Saturday's Critters # 398

 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!

Hubby and I have recently visited the Great Falls National Park near Potomac Md. We make it a day trip, stopping at a local French bakery for a sandwich for our little picnic. We also stop at Riley's Lock and walk along the C&O Canal trail.  

1. Below are photos of the Potomac River @ Great Falls NP, the C&O Canal trail @ Great Falls, Great Blue Heron, Canal Lock, Canal, Mallard, Black Vultures and Turkey Vultures. 

2. A view of the C&O Canal and the trail.  

3. There is a Great Blue Heron rookery or is it called a heronry, so there are plenty of Herons to see at the Great Falls @ Potomac River. 

4. A mix of Black Vulture are seen with their Black Head and the Turkeys Vultures have the red heads. 

5. I always enjoy seeing the Great Blue Herons, they pose so nicely for me and my camera.  

6. Below are some of the scenes and wildlife we saw along the C&O Canal trail at Riley's Lock.  A group of Wood Ducks, a Common Whitetail Skimmer, more Wood Ducks, Great Blue Heron, Zebra Swallowtail butterfly, Prothonotary Warbler, Black-crowned Night Heron, Slider Turtles, Black-crowned Night Heron. 

7.  A few Slider Turtles hanging out with the Wood Ducks. 

8.  The Red-eared Slider Turtles are non-native but the Eastern Painted Turtle is a native turtle seen in Maryland.  Below the photo could be a mix of both of the native and non-native turtles. 

9. I usually see a Green Heron in this area, but on this day I saw the Black-crowned Night Herons. 

10. A Common Whitetail Skimmer above the pond and duck weed.

11. A closer look at the Wood Ducks. 

12. A Great Blue Heron was seen on the canal side hunting for food.

I hope you enjoyed our walk at the park and on the canal trail, the birds and wildlife are always great to see.  

I want to share my cute grandson, he is growing quickly almost 6months old. He has two bottom teeth now. I think this is the first time he tried a teething biscuit. 

I am also linking up to Anni's blog party found here I'd Rather B Birding   Anni always has some beautiful birds to be seen on her blog, check it out!

Here is my linky:

YOU are all # 1.

Thanks to all my visitors and for your comments. Stop back to see any replies to your comments. I appreciate everyone who loves critters and has linked up their critter post. 

Around the yard IX

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

These are skies over my yard this week. I thought the contrails were cool looking, kind of like X marks the spot over my yard. I enjoy seeing my Goldfinches year round.

A walk to the lake, seeing the diamonds on the water.

For NF Winged I am showing my American Goldfinches.

My vulture sky a common sight to see over my yard.

A pretty view of the moon

X marks the spot.

One of my pretty Goldfinches.

More of the contrails, they could be writing Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays in the sky. These shots of the sky were taken on Dec 23.


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.

Thanksgiving Skywatch

It's time for some of my favorites memes...I am linking up with  Green Day ,   Skywatch Friday and  NF Winged.


 It is Thanksgiving Day and I am spending the day with my hubby, son and family.  After serving fifteen for dinner,  we should be able to chill and check out my birds and sky. These are some shots taken thru-out this past week. A pretty sunset, a few kinglets from our walk on the fireroad, a couple of Brown Creepers and the vultures making their way back to roost for the night.

A Ruby-crowned Kinglet above and another open winged kinglet below. LOL, if you look real hard you can see the ruby crown on the kinglet in the top of the photo.

 I have been wanting to see a Brown Creeper, and luckily in this day I saw two. Can you find the two Brown Creepers in the shot above? They blend so well with the tree.

I always love seeing these pretty green ferns growing along the fireroad  where we walk.

 A cropped shot of a Golden-Crowned Kinglet.  The sky is a beautiful blue, it was a lovely day for a walk on the fireroad. The Kinglets are quick movers like the warblers, they did not stay still for a second.

 These trees are around my neighborhood and on the fireroad, not sure what kind of trees they are but they seem to be the last to drop their pretty yellow leaves. I love this shot looking up at the blue sky, yellow leaves and the tops of the pine trees.

Another day the vultures are making their way back to the woods to roost for the night.

A pretty sunset to end the day! I am looking forward to a long weekend for the Thanksgiving holiday. I am one of the few people NOT going shopping on Black Friday. Will you be going shopping the first thing on Friday morning?

 I hope everyone in the US is enjoying their Thanksgiving Day and to all those not in the USA have a great day!

 Thanks to the gracious host Fiona of with  Green Day
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.

Back Roads equals Horned larks

I am linking up with Camera Critters

A good tip from a birding friend of mine, she told me after a snowy day I should take a ride on the back roads around my neighborhood to look for new birds. It seems the birds like to find food along the road where the snow melts. So, on this day I took a slow ride around watching the birds fly away from the edges of the road. You never know what you might find  Horned Larks, Sparrows, Juncos, Longspurs and sometimes even Snow Buntings.

On this day I found the Horned Larks and some Juncos. They flew away when I got close, so I stopped the car and they came right back. 

Above, you can just barely make them out but there are four Horned Larks along the edge of the road. One has its head way down in the snow.  Must be something really tasty there. Do you think they like road salt?

It seems like where ever I go I am always seeing vultures. These Turkey Vultures seem to be watching a group of donkeys. Not sure why?

The donkeys do not seem to mind being watched by the vultures and by me. I think they are so cute.

I hope you enjoyed my critters this week and  to see more wonderful and cute critters check out Camera Critters..   I have added the new Linky followers for those who will soon be loosing Google Friend Connect. Thanks to Misty Dawn for hosting and Thank You for stopping by to see my critters. I hope everyone is having a great weekend and Happy Birding.