Eastern Towhee & more

  I am linking up with  Our World Tuesday 

August 26, 2013

This weekend was a fun weekend at my sister place for my niece's baby shower. I guess most of you know that I can not go anywhere without checking out the birds and wildlife. So my post is on my sister's backyard birds and critters and some shots from the baby shower.

A field of sunflowers I passed along the way to my sister's house.

My sister well fed groundhog and an adult Eastern Towhee.

Bambi, Eastern Towhee, groundhog and a juvenile Eastern Towhee.

Bambi in my sister yard, isn't it cute?

Juvenile Eastern Towhee, my sister throws out bags of corn for the critters.

My nephew's wife made this beautiful quilt as a shower gift for my niece, she also made yummy white chocolate pretzels and lollipops, brownies and oreo mini cheesecakes.. All the food at the shower was delicious. The cake was cute with the jungle animals and surrounded with iced cupcakes. It was a fun day, my sister will be a grandmother for the first time and I will be a great-aunt.


As always, I hope you enjoy my post and thanks for visiting my blog. I always appreciate your comments.

Join in on the fun and for more wonderful photos please visit Our World Tuesday

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

Great Smoky Mountains Nat'l Park

I am sharing some of our birds, critters and scenes from the Great Smoky Mountains Nat'l Park  for Green Day and Camera Critters and I'd-Rather-B-Birdin.

 I did not have much luck birding in the Smokies, some of the common birds I saw were the Dark-eyed Junco and lots of Wild Turkeys. I could hear Blue Jays, American Crows, Turkeys Vultures,  unknown Warblers, Titmouse, Chickadees and Nuthatches but none of them wanted their photo taken. In the creek near our hotel and town  I saw some Mallard Ducks.

 Above are shots of the Grotto Falls, A Dark-eyed Junco, Fall colors, Cades Cove horses, Wild Turkey, behind Grotto Falls, Smoky Mountain colors, deer, Cades Cove.



On our first full day, hubby and I drove to the Roaring Fork Motor Drive and headed for the parking lot for the Grotto Falls before it got too crowded. At the beginning of the drive we saw a black bear, I did manage a blurry photo before the park ranger clapped it away. We did the 2.6 mile roundtrip hike to the waterfall. I even walked behind the waterfall, a first for me after many different waterfall visits.

I was checking out the color along the Grotto Falls trail.

Later in the day we headed to the Cades Cove drive, here we saw horses, wild turkeys and some deer.  It was very crowded and took a while to do the 11 miles of the motor tour.

Some of the pretty Smoky Mountain colors.

Since, the birds were hiding from me and my camera I decided to take some shots of the horses. They are pretty.

I was happy hearing and seeing the birds moving quickly all along this Grotto Falls trail. It was very birdy trail, just not a good day for taking bird photos.  I hope you enjoyed hiking to the waterfall with me and seeing the Cades Cove Horses.


To see more beautiful photos and cute critters please visit: Green Day  and Camera Critters and I'd-Rather-B-Birdin. Thanks to the gracious host Fiona of Green Day, Misty Dawn of Camera Critters and to Anni of I'd Rather-B-birdin.  Thanks for visiting my blog and post. I wish everyone a very safe and happy weekend.

Delware birds

I want to wish everyone a very HAPPY & HEALTHY NEW YEAR. And to all the birders and ME (ha-ha), I wish many great bird sightings in 2012.




For my last Camera Critters post for 2011 I have some of the birds we saw last week in Delaware.
One of my main birds to look for at Cape Henlopen, Delaware are the Snow Buntings. In the winter they can be seen around the dunes at Cape Henlopen State Park.

Across the bay from Cape Henlopen Park we could see the Lighthouse at Cape May, NJ. The entrance to the Lewes/Cape May ferry is right next to Cape Henlopen State Park.

 I did see the Snow Buntings flying around the dunes. It was kind of funny, while we walked toward the point on the bay side I could see the Snow Buntings flying toward the ocean side of the point. So we walked around the point to the ocean side and again saw the Snow Buntings flying toward the bayside. I was beginning to think they were playing games with me, like my dog wanting me to chase her and play keep away. Well, I did not see the Snow Buntings on the ground but I did see two groups in flight. Another bird that can be seen at Cape Henlopen is the Brown Headed Nuthatch. I could hear these birds all around the Nature Center. Sometimes, they would land at the feeder take and seed and fly off quickly. As far as photos of both the Snow Bunting and the Brown Headed Nuthatch it was not happening on this trip.

My only Brown-head Nuthatch photo is a silhouette. You can see their cute little bill.

The white tailed deer could be seen from the nature center's parking lot.

The deer didn't seem to mind me taking their picture.

I had a tough time trying to focus on what I believe is a Cooper Hawk perched in a tree off the seaside trail at Cape Henlopen. Forget the bird, I think I did a good job focusing on the pine tree branches. LOL!

Two female House Finches were chowing down at the nature center's feeder. I was a worried that one of these house finches could have the eye disease.

We were not the only people at the beach we did see a couple of horseback riders and a fisherman driving his vehicle on the beach.

Please visit Misty Dawn's Camera Critters . Thanks to Misty for hosting this fun critter meme all year round. Being an animal lover, I have enjoyed visiting everyone's critter post. 

 I hope to see even more cute critters in 2012.

Thanks for visiting my blog and for commenting thru 2011. I appreciate all the visits and comments.

Happy New Year to everyone, Be safe and have fun! Happy Birding!!!

Camera Critters the Chincoteague Variety

With my Chincoteague birds and critters, I am linking up with the Friday Ark  and Camera Critters. Chincoteague is my favorite places to go birding, the shorebirds and variety of birds seen there is just awesome. And of course we saw lots of ponies.. last week critters post is here Chincoteague-ponies . Deer are often seen on the refuge and during the three days we were there we saw lots.


You can click on the photos for a larger image.

I believe these are juvenile Dowitchers but I am not so sure.

Any help with their id is appreciated.

EDIT: I have been corrected on my shorebirds above they are really Willets.

Yellowlegs, whether it is the Lesser or Greater Yellowlegs I am not sure.

                        My favorite Chincoteague pony "The Chief". A real rebel.

I thought the lighting on the Great Blue heron was beautiful. It was a little windy that day and the heron's feather are blowing with the wind.

A sunset shot of the Bald Eagle posing nicely on this tree limb. A cool sighting! We had different Eagle sightings during the three days we were there.

A herd of deer seen on the wildlife drive.

Have a great weekend! The Weathermen are calling for a unusual snowstorm here in Maryland. My part of Maryland is expected to have one-three of inches of the white stuff. As I write this post it is raining and is mixed with snow. Gee, we did not even have a frost yet and some of my flowers were still looking good. The weather has been very weird lately.

I hope you enjoyed my critter post, thanks for stopping by. To see more
wonderful birds and critters please visit Friday Ark and Camera Critters
Thanks to the host of Friday Ark and to Misty Dawn of Camera Critters. I just love the critter memes.

Birding and Hiking Shenandoah Nat'l Park

For Camera Critters  and Scenic Sunday I have a post on some of the wildlife and scenery we saw at Shenandoah Nat'l Park last weekend.

Last Sunday hubby and I went on a daytrip to Shenandoah National Park. I love driving on the Skyline Drive, hiking the trails and looking for birds. It was a birdie day. I heard and saw lots of Redstarts, Scarlet Tanagers, Flycatchers, Phoebes and there were lots of Towhees and a Veery.

We also saw our first wild turkey along the Skyline drive and some deer along the drive and on the trail we hiked.

  A view of the Applachian mountain ranges from the Skyline drive ovelook.

Deer on the Limberlost trail

An unknown butterfly on the trail

 There were many Indigo Buntings singing along the trail and along the Skyline Drive

An overlook of the Shenandoah valley from the Appalachian trail.

I believe this is a Veery seen along a stretch of the Appalachian trail we hiked.

  Some of the wildflowers seen along the Limberlost trail. I think they are wild Columbine?

To see Scenic photos from around the world visit Scenic Sunday   and more wonderful and cute critters please visit Misty Dawn's Camera Critters.  Thanks to the Holleys of Scenic Sunday and to Misty for hosting this fun memes and thanks for stopping by my blog to see my post.

Shenandoah birds and wildlife

Last weekend, hubby and I spent all day Sunday on the Skyline Drive in Shenandoah Nat'l Park. We stopped at many of the overlooks and at each overlook I would hear either the Scarlet Tanager or the Indigo Bunting singing. They are both gorgeous birds.


                                                     Mary's Mosaic Monday

Click on photos to see the larger image

Indigo Bunting

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Scarlet Tanager singing

As we made our way to the middle secion of the drive near the Big Meadows we were treated with this cute fawn and the mom. They didn't seem to mind we stopped to watch them.

This spotted fawn look so cute near these yellow grasses.

I am joining several memes this week, please click on the links to visit all these fun memes
 Mary's     Mosaic Monday  Thanks to Mary at her Little Red House.

Sally's  Blue Monday  Thanks to Sally for hosting Blue Monday

and
Mellow Yellow Monday  and thanks to the host of Mellow Yellow Monday

Thank you for stopping by my blog to see my Shenandoah birds and deer.