Saturday's Critters # 568

 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!

These photos are from our trip to Alaska, after we left Denali NP we drove to Glacier View Alaska. Our next two nights were at the Majestic Valley Wilderness Lodge. 

1. Views from the lodge's balcony. At the end of our day sightseeing, the evening included a glass of wine while enjoying the view. We talked a bit with the chef and his dog sat nearby, the gardens and flowers were beautiful along with the mountain views.

The fireweed in Alaska and at the lodge looked beautiful.

2. The gardens and flowers were beautiful.

3. The Majestic Valley Wilderness Lodge. 

During the winter, people who love to ski can fly right to this lodge, they use a helicopter to drop off skiers on the mountain top to do some extreme skiing. 

4. There was a nice fire pit in the garden area. 

5. We enjoyed a breakfast buffet one morning, below are some photos of the dining room and lodge. 

6. The Gray Jay or is it called the Canada Jay now? We saw a few of these birds in the trees close to the lodge. 

7. We took a morning walk before breakfast, below it seemed like mostly Sparrows were being seen. The top left possible Lincoln Sparrow and the middle and top right are the White-crowned Sparrows. My one lifer that I saw but could not get a photo of was the Boreal Chickadee. 

Below is a view of the Matanuska Glacier, this view was right off the Glenn Hwy and close to our lodge.

8. Off the highway we saw a small pond with lots of ducks. It looked like most were the female and young Greater Scaup.

There were a few young Scaup, I assume they are also the Greater Scaup.

 

Hubby and I did some skywatching in the evening on the lodge's balcony. 

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.

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:

Thank you for sharing your critters and post!

Saturday's Critters # 552

 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!

Update, this is also my 15th Blog Anniversary.

I am taking you back to Arizona, on April 26th we were up early to do some birdwatching at the Sweetwater Wetlands in Tucson. Sweetwater is a water treatment facility and an urban wildlife habitat. It is also a birding hotspot, it is said over 320 bird species have been found at this spot. It is an easy walk on the trails around several ponds, marshes, native trees and shrubs. We saw lots of lizards, a cute turtle and a rabbit.

Below are some of the waterfowl we saw while birdwatching at Sweetwater Wetlands; the Common Moorhen, American Coots, Pied-billed Grebe, Cinnamon Teal, more American Coots and a few Cormorants.

Common Gallinule or known as the Common Moorhen until July 2011, it has a bright red shield on it's head and a red bill with a tip of yellow. 

The adult Cinnamon Teal has a red head and body and has a brown back.

Below are the Verdin, Yellow Warbler, Abert's Towhee, Common Yellowthroat Warbler, Lesser Goldfinches and a second Yellow Warbler. 

The male Lesser Goldfinch, has a dark head and back and bright yellow underparts. 

The male Yellow Warbler is a  brilliant yellow and has rusty red streaks on the breast.

Below are the Vermilion Flycatcher male and female, White-crowned Sparrow, Gambel's Quail, Red-winged Blackbird and am I guessing a Broad-billed Hummingbird. 

The Abert's Towhee, reminds me of the female Cardinal. They have a long tail, a dark face and brown plumage.

The White-crowned Sparrow has gray face and black and white streaks on it's head. 

 The Vermilion Flycatcher is one of my favorite birds. It is not a lifer on this trip, I first saw this bird in Belize. The male is a brilliant red with Brown-black back and wings. 

Not critter related but here is my beautiful granddaughter Sophie. 

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.

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:

Thank you for sharing your critters and post!

Third Beach, Olympic Nat'l Park

Hello and happy Thursday,

I am linking up with Lydia of Where the Wild Things Were and the Favorite Fotos linky. Thanks Lydia for hosting the party.

MY thoughts and prayers are for all the victims of Hurricane Harvey  in Texas.

I am sharing some images from our Washington State trip. For 4 nights in May,  we stayed on the Pacific Coast at the Quiluete Ocean Resort. The resort is located right next to the Olympic National Park and we had an ocean front room on First Beach. The resort is operated by the Quiluete Tribe, there are no TV's or Wifi in the rooms. This was our second time staying at this resort they are very reasonably priced for an ocean front room.

Sunset on Pacific Ocean

This is a Pacific Wren or in some places known as the Winter Wren.

A scene from the trail to the Third Beach, it is a 1.4 mile hike one way.

Pink Trillium was seen all along the trail to the beach.

 Hike to the Third beach, there is a pile of  driftwood or more like a wall of tree trunks to climb over when you get to the bottom of the trail on the beach.

Third beach and Waterfall

A view of the sea stacks and ocean

Outside our room I was able to watch the White-crowned Sparrows and Gulls begging for food near the picnic tables.

A view gulls from our balcony.

A cloudy day sunset.

A map showing the Olympic National Park beaches. La Push is the town where the Twilight movie series was filmed.

"Collect moments, not things."


My thankful list for today:

I am thankful to be able to travel, it is a gift to be able to enjoy visiting beautiful places.
I am thankful for my hubby who shares my travel dreams.
I thank you for visiting and your comments.

I hope you enjoyed my post and photos.  Thanks so much for visiting and for your nice comments. Have a happy day!

Thank you Michelle for hosting. Thankful Thursday

Thank you to the hosts of   Skywatch Friday