Saturday's Critters #196

Welcome to Saturday's Critters!

If you love critters 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 this day hubby and I took a walk on the local fire road to the lake. We have lived near this lake going on 28 years now and this was the first time we saw a snake in the water. It looked like it was checking us out.

I zoomed in on this Turkey Vulture high up in a tree.

We saw a nice group of Canada Geese floating on the lake.

A couple of Eastern Kingbirds seen in the tree off the fire road.

There was a family of the Eastern Kingbirds in this one tree, can you find three Kingbirds in the tree below. Click on photo for a larger view.

A mosaic with the birds seen during our walk. The Turkey Vulture, the lake, snake, leaves turning colors, a not so clear shot of a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Eastern Kingbird, Canada Geese, more Kingbirds and the lake.

I appreciate and thank everyone who links up their post and for all the wonderful comments! I hope you enjoy my post and photos too!



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!

A Vulture Sky

January 30, 2014

Linking up with NF Winged   and  Skywatch Friday 

I am sharing Vulture Sky over my backyard...

The Turkey & Black Vultures are back to roosting in the trees next to my yard.

In the evening I can see them fly back toward the trees or sometimes just fly around in circles. I have become so used to seeing the vultures they are easy to tell the Black Vulture from the Turkey Vulture while they are in flight. The Black Vulture's wings seem shorter and more rounded edges. In the daylight the Black Vulture's wings have a white edge. 

I cropped the image above to get a closer look at the v-shapped Canada Geese. They were a lot higher in the sky then the Vultures.

It was a neat sky to watch with the Turkey Vultures, Black Vultures, the contrail and the sunset. Also if you look at the top right corner you will see a large flock of black birds flying past.

We have the deer hunters to thank for all of these Vultures hanging in our neighborhood. The vultures have a feast on the deer carcass left behind. I do not mind the Vultures, they look pretty in flight.


Thank you for visiting my post, I hope you enjoyed my birds and skies.

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 long weekend.

Around the yard- Jan 16

January 16, 2014

Linking up with NF Winged   and  Skywatch Friday 

My shot of the moon with satellite dish in the way, I love the pretty blue evening sky.

My moon shot on Jan 9,  I love my camera..SOOC..no extra lenses and handheld..

A flock of Canada Geese flying over the yard and house.. Hubby has been seeing large groups of the geese hanging out at the lake.

Not sure why, but I love the wing spread on the Turkey Vulture shot over our lake. I have been seeing the Turkey & Black Vultures roosting in the trees next to our house. I think they know where the hunters leave the deer caucus. 

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 long weekend.

Around the Yard

Linking up with NF Winged   and  Skywatch Friday

Since it is officially Spring, I want to wish everyone Happy Spring, Happy Passover and Happy Easter to my blogging friends.

These are the skies from the past week the skies over my yard, the vultures are always here.  Both Black Vultures and Turkey Vultures are hanging around in high numbers.

I was worried that some of the vultures are landing in same trees that the Great Blue Herons have their nest. I can only assume that they get along well.

This shot was taken on the same day as the shot above with the vultures and if you look in the top right corner of the photo you can just barely make out black dots.... more vultures flying around.

When I first took this shot of the heron nest, I thought it was empty. But, if you look closely ( or click for a bigger photo) on the left side of the nest you can see the heron beak and the top of the heron's head. Looks like a cute mommy.

Our weather has been all over the place lately. Sometimes it is warm or it can be very cold. We have had lots of rain or snow showers. No real signs of Spring here, I do see the daffodils are just coming out of the ground but no blooms yet.

I love to see a real pretty blue sky with some awesome looking clouds.

For NF Winged, beside the vultures, I have another one of my woodies, this is the female Downy Woodpecker just outside my dining room window.

The last two mornings, I have been catching the nearly full moon setting. It does look beautiful.

This Wednesday morning there were some thin clouds around the moon creating shadow spots on the moon. I hope you enjoyed my post and skies. Thanks for stopping by and for leaving your nice comments.
Happy Skywatching and Happy Spring to everyone!

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

Around the Yard

Linking  up with NF Winged   and  Skywatch Friday


It is that time of week for sharing my sky photos from this week and a few of the birds from around my yard.The birds are for my entry for NF Winged  and I have a few backyard sunset photos from Tuesday the 19th.

Outside my dining room I have a thistle sock feeder that the Pine Siskins love. One side of my photo has a reflection from my curtain, looks weird but I wanted to see if you can find the other pesky critters at my feeders.

 Above you can see the American Goldfinches are starting to turn their pretty yellow color.

The Turkey Vultures making their way back to the woods next to my house for the evening.

Sometimes the vultures fight over what tree they want to perch in, flying in they will knock another vulture off their perch.

I thought it was going to be gray and cloudy all evening but the sun setting still managed to light up these clouds.

The sky was filled with pink, purples and blues. A very pretty sunset.

The colors were lovely even behind the tallest tree in our yard.

I hope you enjoyed the birds and sunset seen from around my yard. Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate everyone taking time to leave comments. That is  if the comments are working? I have heard some bloggers saying they are having a hard time.

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

A walk to the lake

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

 These photos are from this past Sunday, hubby and I took the 4mile walk to the peninsula tip section our lake.

It was a chilly but pretty day, the sky was mostly clear and blue.

 At the lake we saw some Mallard ducks and Canada Geese.

 I like the sun shining thru the trees on the shot above.

 The sun shining across the lake showing off the pretty diamonds and reflection.

See if you can find the Golden-crowned Kinglet in this shot. The kinglets were the most common bird we saw on this walk, there were large groups of them together.

On the walk back home the sky was mostly cloudy, except for this one spot.

Later that evening, I was able to watch the Turkey Vultures on their return to my woods for the night.

From my deck, I watched the vultures and somewhat of a sunset. The clouds were turning a little pinkish.

I hope you enjoyed my walk to the lake and my skies.

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.

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.

Vulture Sky

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

As I am typing this post, I am listening to the weather for the evening. They have called for this Northeaster storm to come up the coast and bring lots more rain, wind and possibly snow. After storm Sandy, I believe the East coast has had enough rain, wind and snow. I have a feeling I will wake up tomorrow with a dusting of snow on the ground.  Gee, winter is not even here yet and I am wishing for Spring.

Another sign winter is here, the vultures are returning every evening to roost in the trees next to my house. For my skywatch, I am sharing some of the shots of the vultures flying toward and over my yard.

 Above there is a long line of vultures, just about as far as you can see above the pergola. They seem to just keep coming. Probably the biggest group of vultures I have seen in flight, except my sighting in Panama.

 If you look at the very tops of the trees, you can see the black shapes of the vultures that had already landed in the roost for the night.

The sunset was actually the evening before my vulture photos. I love how the clouds look and how they turned a pretty color

To me the clouds above , resembles a bird the beak facing toward the right side of the photo and the wing stretched far out. What do you think it look like? I hope you have enjoyed my skies.


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.