Coots. I believe a Chipping Sparrow or could it be a Swamp Sparrow? The last photo of the tower. 

Habitats at the refuge include the Cypress Swamp land.

 I am pretty sure these white flowers are the Swamp lilies, found in marsh land, swamps and wet hammocks.

 Trail was blocked for awhile with these Turkey Vultures, I guess they are better than having an alligator laying across the trail. 

Luckily for us the rain stopped long enough for us to hike out to the tower.

 I could hear the Sandhill Cranes hear somewhere, I just could not find them.  Previous winters there were a pair of Whooping Cranes established on this refuge.

 A cloudy view from the tower, you can see the creek or part of the Lake Woodruff and the man-made dikes.

There were plenty of American Coots seen at the refuge.

One thing about a cloudy day, the alligators were not out sunning themselves. I still looked at the grasses along the trail to make sure a gator was not laying there waiting for us.  I think we walked close to 3 miles round trip at this refuge.

 I loved these big oak trees with the spanish moss. 

 Anhinga was hanging on top of a pole.

After driving out of the national wildlife refuge, there was a large group of Peacocks walking around a private yard.  There must have been 20 or more peacocks. They were on the grass, the driveway and the porch.

I am thankful for the federal park land for all of us to use, hopefully this park land will always remain unspoiled park land for generations to come.

I am thankful for the National Park Foundation, they help protect our parks for next generations.  

I am thankful for the Friends of Wildlife Refuge,  they spend their time to helping out at the wildlife refuges. 

I am thankful for the National Park Tract and Land Preservation.They help to conserve land and wildlife habitat bordering or creating new national park land.

I am always thankful for your visit and comments.
Live simple and be happy!  😊




Thank you Michelle for hosting Thankful Thursday. 
Thank you to Yogi the host of   Skywatch Friday




Thanks so much for visiting and for your nice comments on my previous post. Have a happy day!

Our World, My World

 Hello, Happy Monday everyone!


I am sharing more on our road trip to Florida. I mentioned before how I like to research new parks and places to visit before leaving home.  On this day I already had the address in our GPS for the Haw Creek Preserve State Park.  It is nice to find these parks, which are new to us. Florida as a lot of nature preserves,  state parks and local parks.  The 1005 acre park is located in Bunnell, Flagler County. 

The park has a 1.5 mile round-trip boardwalk and also has a boat launch. 

It was a cloudy day and some rain the morning we were there. The scenery is beautiful, even with the rain drops. There are spurs off the main boardwalk that take you to views of the creek. The birds we saw were mostly waders and very shy, they flew off as soon as they noticed us.

Two birds hung around for a photo op, the Limpkin and the Wood Stork. Other birds seen were the Great Blue Heron, Great Egret and a Little Blue Heron.  Yes, people there are trash cans for your trash. Please use them. 

 A view of the Haw Creek.

The boardwalk views remind me of our other park visits in Florida like Lettuce Lake and the Hillsborough River State Park.

 

 The boardwalk goes by Cypress trees, tall Palms and  lots of Palmetto Palms.  I am sure there were lots of alligators there too. 

 Another look and view from one of the boardwalk spurs, the Haw Creek.

 A nearby Limpkin did not seem shy around us, it must have been searching for snails.

 The Wood Stork was a little hidden by the tree.

 Please check out and visit the following memes and links. I hope to see you there. 


Thanks to Angie the host of  Mosaic Monday

Thanks to LadyFi  the host of Our World Tuesday!

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

Saturday's Critters # 318

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!


 I am sharing more birds and critters from our December Road trip, we were in Florida for 5 of the days.

The Gopher Tortoise likes sandy soil, dunes and coastal grasslands. They dig a burrow and spend most of their lives in the burrow. This Tortoise shares their burrow home with possibly as many as 360 other species including snakes, mice, fox, skunk, frogs, rabbits, armadillo, lizards and burrowing owls. The burrow can be 52 feet long and 23 feet deep.

Down the road some at another beach, we found 2 Gopher Tortoises outside their burrow.

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We stopped to see what birds were at the Matanzas Inlet, Flagler County Florida.  If there was a time for my birding scope ( hubby says I told you to pack the scope)  this was it. The birds were too far away, it looked like  a large flock of various gulls, terns, shorebirds and I assume Black Skimmers.

 A Semipalmated Plover.

 Pretty sure these are Willets. Id update: thanks to Ken and Anni the birds below are Dowitchers.

 









 Thanks to all my visitors and for all the wonderful comments!





Here is a list of my linky parties;

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