Saturday's Critters #296

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!

Our 2 day road trip to Maryland's Eastern shore also included a quickie trip to Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Delaware.

I enjoy seeing the American Avocets, Egrets and the Glossy Ibis at this wildlife reduge. 

American Avocets seen with a Yellowlegs?

Various Egrets and a Great Blue heron was seen in the area below with some Clapper Rail chicks. 

A closeup look at the muddy area above provided great views of a few Clapper Rail juveniles.

The Clapper Rails blend in well with the mud, can you find 2 juvies in the photo below?

A Clapper Rail juvenile runs across the muddy water toward a Great Blue Heron. 

The Mute Swans are not native swans in Maryland. The Tundra Swan is a native swan in Maryland, usually the Tundra Swan can be seen in the winter months. 

The Black-necked Stilt is a breeder at this wildlife refuge. I did not see any chicks. 

Shore birds, I believe these are the Long-billed Dowitchers maybe mixed with Short-billed Dowitchers. 

Random rants and in the news, for the critter lovers:

Are changes coming to the Endangered Species Act? Are Corporations profits more important than protection of an animal species. Apparently it is OK now to pollute habitats and cut down trees on once protected national lands. The Spotted Owl and other birds are at risk. We need to preserve and protect for the future. What happens when all the animals are extinct, what will people do when all the animals are gone. 

In Maryland, the Chespeake Bay is a treasure. Keep it clean.
In Maryland, we need to keep clean water for the oysters, we need a check on the warming water. Fish will die from living in polluted waters. Overfishing and crabbing can have a big effect on the blue crabs and a favorite Rockfish. 

Being an animal lover, I can not understand how some people think animals are put on this planet for the sole purpose of human use. 

" We all have a responsibility to protect endangered species, both for their sake and for the sake of own future generations." Loretta Lynch


 I appreciate and thank everyone who links up their post and for all the wonderful comments !







Here is a list of my linky parties;

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

Saturday's Critters #250

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!

More photos from Bombay Hook NWR, we saw some wonderful birds. The large white birds with black wings are the American Avocets and the birds in flight maybe Dunlins and Plovers. These images are best enlarged. 

I am pretty sure the birds sitting right in front of the Avocets are the Short-billed Dowitchers. But, they are so far away there could also be the Long-billed Dowitchers.

Below are the American Avocets, Dowitchers, Semipalmated Plovers and maybe more thrown in. 

I think the Egrets were gathering so they could south south together. 

A few gulls and Yellowlegs. 

I admire the birders who can watch one group of birds looking to see if there is a different species mixed in. I did notice with this group there were a few Black-bellied Plovers mixed in with the Avocets and Dowitchers. Can you find them? 

I appreciate and thank everyone who links up their post and for all the wonderful comments ! 

Here is a list of my linky parties;

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

Happy Saturday, enjoy your weekend!

Saturday's Critters #80

Saturday's Critters #80

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.

I am sharing some birds from one of our daytrips to the Delaware Shores and Bombay Hook WNR.

A Blue Grosbeak posed nicely for a couple of seconds. The male has the pretty rusty wingbars.

A group of Short-billed Dowitchers  and a Willet seen at Prime Hook NWR. I am assuming these are the Short-billed and not the Long Billed Dowitchers.

Osprey with it's dinner seen from the road.

A couple of Black Bellied Plovers at Bombay Hook NWR

Here's looking at you kid!

One of the many bunnies we saw on our walk at Prime Hook NWR.

This shot is cute with the bunny and its paw up to his mouth and a look of surprise.

 I hope you enjoyed this post of birds and the cute bunnies.. Now, I am looking forward to seeing your critters. As always, thank you for your visits and nice comments. Have a 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.

Bombay Hook NWR..May 19

  I am linking up with   Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday

During our overnight visit to the Delaware Shores in May we stopped at Bombay Hook NWR. These are some birds seen during our visit to the wildlife refuge.

Bombay Hook is one of the many wildlife refuges in the USA. It is a popular spot for birding and is known as an Important Bird Area by the American Bird Conservancy.  In my mosaic above, are the Dowitchers, Dunlins and a Black-Necked Stilt on a nest.

We saw a large group of shorebirds are Bombay Hook on this day, the groups include Dowitchers and you can see Dunlins with their cute black bellies.

You can there are various beak colors and the size, that we saw various species of Egrets. Mostly the Great Egret and the Snowy Egrets. Most of the 13,000 acres are tidal salt marsh and is one of Delaware's most valuable wildlife habitat.

278 species of birds can be seen at Bombay Hook NWR, 103 of these birds are known to breed there.

Eastern Kingbird, an asy way to id the kingbird is to see the end of the tail feathers. It looks like it was dipped in white paint.

I am not sure if this is a juvenile Indigo Bunting or a juvenile Blue Grosbeak. We saw both of the adults all the around the refuge on this day.

Above is a pretty male Blue Grosbeak, the chestnut color on its wing helps to id this bird.

The wild irises are beautiful at Bombay Hook!
I hope you enjoyed my post and photos. Thanks for visiting my blog and post. 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 Bombay Hook and Delaware

I am linking up with Mosaic Monday  and  Our World Tuesday

I have been posting so many photos from my trip I have been ignoring other outings I have been on since being home. We visited the Delaware shore and the Bombay Hook NWR the weekend of the Super Moon.

 Above Bonaparte's Gulls, Dowitchers, Super Moon, Swallow at the Dupont Nature Center, last bottom right more Dowitchers.

The mating season of the horseshoe crabs happens during the spring full moon when the tides are high. The female horseshoe crab will dig a hole in the sand and deposit her eggs and then the male will fertilize the eggs with his sperm. Nature is cool. Somehow the migrating shorebirds, especially the Red Knots find their way to the Delaware shore to feast upon these horseshoe crab eggs. Apparently, the birds know the schedule better than I. We were a few days to a week early to see the large count of shorebirds. But, I was happy to see all the Dunlins with their spotted black bellies, the Ruddy Turnstones, Dowitchers and hundreds of gulls.

 From a distance it was hard trying to id all the smaller shorebirds mixed in with the gulls. But, I did see a few Red Knots, Ruddy Turnstones and lots of Dunlins.

During this visit we also make a quick stop at the Bombay Hook NWR. The wildflowers looked beautiful and enjoyed seeing more birds.

The Yellow Crowned Night Heron  was seen near the Black Crown Night Heron rookery. The BC Night Herons were perched in trees between the leaves so it was difficult to see them much less take any photos. I did count at least 7 BC Night Herons but I am sure there were many more.

 The wild irises were gorgeous.

We saw many BC Night herons, Great Egrets, GB Herons, Snowy Egrets,  along with Dowitchers and more Dunlins.

Back at home we were able to see the full moon setting over our lake.


To see more wonderful mosaics and photos please visit Mosaic Monday  and Our World Tuesday. 
Thanks to Mary for hosting Mosaic Monday and thanks to the hosting group at Our World Tuesday: Arija, Gattina, Lady Fi, Sylvia and Sandy.

Also, thanks for stopping by to see my post and I hope everyone has a great week ahead.