Saturday's Critters # 531

 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!

My latest trip has been to my archives. I usually prepare several post in advance so I will always be a month or so behind.  At this time, Hubby and I have not been anywhere special due to the super cold weather or the rain/snow days. So I went back and visited previous posts, taking photos from the past 5 years during the month of February. Photos are of some of my favorite places, birds and critters. 

From a February 2019 post, I was reporting on our Florida trip and visit to the Green Cay Preserve. In the mosaic are the Painted Buntings, Swamphen, a Tricolored Heron, Little Blue Heron, Palm Tree, Purple Gallinule, Green Heron, Glossy Ibis and a Pied billed Grebe. Florida is one of my favorite places for birdwatching. 

Also a few more photos from our Green Cay Nature Center are the American Bittern and below is the Green Heron.

Also from Green Cay are my favorite Florida Bird, the Painted Bunting, seen below with a female Painted Bunting. 

Another bird seen at the Green Cay Nature Center are the Wood Storks, their nest were right next to the boardwalk.

From my February 2020 post, I am sharing some of my favorite back yard birds: the Eastern Bluebirds, Downy Woodpecker, American Goldfinch, more Goldfinches with a House Finch, another Male Bluebird, a Dark-eyed Junco, a White-throated Sparrow, male Downy Woodpecker and a Carolina Wren.

From Feb 2020, one of my all time favorite birds is the Eastern Bluebird. I feel lucky when they choose one of my birdhouses for their nest. 

From a February 2021 post, I have one of my favorite woodpeckers, in my yard is the Pileated Woodpecker. 

From my post in February 2022,  we were dog sitting for our son while his house was being built. 8 months of watching our grand-dogs Nibbles and Winnie at our house. They enjoyed their walks to the lake and on the fire roads. Also in the mosaic are Eastern Bluebirds and the lake. 

From February 2023, we were excited to see my lifer the Golden Eagle in our area at the Prettyboy reservoir. It hung around for a few weeks.  

Here is a larger view of the Golden Eagle. This Eagle is a dark brown with golden brown plumage on the nape.  The Golden Eagle is a beautiful raptor. 

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 Thankful Thursday!!

Happy Thursday! 

How is everyone, hanging in there I hope.  The vaccine is coming soon, be safe and stay safe. 

 Happy Birthday to my dear hubby!

I am continuing with some of my archived photos from a trip to Costa Rica in 2010.  I am so thankful I have a lot of my old trip photos archived on my external hard drive, they are easy to find. 

1.  I am sharing more images from  Tortuguero, Fortuna, Guanacaste, the Arenal Volcano, the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean.

 Tortuguero, Caribbean sunrise

 

2. Views of the Lake Arenal, Arenal Volcano and wind turbines.

 

3. Various Costa Rica Birds:

 First row on a utility pole at our Tortuguero resort the Collared Aracari Toucan, Black-cheeked woodpeckers on the same pole later, unknown hummingbird possibly a female Lucifer Hummingbird, Great Kiskadee, Anhinga, Blue-Gray Tanager, two Crested Caracara in flight, Snowy Egret and Crimson fronted Parakeet.

 

4. Guanacaste, Pacific Ocean and a Brown Pelican. I love watching the Pelicans, they look so peaceful when they fly by. 

 

 

5. Guanacaste sunset on the Pacific Ocean.

 

 

6.   I am thankful for beach time,  a walk on the beach in the warm sunshine.  Give thanks for a little, you will find a lot.

 Brown Pelican on the rocks, Magnificent Frigatebird, shells and beach, Whimbrel and Black-bellied Plover. 

 

7. Another look at the sunset. 

 

Hubby and I are looking forward to traveling again, maybe a trip in early May.  we are undecided it could be a fly-drive or a road trip.  Part of the fun of traveling for me is researching the place we are visiting. I look for the places to stay, parks, scenic views and drives.  

 

I am thankful we continue to stay safe and healthy. 

I hope everyone is careful, healthy and safe. 

Go outside and breathe deeply.  Enjoy every moment. 

Live simple and be happy!  😊 Keep smiling!

Thank you to Jutta for hosting Nature Thursday

Thank you Michelle for hosting Thankful Thursday. 
 

Thank you to Yogi the host of   Skywatch Friday
 

Thank you for visiting and for your nice comments on my previous post. Have a happy day!!  😊

Our World, My World

 Happy Monday!

 Dec 7th, it is my son's birthday. He is 28 today, Happy Birthday to Brian!   Hubby's birthday coming soon, on Dec 10th.  We have lots to celebrate in December, I just turned 64. I am looking forward to when things are back to normal in our country, when hubby and I can feel safe to travel.  Today I am sharing photos from my archives and March 2010 and a trip to one of my favorite places Costa Rica. On my next critter post I am sharing a lot of the Costa Rica wildlife, check it out.

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

1. A rainbow seen on the first morning of our 9 day tour. 

Click on photos for better views.

 

2.  During our tour we stopped at a craft market, the ox carts were on display.  The carts are unique with colorful painted designs.

 

3.  Tortuguero, we stayed at a park lodge which was just a walk away from the Caribbean Sea. The park is only reached by airplane or a boat ride. Our tour to the lodge included the boat ride. The lodge is located between a lagoon  on one side and the other side was the Caribbean Sea. The Howler Monkeys were constantly heard while staying at Tortoguero, the resort was nice with wildlife everywhere.

 

 

4. The nature boat rides were fun, the wildlife in Costa Rica is awesome. We saw various species of monkeys, lizards, a sloth and birds.

 

5.  Fortuna, Costa Rica..our hotel had a view of the volcano, we had a tour set up to visit the Baldi Hot Springs and we also hiked on the Hanging Bridges trail at the Arenal Volcano National Park.

 

 

 

6. Guanacaste on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica.  We stayed a nice resort on the beach. I think we were so busy during the day, I did not get in the pools at any of the hotels, all the pools looked beautiful.

 

7. A walk on the beach at Guanacaste Costa Rica. During our time here, we saw more monkeys and various bird species. 

 

 

8. Sunset at Guanacaste, Pacific Ocean

 

It is also Pearl Harbor Day, a day to honor the 2,403 service members and civilians who were killed during the attack on Pearl Harbor. From the beginning of the tracking on Feb 15th through today,  282,829 Americans have died from the Coronavirus, more people have died from the virus than all the wars put together. 

 There is so much talk about the vaccine coming out. It almost time to make new memories and visit new places, hubby and I will be happy when we are able to travel again.  Mean time we  are happy and healthy, I hope everyone is doing well too.

 

 

Wear your mask and keep your distance!  Be safe, stay safe!

 

What's happening in your corner of the world? Please check out and visit the following memes and links. I hope to see you there.

 
Thanks to Angie the host of  Mosaic Monday

Thanks to LadyFi  the host of Our World Tuesday!

Thanks for visiting and commenting, have a happy day and a great new week!

New Old birds

I am linking up with Wild Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes

July 2, 2013

Can you believe it is July already?  I wish all the Canadian bloggers a HAPPY CANADA day. And on Thursday is our 4th of July celebration in the USA.

These are a few birds from my archives that I noticed I have not posted. I would like to do a post on each of my lifers, that way all my lifers appear on my blog. Another way I can keep track of my life birds. These birds were seen during a trip to Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana.

Yellow-headed Blackbird

Magpie

Mountain Bluebirds

Clark's Nutcracker

Black-throated Sparrows. I am sure I have more lifers that I have not done a blog post about, it will take a little while to find the photos. How do you keep you life list? Is it on an Excel document? Do you keep a written journal?  I am looking for an easy way to keep a list list and have it numbered, any ideas?



I hope you enjoyed my variety of Wild Birds on this post.
Thanks for stopping by and for leaving your nice comments. I always appreciate your visits.
Join in and post your birdies and to see more beautiful and wonderful bird photos please visit:
 Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday and Michelle's  Nature Notes.
Thanks to Stewart for hosting Wild Bird Wednesday and thanks to Michelle for hosting Nature Notes.

I wish everyone a happy week ahead and Happy Birding!

Back in time

Linking up with Camera Critters  and I'd-rather-b-birdin

I hope all my blogging friends up in the north are warm and  safe from the storm Nemo.

I am going back in time with these photos. Between working all week and the weather I have not been anywhere to take new photos. The blizzard has missed Maryland, only seeing some heavy wind gusts here.
So, off we go to Costa Rica to see my favorite birds and an iguana tree.
 Sorry, if you have seen these photos, I hope you do not mind seeing them again. I do not think I have shown the Iguana tree though so that might be new. They are some of the highlights we saw in Costa Rica, the wildlife sightings were just amazing.

We passed this iguana tree while touring with our group. This tree was filled with iguanas of all sizes. 

 There were so many iguanas on the tree, I could not fit them all in on one photo. It was amazing sight to see. How many iguanas can you find in the shot above. You could times that by 20 and that would be how many we saw on this tree.

Rhinceros beetle was a cool sighting in Costa Rica. It was one of the biggest beetles I have ever seen.

The Collared Aracari was seen quite a bit at our  Tortuguero resort.

The Keel Billed Toucan is one of my favorite toucan. The Toucan species are just awesome looking birds.

The Blue-gold Macaws were seen on the parking lot of the Swinging bridges. They were most likely escapees but still very cool to see the pair of them.


The wildlife of Costa Rica is awesome, if you ever have a chance of visiting Costa Rica I would say go for it. I hope you enjoyed my critters and birds.
To see more cute and wonderful critters please visit Misty Dawn's Camera Critters  and more beautiful birds seen at Anni's blog I'd-rather-b-birdin
Thanks to both Misty Dawn and to Anni for hosting these fun memes. I wish everyone a safe and happy weekend.

Black Bellied Whistling Ducks visit Baltimore

With my most recent lifer the Black-Bellied Whistling ducks I am linking up with World Bird Wednesday and Watery Wednesday and Nature Notes . The Black Bellied Whistling duck is common resident of the Gulf coast states. Their habitat is freshwater marshes, swamps and ponds. They nest in tree cavities near the water. I have seen a lot of ducks like the Harlequin and the Long Tailed and they really are beautiful ducks but there is just something about these Black-Bellied Whistling ducks that is just darn cute.

I am not sure if anyone checks on the website Birding on the net but if you are a birder it is an easy way to see what birds are where. I check my state list called Maryland Osprey daily on my emails. But the website Birdingonthenet has an archive list for just about all the states. It might be worth checking the list for your state. You never know when a new bird might show up and one that is not too far away for you to see. Especially if it is a life bird!

The Black-Bellied Whistling ducks showed up in a Baltimore City park days before was able to see them. I was happy they stuck around till the weekend so I could see them. I think these are just the cutest ducks and as far as I know they do not visit Maryland often. There were a total of five of these cute ducks. These three below and two more hidden in the reeds.

The park lake held mostly Mallards and Canada Geese.  I guess you never know what might turn up in a city park. The lake has a nice walking trail around it and some of the trail was a boardwalk. As we walk around the lake we saw a Black Crowned Night heron standing in a tree.

Black Crowned Night Heron,  the tree was on an island in the middle of the lake. 

The lake also had a lot of white waterlilies. Very pretty!

The ducks were still a distance away but my camera was able to zoom up on them some, I was happy with this photo.

I think I got there during their nap time.

To see more wonderful birds and post please visit World Bird Wednesday and Watery Wednesday and Nature Notes.  Thanks to Springman of Pine River Review and 2Sweetnsaxy of Watery Wednesday and Michelle of Nature Notes  for hosting these fun and great memes. Thanks also for stopping by to see my birds and post. I hope the rest of your week is birdie and wonderful.