Vulture Sky

It's time to link up with my favorites memes Skywatch Friday and  NF Winged

First, I want to wish all my blogger friends and families a very Merry Christmas.

These are some of the late evening Vulture skies around my yard and during our walk at a local park called Soldier's Delight.  I have not had much luck birding or seeing any new birds lately. I do see the vultures every evening heading back into the woods next to my house.

 Lately my skies are Vulture skies

Soldier's Delight is a great place for hiking around the Serpentine grassland, it is compromised of 1900 acres of Serpentine barren. And the Virginia Pines has been an attraction for the White-Winged Crossbills. Was I successful at finding the White-winged Crossbills? The answer is no, so my search continues.

Back at home more of the vultures flying back into the woods for the night.

Sometimes they make loud crashing noises as they land in the woods next to my house.

A view of the sunset from my front yard.

                                         Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Eileen!

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 the host of NF Winged.  Also, thank you for stopping by to see my post. I wish everyone a safe and happy weekend.

Kettle of Broad Winged Hawks

For my World Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes post I am showing the Broad Winged hawks.

During my walk on Sunday at the Soldiers Delight park hubby and I were almost back to the car when I looked up and spotted the largest flock or kettle of hawks I have ever seen. They were high in the sky and there had to be fifty or more in the kettle. I was excited to see my first kettle of Hawks, a very cool sight to see for a birder.

Sorry the photos are not the clearest but I wanted to show it anyway because it shows just one little part of these hawks as they were flying along. I did not really count them, I was too excited just seeing them.

The word kettle is another word for a flock of migrating birds. Since they were high in the sky I am adding a link to wikipedia's Broad Winged hawk so you can see what they look like up close.

The Broad Winged Hawk is brown above chestnut below and a white tailband. Wings appear full but rather short and they have dark tips.

I was checking out my listserve and the Broad winged Hawks were seen in the thousands over the weekend.  According to my guide book during migration flocks of hawks can sometimes number in the thousands in eastern and central North America. I was so excited to see the kettle I saw. Apparently as the day went on more were seen flying over the same spot.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my kettle of hawks and to see more awesome birds

 check out Springman's World Bird Wednesday  and to see more wonderful nature scenes

please visit Michelle's Nature Notes  Thanks to Springman and to Michelle for hosting these fun memes.

Also, thanks for stopping by my blog and post. I appreciate all your visits and comments.

Birding and hiking Soldiers Delight

For this weeks Mosaic Monday  and Our World Tuesday.  I can not believe how fast these weeks are going by. Since, I work Monday thru Friday hubby and I enjoy getting out on the weekend to enjoy nature and to do some hiking and my favorite hobby birding.

This Sunday morning hubby, Goldie Girl and I hiked the Serpentine Trail at Soldier's Delight a natural environmental area here in Maryland. This trail is 2.5 miles goes thru the largest serpentine barren in the eastern United States. The park or NEA consist of grassland, wetland and an oak forest. The barrens are underlain with serpentinite a rock that has very little quartz and aluminium bearing minerals, it consists mainly of serpentine. Serpentinite is naturally disolved by rainfall which leaves a thin layer of rocky soil. Soldiers Delight was also mined up until 1860 for chrome and was once one of the largerest producers of chromite in the world.

I saw three Eastern Phoebes during my walk. Other birds seen and heard were Bluejays, Cardinals, Chickadees, House Wren, Nuthatches, Mourning Doves, Hairy Woodpecker, Redbellied Woodpecker, Crows and Turkey Vultures. I was really excited to see a kettle of Broad Winged hawks. My first time for seeing a kettle, there had to be at least fifty of these hawks flying together. Very cool sighting and photos to come on another post later.

Buckeye Butterfly

This Serpentine barren contains scrub oaks, pines, cedars, grasses and some unique and rare wildflowers.  We passed many signs requesting hikers to stay on the trails due to the sensitive nature of the ecosystem.

A few bluebirds and an unknown hawk was seen off the trail. The hawk may have been a Coopers Hawk.

 
To see more wonderful mosaics please visit Mary's Mosaic Monday  and to see more wonderful photos from around the world check out Our World Tuesday.  Thanks to Mary of Little Red House and thanks to the gang at Our World: Sylvia, Sandy, Arija, Gattina,  and Lady Fi.

Also, big thanks for visiting my blog and post. I hope everyone has a wonderful week.