Saturday's Critters #116

Saturday's Critters #116

Happy Saturday, it's time to share your critters and post. Any kind of critter will do, even a new or old post.. I appreciate everyone who is linking in with this week's critter party.

More sad news to share, we lost another dear blogging friend in Smiling Sally.  Sally was the host of Blue Monday. I am not sure of the details, but I believe she has been sick off and on. My prayers go out to Sally's family. RIP Smiling Sally!

The Sandhill Cranes were plentiful during our Tennessee trip. I have seen them in Florida, New Mexico and a few in Maryland. The Sandhill Cranes stop at the Hiwassee Wildlife refuge during their travel from their wintering ground in Florida to the Canada Tundra. I know these are not the greatest photos, the birds were quite a distance away.

The Sandhill Cranes stand nearly 4feet tall. They have a long neck, long legs, their bodies are gray and they have red on their heads.

"If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere." 

You can hear some of the Sandhill Cranes as they fly in on my Youtube video above.

"Spring is nature's way of saying, Let's Party!" Robin Williams

Some White-tailed deer we saw at the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge. I hope you enjoyed our visit to the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge.

An InLinkz Link-up

As always thanks for the visits and the nice comments. I also thank everyone who is linking up and sharing their critters.. Happy Saturday, have a great weekend!

To see more beautiful birds and cute critters, check out these two memes below.

Also visit:  I'd-Rather-B-Birdin. Thanks to the gracious host: Anni.  Also check out Camera Critters. Thanks to Misty for hosting this fun meme.

Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge

I am linking up with Skywatch Friday  and Good Fences
I hope you can join in on the fun and share your fence scenes and pretty skies.

If you have been following my blog for sometime you know hubby and I love to travel. Now that we are both retired we can up and leave whenever the weather is nice. This trip to Tennessee was planned just the night before we left, we wanted to take advantage of some mild weather for our drive to Tennessee. I had been watching  EBIRD the site to see if any Sandhill Cranes were still being seen at the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge and we heard about a great Tennessee park called Fall Creek Falls State Park from Betsy @ Joyful Reflections.

We arrived at the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge on the morning of  Feb 18th. The cranes fly into and out of the wildlife refuge daily. Numbers of  Sandhill Cranes and an occasional Whooping Crane can be seen at the wildlife refuge from November to February. We met some wonderful nice birders at the refuge, I believe the  local birders were looking for the elusive Whooping Crane. All the people and birders we met in Tennessee were super friendly and helpful.

We stayed in a nearby town Dayton, located just miles away from the refuge and not too far of a drive to the Falls Creek Falls State Park. The Hiwassee Wildlife refuge 6,000 acres is located where the Hiwassee River and the Tennessee River meet.

There were a lot of white-tailed deer in the area of the wildlife refuge. I am sharing one photo of the deer with this fence shot.

Teresa's Friday's Hunt
1. letter J
2. week's favorite
3. a cuppa

For Teresa's Friday's Hunt I am sharing my favorite photo above with the Sandhill Crane reflection.

The observation deck is a good distance from where we saw the Sandhill Cranes. You know me by now, I still had to take photos even with the great distance.

A pretty blue sky with the Sandhill Cranes in flight.

It is cool to hear the Sandhill Cranes flying in, sometimes we saw some large groups of cranes both arriving or leaving. These images do look better if you click to enlarge them.

In four days we drove more like 1,700 miles after sightseeing around the parks and Tennessee. We had a total of four days traveling, 2 of the days were taken up on the drive down to Tennessee and the drive back home. So we had just 2 days to see everything we wanted to see in Tennessee, not a lot of time.

A pretty view from the overlook of the Tennessee River and the Hiwassee Island.

Another favorite image was the moon over the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge.

I will have a lot more from our trip to Tennessee and of the Cranes coming soon.
As always I hope you liked my photos. Thank so much for stopping by and for the nice comments.


To see more pretty skies, fences and fantastic photos from around the world please visit the memes below.

Thanks to Theresa @ The Run*A*Round Ranch for hosting Good Fences. Also, thank you to Sylvia, Yogi  and Sandy for doing such a great job at hosting Skywatch Friday.  Thanks also to Teresa Friday's Hunt  

  I wish everyone a happy day and weekend ahead..

Around the yard

I have a list below of memes I am joining for this week, and to save time I am doing one post for all. They are all fun memes to participate in...I hope you can join in with the fun  and check out some of the participating posts. Special thanks to all the wonderful host and their memes, I hope you have some time to check them out.

Hello, I have been sent a link for Tina's aka EG Camera Girl's funeral notice and service. You can view the EG Camera Girl  here and the  Service here. You can email a condolence message to the family per 

Please email us at support@skwarchukfuneralhome.com

To send a condolence message to the family.

Please in the subject line of your message include the name of the deceased.

All messages are being passed on to the family

 I copied and pasted the email to send my email message.

I am sharing some yard birds from my Great Backyard Bird Count which was Feb 12th thru Feb 15th and a couple local barns from the neighborhood. I hope you enjoy!  Can you believe February is almost over? Just one more day due to leap year and it will be March.  I am so looking forward to Spring, flowers and the new spring birds. Bring it on, please!

Some of my yard birds, above top Mourning Doves Downy Woodpecker, White-throated Sparrow. Bottom row the Blue Jay, Dark-eyed Junco and Brown-headed Cowbird.


The first day of my Great Backyard Bird count, I counted 18 species of birds and a total of 151 birds in approximately in 3 hours on the first morning Feb 12th.  The bird with the highest count was the White-throated Sparrow at 41 birds seen at the same time.

The White-throated Sparrow seems to be the most common bird in my yard. Following close behind is the Mourning Dove with 29 being seen at one time and then the Dark-eyed Junco the third highest count with 27 being seen at one time on my deck. The Weeping Cherry tree has become a landing spot for the birds before they reach my feeders.

A new bird for my GBBC list this year was this Field Sparrow still hanging around on Feb 12th. All my bird photos are taken thru my dining room window, so I am sorry they are not the best images.

Taking the back road home I can pass the barns in the photos above and below.  I like the weathered wood and colors on the barns and buildings above.

For Tom's Barn Collective meme I am sharing the two photos above. They are both local places in the neighborhood. The barn above recently was renovated and has a new green roof. The trees are still bare, but this street is pretty when everything is green.

Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate your visits and nice comments. Have a happy day and new week ahead!


As always thanks to the wonderful group of hosts listed below.
Thanks to Tom for hosting The Barn Collective

Thanks to Judith our  host of Mosaic Monday
Thanks to Monica for hosting NF Trees

Thanks to Michelle for hosting Nature Notes

Thanks to the hosting team of Our World Tuesday!

Saturday's Critters #115

Saturday's Critters #115

To those who have not heard, I am truly sorry to pass on this sad news and to hear of the loss of our blogging sister Tina  @ EG Camera Girl and her husband Tom. My heartfelt condolences and prayers go to the family, may God give them peace and comfort in these difficult days. Tina will be truly missed in our blogging world. I will remember Tina when I look back at her beautiful photos, she has left many photograph memories that we can cherish.

RIP Tina.

Happy Saturday, it's time to share your critters and post. Any kind of critter will do, even a new or old post.. I appreciate everyone who is linking in with this week's critter party.

For my post I am sharing a few Purple Finches that stopped by my yard briefly. They ate and ran  flew away.

Nibbles our grandpuppy is now a little over a year old.

An InLinkz Link-up

As always thanks for the visits and the nice comments. I also thank everyone who is linking up and sharing their critters.. Happy Saturday, have a great weekend!

To see more beautiful birds and cute critters, check out these two memes below.

Also visit:  I'd-Rather-B-Birdin. Thanks to the gracious host: Anni.  Also check out Camera Critters. Thanks to Misty for hosting this fun meme.

Eastern Neck NWR, part 2

I am linking up with Skywatch Friday  and Good Fences
I hope you can join in on the fun and share your fence scenes and pretty skies.

Blog update:
To those who have not heard, I am truly sorry to pass on this sad news and to hear of the loss of our blogging sister Tina  @ EG Camera Girl and her husband. My heartfelt condolences and prayers go to the family, may God give them peace and comfort in these difficult days. Tina will be truly missed in our blogging world. I will remember Tina when I look back at her beautiful photos, she has left many photograph memories that we can cherish.

RIP Tina.



This is part 2 of our visit to the Eastern Neck NWR in Rock Hall Maryland. I am sharing some of the birds we saw, the trails and views of the river and bay.

My mosaic above shows a lot of the birds we saw during our visit to the wildlife refuge. Top row: American Black ducks, Common Mergansers, Ring-billed Gull. Second row are the Turkey Vultures, Bald Eagle and Black Vultures. The third row Great Blue Heron in flight, Tundra Swan group, Tundra Swan. Bottom row is a Northern Cardinal, Flock of Canada Geese, various Gulls.

For Teresa Friday's Hunt one of two images for the week's favorite above: The Tubby Cove boardwalk.

Thanks to Teresa for hosting.

Friday's Hunt
1. the letter I
2. week's favorite
3. something blue

The Tidal Marsh Overlook trail.

Live life to the fullest, there may not be a tomorrow!

A flock of Canada Geese in my skywatch shot.

The Chester River Sanctuary and in the distance you can see the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

For my week's favorite and something blue a Bald Eagle couple with an airplane flying over. I hope you enjoyed this post on the wildlife refuge and my photos. Thanks for visiting and for the nice comments.

To see more pretty skies from around the world please visit  Skywatch Friday
and check for more fence shots at Tex's Good Fences

Thanks to Theresa @ The Run*A*Round Ranch for hosting Good Fences this past year it has been fun looking for fences for my post. Also, thank you to Sylvia, Yogi  and Sandy for doing such a great job at hosting Skywatch Friday.    I wish everyone a happy day and weekend ahead..