Saturday's Critters # 489

  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 behind a bit on sharing birds from my yard, neighborhood and various walks.  These photos are from the end of March up to the beginning of April. 

1.  March 26th,  the White-breasted Nuthatch is a common bird seen in my yard and around the Prettyboy watershed. 

Click on photos for larger viewing.

2. March 27th , a walk to the lake, a vulture taking care of some road kill, the fire road, a Pied-billed Grebe, Canada Geese, Double-crested Cormorants, juvenile Bald Eagle, Downy Woodpecker and an Eastern Phoebe.  

3. March 27th, the Eastern Phoebe is a bird I can easily id by it's song. The song sounds like they are saying their name fee-bee. 

4. March 29, in the back yard the Dark-eyed Juncos are still here, a winter bird in this area.  We are starting to see some spring and summer birds move back to the area. 

5. March 29th, I have a pair of Eastern Bluebirds using one of our nesting boxes in the back yard.  

6. March 29th, it is a treat to see the Bluebirds using one of our nest boxes.  I hope their nesting is successful.  

7. March 31, our walk was on the trail at the nearby George's Creek. We saw a Winter Wren, White-throated Sparrow, Bald Eagle, Carolina Chickadee, Eastern Phoebe, Green-winged Teal and lots of Canada Geese. 

8. March 31, the past few months have been great for seeing various duck species at our Prettyboy Reservoir. One this day we saw a group of Green-winged Teal. I was far away and the photo is not sharp but you can id these ducks.  They have a rufous head with a teal green patch near their eyes, there is a white bar on the side of the breast. 

9. April 1st, I have been enjoying seeing the Eastern Bluebirds in my yard. I hope to see their babies soon.  

10. April 3rd, we took a walk on a close by fire road. I heard lots of birds singing, I am pretty sure I heard a Pine Warbler, Worm-eating Warbler and an Ovenbird, these birds are breeders in the forest next to our home. Next to the fire road I found a couple of Hermit Thrush. 

11.  Various dates in April: Butterflies and blooms around our yard. Swallowtails, Azaleas, Dogwood and Redbud blooms.

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 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! Also, I am also 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 # 417

 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 sharing photos from recent walks to our lake, round trip just a little over a mile. I was going to make it a brisk walk back and forth from home but I started hearing and seeing birds close by.  We stayed a bit longer and I was able to capture a few of the birds staying still for my photos. 

Slow down to appreciate the beauty of life.

1. Below are a couple of Eastern Phoebes, Eastern Bluebirds, White-throated Sparrow, Winter Wren, Downy Woodpecker, Canada Geese and a view across the reservoir.

2. A Winter Wren is almost blending in with the leaves, it landed right behind us for me to capture this photo. 

3.  I was taking a shot of the reflections of the trees, when I noticed a few birds flying back and forth low over this cove area.

4. Some of the birds flying around were the White-throated Sparrows. I recognize their song before I was able to zoom in on one of the sparrows.

5. There were a few Eastern Phoebes hanging out around the lake shore and cove area. 

6. I also saw a few Eastern Bluebirds hanging around, this shot has a lot of tree twigs in the way. 

7. This shot of the Eastern Bluebird is clear of branches and he posed for a photo. 

8. A view looking across the lake, most of the trees have lost their leaves. 

Other birds heard but not appearing in photos, are the Pileated Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Northern Flicker, Cardinals, Chickadees, Kinglets, a distant Belted Kingfisher, Crows, Starlings and Grackles.

9. From Dec 3rd, the usual Canada Geese were seen all around the lake shore. If you enlarge this photo, there is a Belted Kingfisher perched on the edge of a down tree. It is at the top and almost in the middle, can you find it?

10. The images in the mosaic below are from Dec 1st and Dec 3rd. The top left is a Hermit Thrush in my back yard. The Red-tailed Hawk, Canada Geese and Belted Kingfisher were seen at the lake during one of our morning walks. 

11. Dec 6th we took another walk to our local lake. From the fire road I could hear the sounds of a Bald Eagle. I got a shot of one Eagle but the second eagle had too many tree branches in the way for a clear photo. The 2 Bald Eagles were sitting in a tree next to the lake, not far away was the Belted Kingfisher. 

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 the wildlife. Thank you for sharing your critters and linking up a critter post.

Here is my linky:

Thank you for sharing your critters and post!

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!

Hemlock Gorge

I am linking up with   Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday 

I like that I can take my walks any time I want now, instead of waiting for the weekend..weather permitting of course.. These are some scenes from our walk to a local area called Hemlock Gorge.. The river is called the Gunpowder River and runs into the lake near our home..

I like the reflections captured in the photo on the left and the Hermit Thrush is seen in our area only in the winter months..

More river scenery and the sunlight coming thru the hemlock trees and some icicles..

Above the icy river and a cute Winter Wren we watch for a while hopping along the river's edge. It was a chilly and brisk walk, great exercise too. I hope you enjoyed my walk. I thank your for visiting and all the wonderful comments..

I use Pic Monkey to create my mosaics, you can use Pic Monkey free or pay for an upgraded version.
I hope you can join in on our fun at  Mosaic Monday and   Our World Tuesday

 Thanks to Judith our  host of Mosaic Monday and to the hosting group of Our World Tuesday: Arija, Gattina, Lady Fi, Sylvia, Sandy and Jennifer.  I wish everyone a happy week ahead!