Little Blue Heron

I am linking up with the Friday Ark    and  Camera Critters.. To see some wild and cute critters click on my links.


This post has more birds from Chincoteague NWR , I hope no one is tired of seeing my birds we saw lots of great birds during the three days we were there.

My favorite heron is the Little Blue Heron,  next to the Green Heron.  I am not sure how I can say any one bird is a favorite because I really do love them all.

This Little Blue Heron was hanging around the same spot and the same time I saw the Bald Eagles and the Merlin. It was cool to see these different birds so close together. At one time in these bushes or trees we saw the Little Blue Heron, Great Egret, Bald Eagle, Juvenile Bald Eagle. The Merlin got upset about being overcrowded and flew across the street to another tree.

This eagle was sitting just a little over from the Little Blue Heron.

And here is the Little Blue with the Great Egret. It was hard trying to get a decent photo with all the birds in one shot. And I do not think I have to mention how grey the sky is looking it is pretty obvious.

Not a good shot but at the far left is my pretty Little Blue Heron and then the bigger Great Egret and to the right of the photo and behind the Great Egret is the cute Snowy Egret. Not in view but behind the Snowy was the Bald Eagle. At this time the Merlin was sitting in the tree across the street.

I cropped this photo but the lighting is awful but now you can see all the birds. From far right the Little Blue looking like a little black speck, the Great Egret which is looking very leggy, and the smaller Snowy Egret perched behind and a little higher  than the Great Egret, and last is the Bald Eagle. The next day we saw the Bald Eagle, juvenile Eagle and the Merlin all in this same spot. We watched these great birds from our car which was parked on the lot near the Tom's Cove visitor center.

On this cropped fuzzy photo I have my pretty Little Blue heron and I am pretty sure a Juvenile Little Blue. The juvenile is white but has a bi-colored bill. I do not think the egrets or juvenile egrets have a bi-colored bill. Please let me know if I am wrong.

So now that you have seen my birds you can visit the Friday Ark and Camera Critters to see more of God's beautiful critters.  Thanks to the host of Friday Ark and to Misty Dawn for hosting Camera Critters.

Also,  thank you for stopping by to see my post, I appreciate the comments. I hope everyone has a safe and happy weekend!  

SWF>>>Chincoteague skies

For this weeks Skywatch Friday   I have some more Chincoteague skies. Some sky with birds and some with threatening and moody clouds and some skywatch with some neat kites.

Above we were the early birds up on the beach for the sunrise, the usual Willets and Sanderlings were keeping us company as we watched the sky.

The clouds looked very threatening but we did not have any rain while we there. At least not until the drive home which was Ok with me.

Another sunrise on the beach at Chincoteague Island, Virginia. Or I should say it is actually the Assateague National Seashore.

It was a moody sky, but still neat seeing this adult Bald Eagle with a juvenile Eagle closeby.  We watched this eagle and juvenile eagle in almost the same spot where I saw the Merlin in my previous post..

Even though we did not see the rain we did get to see this rainbow. If the egret would move over some, it would look like the egret is at end of the rainbow.

We were on the wildlife drive watching the birds and the sky.

It was a great day for flying kites on the beach. This is one of the kites I really liked. It reminds me of Peter Pan for some reason. Very cute.

I hope you enjoyed my skies and to see more beautiful skies from around the world

check out Skywatch Friday  Thanks to the hosting group at Skywatch: Sylvia, Sandy, Wren and Fishing Guy!

I hope everyone has a great weekend and to all the birders out there Happy Birding.

Merlin.....My latest lifer

Hello again, I am linking up with World Bird Wednesday   and Nature Notes

My post this week is my latest lifer the Merlin.  We got to see a few of these birds while visiting Chincoteague NWR recently. The merlin  is a small falcon and my field guide says they will winter on the coast. Merlins will go out after birds and insects on the wing. They can accelerate to incredible speeds to snatch their prey.  The adult is steely gray above and a streaky pattern below.

The Merlin above was seen during our sunset tour on the wildlife drive.

This Merlin was seen closer to Tom's Cove and the beach. We were watching the Merlin perched in a tree when all of a sudden it swooped down next to our car and grabbed a huge dragonfly and flew back to the perch to enjoy its catch.

The Merlins are migrating and I do believe we were seeing more than just the one during our weekend visit to Chincoteague.

To see more beautiful and great birds please visit World Bird Wednesday  and for
more nature scenes check out Nature Notes  Thanks to Springman of World Bird Wednesday and to Michelle of Nature Notes. I also appreciate your visit and comments. Thanks for stopping by. I hope everyone has a wonderful week.

More from Chincoteague

Hi everyone, I am linking up with Mosaic Monday  and Our World Tuesday.. I hope everyone is a having a Happy Columbus Day weekend. It is great to have a long weekend.  But, this post on last weekend's visit to Chincoteague Island, Virginia. It was a great weekend seeing lots of great birds, the famous Chincoteague wild ponies and a climb to the top of the lighthouse.

In the mosaic above, the top first row photos is a Merlin and was a lifer for me, the second I was told it is a juvenile Black Bellied Plover. They look nothing like the adult black Bellied Plover but I thought it was a cute bird. The last top row photo is one of the Chincoteague ponies. Bottom photos are what I think is a juvenile Snowy Egret and a single Pelican and last shot is a group of pelicans over the flying over the ocean.

In this mosaic, the top row includes the Assateague Lighthouse and it celebrated its 144th birthday last weekend. I was surprised it is called the Assateague Lighthouse and not the Chincoteague Lighthouse. We visited both the Chincoteague National wildlife refuge and the refuge is connected to the Assateague National Seashore. Next to the lighthouse is a Little Blue Heron and last top row photo is a Great Egret. On the bottom row I have a Cattle Egret sitting on one of the Chincoteague ponies, a Bald Eagle and a few Willets at the beach.

I always think it is neat to see the Cattle Egrets riding the ponies.

This Merlin swooped down next to our car to catch it's dinner, a huge dragonfly.

I could be wrong but I believe this yellow legged egret is a juvenile Snowy Egret.

We climbed the stairs to the top of lighthouse and had a great view of Chincoteague Island and the ponies. We could even see the egrets below and watched Ospreys flying nearby.

We were told there are at least two nesting pairs of Eagles on the wildlife refuge. This Eagle was perched in a great spot with the evening sunlight shining on him/her.

This weekend is the Columbus Day holiday weekend and it seems to be going by so fast already. Yesterday, I joined in with my bird club on a walk at a nearby nature center which was a lot of fun. Great birds and surprisingly saw some beautiful late blooming wildflowers. I see another post coming up on my bird club outing and a new lifer. And today I spent most of the day with two of my cousins visiting with them and going to two cemeteries where my grandparents and great grandparents are buried. Besides blogging I have become interested in working on my family tree at Ancestry.com.


To see more wonderful mosaics, please visit Mary's Mosaic Monday and for more great photos and posts check out Our World Tuesday.  Thanks to Mary for hosting Mosaic Monday and to the nice gang at Our World Tuesday: Arija, Gattina, Sanday, Lady Fi and Sylvia.  I hope you enjoyed my post and I hope everyone has a wonderful week.

Chincoteague Pelicans

I am link up with the Friday Ark   and Camera Critters

During our visit to Chincoteague NWR last weekend we saw many groups of Pelicans flying over the ocean.

We saw many Pelicans like this early morning sighting below of a  large group flying low over the ocean

After seeing the Brown Pelicans at Chincoteague I looked them up in my field guide. I was surprised to see that the Brown Pelican has also made a stunning comeback after the banning of DDT.  I knew all about the eagles and  DDT but I did not realize how many different birds DDT had an effect on. I am so happy it was been banned. The pelican increased in popultion in the gulf, pacific, atlantic and have expanded to include Maryland. They did have another kind of battle going on with the oil spill in the gulf. I feel sorry for the birds and animals during this time, politians and the big companies do not seem to care about the critters.


This Pelican below was perched on a rock next to the side of the road , it was seen a few days in a row in the same spot. Each time we saw this Pelican it was preening or clean its feathers.

The Brown Pelican have webbed feet and feed mostly on aquatic prey and they can dive for fish.


We watch this Pelican for a little while, he/she did not seem to mind.

The Brown Pelican is one of my favorite birds, they kind of remind me of a prehistoric bird. Very cool looking.

I hope you enjoyed my Chincoteague Pelican and

to see many more cute and wonderful critters please visit the Friday Ark and Camera Critters