Saturday's Critters # 521

Welcome to Saturday's Critters!

Hello and happy Saturday!

 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 continuing with my last post on our visit to Chincoteague Island NWR. Oct 11th, was our last morning at Chincoteague before the drive home. We started off with the sunrise on the beach, watching hundreds of Swallows feeding on insects at Tom's Cove and the usual waders seen along road to the beach.

1. Starting off our day with a pretty sunrise at Chincoteague. 

"Nature unfolds her treasure at the first ray of sunrise."

2. I like this shot of the gull walking toward me, I believe it is a juvenile Laughing Gull. 

3.  Near the beach I parked facing Tom's Cove,  we enjoyed watching this large group of swallows flying around the wetland grasses , there must have been lots of bugs for the swallows to eat.

4.  Along the road to the beach, a Belted Kingfisher was sitting in a dead tree overlooking the water. 

5. We saw a large flock of White Ibis, a Great Egret and two Tricolored Herons. 

6. One of the Tricolored Herons looked upset to share the space. 

7. The Chincoteague ponies are always a treat to see if they come up close, this was the closest we were able to see them.  

8. There were two foals mixed in with the older group.

9. A pretty Great Egret taking a break.  

We enjoyed our 2 days at Chincoteague, the beach scene and the birds are always a beautiful sight to see. I hope you enjoyed my post.

Tomorrow is my hubby's birthday, Happy Birthday Hubby!

Thank you for sharing your critters and post!

Thanks to all my visitors and for your past and present comments. Stop back to see any replies to your comments. I appreciate everyone who loves and respects wildlife. Thank you for linking up a critter post.

Here is my linky:

I am linking up to Heidrun's Mosaic Monday  I hope you can stop by and visit Heidrun and check out the Mosaic Monday post.

Saturday's Critters # 520

Welcome to Saturday's Critters!

Hello and happy Saturday!

 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!

Oct 10th, we are on our little getaway to Chincoteague Island NWR in Virginia. It is one of my favorite places to visit. We love the beach, all the birds and the Chincoteague ponies. We started the day with the sunrise at the beach and ended the day with the sunset over Tom's Cove. 

Click on images for larger views.

1. A beautiful sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean and Chincoteague Island NWR. 

2. Some photos taken from the car on the way to the beach, we saw a few Great Blue Herons, Double-crested Cormorant and a Belted Kingfisher. 

3. Along the same road was a juvenile Little Blue Heron, Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets and White Ibis. 

4. The Chincoteague ponies are a highlight of this trip for me. 

5. The Great Egrets were looking beautiful. 

6. We saw large groups of Sanderlings on the beach. 

7. Below are Chincoteague Scenes, the Assateague Island Lighthouse, Tom's Cove visitor center and boardwalk trail, American Oystercatcher.

8. I found a few butterflies, while walking on the Tom's cove trail, we saw a few Monarchs and the Common Buckeye. 

9. Below are some of the birds seen along the wildlife drive, I was expecting to see more birds along this drive. Birds numbers are down, I could count all the birds I saw on the drive on my two hands. 

10. The sunset at Tom's Cove with lots of Gulls flying around.  

Thank you for sharing your critters and post!

Thanks to all my visitors and for your past and present comments. Stop back to see any replies to your comments. I appreciate everyone who loves and respects wildlife. Thank you for linking up a critter post.

Here is my linky:

I am linking up to Heidrun's Mosaic Monday  I hope you can stop by and visit Heidrun and check out the Mosaic Monday post.

Saturday's Critters # 518

Welcome to Saturday's Critters!

Hello and happy Saturday!

Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃 🦃🥧

 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!

On Oct 9-11th , hubby and I went on a short getaway. First we took a short detour off of Rt 50 to the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Cambridge Maryland. Then we headed to Chincoteague Island Virginia, the Chincoteague Island National Wildlife Refuge, Tom's Cove and the Assateague Island National Seashore. 

1. These are images from our drive at the Blackwater Wildlife Refuge. At Blackwater NWR, we took the short Marsh Edge trail. 

We saw and heard these Terns, they were so loud. I think they were fighting over a fish?  Back in the car and on the wildlife drive, I found a juvenile Bald Eagle sitting in a tree, monarchs were flying next to our car, a White-tailed Deer walking off into the wood and the Tickseed  Sunflowers were plentiful along the drive. 

 

The Tickseed Sunflowers looked pretty, the yellow flowers were seen all along the wildlife drive. 

2. Further along the wildlife drive, we saw the Yellowlegs, numerous Great Blue Herons, Canada Geese and an Egret. 

3. We saw two Mallards, one is hidden in the grasses hanging out with the Canada Geese.  

4. Looking straight on, the Great Blue Heron looks a little silly. 

5. After driving a total of 4 hours or more, we arrived in Chincoteague. We took a walk on the trail to the pony overlook.  On the way I saw this tiny Sika deer, it is so cute. At the pony overlook I found one Tricolored Heron and the ponies of course. 

The Sika Deer is a small member of the elk family, they have dark brown to black coat. They have short snouts and small ears. The Sika Deer were introduced to Maryland's Eastern Shore and in Virginia. I am assuming this was a juvenile Sika Deer, it just stood and stared at us while we were on the trail. 

A distant look at the Chincoteague Ponies. 

Great Egrets and Snowy Egrets are mixed together, a few times I think I saw the juvenile Little Blue Heron which is also white.  

6. On the road to the beach, we see lots of Egrets. Further up the road we see the Double-crested Cormorants hanging out, we caught the sun setting at Tom's Cove, a small group of Black-bellied Plovers  (just a guess) and there were 3 Great Blue Herons flying over the cove. 

7. On the shore of the cove, I was watching a group of what I believe are the juvenile Black-bellied Plovers.  There is a closer look at two in the mosaic above bottom left image. 

8. The end of day one, we watched the sun setting over Tom's Cove in Chincoteague Island NWR. 

Thank you for sharing your critters and post!

Thanks to all my visitors and for your past and present comments. Stop back to see any replies to your comments. I appreciate everyone who loves and respects wildlife. Thank you for linking up a critter post.

Here is my linky:

I am linking up to Heidrun's Mosaic Monday  I hope you can stop by and visit Heidrun and check out the Mosaic Monday post.

Happy Monday!

Happy Monday, everyone!

I hope you all have a great day and a happy new week!

Sunset at Tom's Cove, Chincoteague Island Virginia

"Every sunset brings the promise of a new dawn."

 Comments off, enjoy your day! 

More from Chincoteague NWR

I am linking up with NF Winged   and  Skywatch Friday

 Wow, the week is flying by and it is time to look for birds, watch the sunset and see the moon rise. I am looking forward to seeing your skies from around the world, I hope you are all joining the Skywatch.

 These are more photos from our weekend away to Chincoteague Island, Virginia. We spent time birdwatching, hanging out on the beach watching the dolphins, we saw a gorgeous sunset and a lovely moon rising over the ocean.

 We ate our lunch on the beach and it seem like we were going to be surrounded by the gulls.

I loved catching these Black Skimmers flying by, the Willets stayed in place.

 The sun was beginning to set during this shot which made the grasses look especially pretty glowing from the sunlight.

 The sunset at Tom's Cove

 I like to try to include a bird in flight when I zoom into the setting sun. This photo is not perfect, but I like the wavy clouds in front of the sun, the bird in flight and the colors. After watching the sunset at Tom's Cove, we headed over to the beach to watch the moon rise over the ocean.

This shot actually looks lighter on the beach than it actually was, I used my flash, it is not the best of photos. But, I wanted to show this big and colorful moon.

 What a pretty sight and we were so happy we decided to stay for the moon rise. This full moon on Sept 19 was the Harvest moon, this moon shot is actually two days later .

  Happy Skywatching everyone!

Thanks for visiting my post and  blog and I always appreciate your comments.

To see more pretty skies from around the world please visit  Skywatch Friday
and to see more of the winged critters check out NF Winged

Thanks to Sylvia, Yogi  and Sandy for hosting Skywatch Friday! Thanks to Monica the host of NF Winged.   I wish everyone a safe and happy weekend.