Little Blue Heron

For this week's memes ( my list is below) and my wild bird I am featuring the Little Blue Heron seen at the local Baltimore County park  North Point State Park. I was able to capture the adult, juvenile and the transitional Little Blue Herons.

 " Enjoy the little things in life..for one day you'll look back and realize they were the big things".  author unknown.

An awesome spot to see the Little Blue Herons is just a short walk down this wooded Black Marsh trail.

The lush Black Marsh wetlands contains marsh loving shrubs, grasses and various flowers. The land side of the marsh is a mature forest.

Above is the white juvenile Little Blue Heron.  From a distance you would think this Little Blue Heron was actually an Egret. But, you have to check out the bill and leg colors to see the differences.

The Juvenile Little Blue Heron has an olive-gray bill and greenish legs and feet.

Another look at the juvenile Little Blue Heron.

Above is the transitional mottled Little Blue Heron.

You can above the mottled grayish blue and white on the Little Blue heron above.

Another shot of the mottled white-blue Little Blue Heron. For Monica's NF Trees and bushes I am sharing the wild hibiscus bush and flowers. The blooms are  pretty behind the heron.

And last I share the adult Little Blue Heron in the mosaic above and the two images below. It is a beautiful heron and one of my favorites.

Another adult Little Blue Heron, this park seems to be home to these birds in the summer. You just have to put up with some bugs to see them.

The Adult Little Blue Heron being stalked by a turtle. They are beautiful herons and wonderful birds to see. I hope you enjoyed my Little Blue Herons post. Thanks for stopping by and for the nice comments.   Happy Birding and I wish everyone a very happy new week!

I hope to see you linking up and have some fun visiting each other.

 Thanks to Judith our  host of Mosaic Monday

Thanks to Monica for hosting NF Trees

Thanks to Michelle for hosting Nature Notes

 Thanks to Mersad for hosting Through My Lens.

Thanks to Stewart for hosting Wild Birds Wednesday

Saturday's Critters #89

Saturday Critters #89

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

I am sharing some more birds and critters from our day trip to Bombay Hook NWR in Delaware. It is a great outing, seeing lots of Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, Great Blue Herons, Little Blue Herons, my first Monarch of the season and a cute turtle and frog shot.

Gret Egret reflections.

A fuzzy looking Great Blue Heron, could be an older juvie?

Two juvenile Little Blue Herons. The leg color and beak are the difference between the heron and egrets.

My first of the season Monarch Butterfly

The turtle is a Slider, can you find the frog?

A view of the Egrets and the dark spots are a few Glossy Ibis mixed in this group, seen from the wildlife drive at Bombay Hook NWR. I hope you enjoyed my critter post.
As always I always appreciate my blogging friends stopping by just for a visit and for leaving a comment. Also thanks to all who have been participating with my Saturday's Critters, you are all the best blogging friends.

An InLinkz Link-up

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. 

A Hodgepodge

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.

For this week's Good Fence and Skywatch Friday memes I am sharing some local birds seen around the local river and our lake. Also, some morning glories and a few of Hubby's sky shots.

I am not sure why but I noticed on different blogger's Feedjit, the live traffic feed claims I am from Sugarland Texas. Sugarland Texas is 1,455 miles or 2341 KM from Maryland. I am pretty sure it used to say I was from Freeland Maryland. So please do not believe all that you read it is not true. Hubby and I did not move to Texas. I would like to spend my retirement in a new state but, Texas is not in the running. I assume for some reason my computer or blogger is giving a wrong location and I have no idea how to fix it.

These are some birds we saw while on one of our local walks around the neighborhood & lake. The top row is the Louisiana Waterthrush, possibly an Eastern Phoebe and a juvenile House Finch.

For Tex's Good Fences..I am sharing the morning glories growing on our fence, that is until a ground hog comes along and mows them down. :(

A Swallowtail on our Purple Coneflowers and for another fence entry, you can see our blur of our fence in the background.

These are Hubby's shots of the sunset at the lake.

Later the colors turned a little more pinkish, hubby captured beautiful reflections. I hope you enjoyed my hodgepodge of images. Thanks for stopping by and for all 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 and thanks to Sylvia, Yogi  and Sandy for hosting Skywatch Friday.    I wish everyone a happy day and weekend ahead..

Bombay Hook NWR

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.

I am sure some of you have already seen these images on my facebook page weeks ago.I have a few of my post scheduled ahead of time, this was from an earlier trip on Aug 5th, hubby and I went to Bombay Hook NWR, we drove the wildlife drive twice. We had to stay in the car during the whole visit, the skeeters and flies were horrible. So all my photos were taken from the car window.

Above the Orchard Oriole family seen at Bombay Hook NWR in Delaware.

A juvenile Orchard Oriole is waiting on the adult male for food.

The mosaic above has my favorite Green Heron on the top row and the bottom are the juvenile Little Blue Herons and a Great Blue Heron all seen at the Finnis Pool almost at the end of the wildlife drive at Bombay Hook NWR.

The Green Heron will always be one of my favorite herons. For our viewing enjoyment this Green Heron sat in the same spot for quite a while.

Above are the Great Egrets and some Snowy Egret along with the American Avocets.

My NF tree is decorated with Egrets and a couple of Tri-colored Herons. On this day the Egrets were the most common bird during our visit.

 Thanks to Judith our  host of Mosaic Monday

Thanks to Monica for hosting NF Trees

Thanks to Michelle for hosting Nature Notes

 Thanks to Mersad for hosting Through My Lens.

Thanks to Stewart for hosting Wild Birds Wednesday

I hope you enjoyed our daytrip to the wildlife refuge. As always thank you for visiting my post and for the nice comments. Wishing everyone a happy Monday and new week ahead!

Saturday Critters #88

Saturday Critters #88

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. I am sharing my backyard Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. They will be leaving soon, heading south for the winter. I will be so sad when they go.

My Ruby-throated Hummingbirds have been keeping me busy making sugar water for their feeders. I seem to re-fill them daily, sometimes twice a day. The feeder above has 4 hummingbirds on it, one bird is not seen except for it tail on the other side of the feeder. And I have three feeders on my deck, I try to keep them all happy birds.

All of my bird photos are usually taken from my dining room window, so they are not the best images.

A cute Indigo Bunting poses on my shepherd's hook.

I have been very happy to keep seeing the Indigo Bunting in my yard this summer.



My Youtube Hummer video..very short

An InLinkz Link-up

I've been busy the last two days and may have missed visiting some of my favorite blogs, I decided to join some other bloggers and slow down my own blogging. I am not stopping just slowing down. That will mean less random blog hopping. Saturday's Critters will continue and I will continue some of my favorite meme hookups. As always I appreciate my blogging friends stopping by just for a visit and for leaving a comment. I will always visit the participants that are linking in with my Saturday's Critter meme and I will return a visit to anyone that comments on my post. Thanks to all who have been participating with my Saturday's Critters, you are all the best blogging friends.

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

Also visit:  I'd-Rather-B-Birdin. Thanks to the our host: Anni.  

Fair Hill NRMA

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.

Hello, I am sharing another day trip to Fair Hill NRMA, a Maryland park bordered by Pennsylvania to the North and one half mile west of Delaware.  This park holds the Cecil County annual fair, they also have Steeplechases. The Big Elk Creek runs the entire length of the park, there is fishing, multiple trails, picnic areas and other numerous activities.  Oh, I can not leave out birding, last year I saw my Bobolink lifer at this park.

Some scenes from the park are ton top row: the barn and pond with some geese, and bottom row possibly a Wood Thrush seen on the trail, Mallard and more Geese.

The stone mansion and park land was once owned and used as a hunting lodge by Mr William du Pont until the State of Maryland bought the land in 1974. The mansion is now the Nature Center building for the park.

The Foxcatcher Farm Covered Bridge located in the Fair Hill Park is one of two covered bridges found in Cecil County, Maryland.

A view of one of the trails we hiked, the trail runs along side of the creek.

Fair Hill is also a thoroughbred training center located on 350 acres. Plenty of fences in this park for the stables, I think the stables and racetrack is leased from the state.

After leaving the park we came across the Gilpins Falls Covered Bridge is the second covered bridge located in Cecil County Maryland.  The sky above the covered bridge was looking beautiful and I thought perfect for my Skywatch entry.

A large shot of the covered bridge and skywatch.

The lone cloud sky, it was a beautiful day for our walk in the park. As always, I hope you enjoyed my post and images. Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate 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 and thanks to Sylvia, Yogi  and Sandy for hosting Skywatch Friday.    I wish everyone a happy day and weekend ahead..

Just Wrens

Linking up with Wild Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes and NC Sue Wordless
I hope you can join in and share your wild birds and nature scenes

For this week's Wild Bird post, I am sharing two Wrens.  The Carolina Wren and the House Wren. Both of these are backyard birds for me and nest in or around my yard. The Carolina Wren is a year round resident and the House Wren shows up in the summer months.

Above is the Carolina Wren, this wren has what I call an white eyebrow. It seems like both of these wrens can be extremly loud and bossy at times.

Below is my crazy House Wren.

Above the House Wren is a busy bird when it arrives trying to make nest in every birdhouse I have in my yard. They want to rule the yard with their bossy ways.

This birdhouse has four openings and the House Wren managed to build a nest in each hole. I hope you enjoyed this Wren post, they are adorable birds.  Thank you for stopping by and for the nice comments.

Till next week's wild bird post. Join in and post your birdies and to see more beautiful and wonderful bird and nature photos please visit:

 Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday and Michelle's  Nature Notes and NC Sue Wordless

Thanks to all of our hosts. Michelle for Nature Notes and Stewart of Wild Bird Wednesday and Sue for Wordless Wednesday.

  Happy Birding and have a wonderful week!

Happy Monday

I am linking up with   Mosaic Monday  and Mersad's Through My Lens   and Our World Tuesday    and NF Trees

They are all fun memes listed above to participate in...I hope you can join in with the fun  and check out some of the participating posts.

Hello Monday, have a great week! Think happy! These are images are from around our yard and neighborhood, the lake is only a short walk away and on this day our grandpuppy Nibbles was visiting for a few days.

A few backyard birds, the Redbellied woodpecker, juvenile Cardinal and a Blue Jay.

Fungi seen during our walk, I was told it is called Chicken of the Woods.

Nibbles enjoying a view of the lake, she has not taken a dip in the lake yet.

The view of our lake, a trail thru the woods, ferns, moss and some fungi.

I am not sure if this is a fern or some kind of evergreen plant, it looks pretty on the forest floors and near the downed trees.

For Monica's NF Trees I am sharing our trail to the lake, it is a forest with mainly hardwood trees and some Virginia Pine trees. The forest floor is mostly ferns, it is a very pretty walk. These walks of ours have been done with our old dogs countless times over the 25 years we have lived here.

Grandpuppy Nibbles visited for a few days..I hope you enjoyed my post, Nibbles and our walk to the lake.  Thanks for visiting and for the nice comments. Have a happy new week ahead!

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  and NF Trees 

 Thanks to Judith our  host of Mosaic Monday and to Mersad of Through My Lens and to the hosting group of Our World Tuesday: Arija, Gattina, Lady Fi, Sylvia, Sandy and Jennifer.  Also thanks to Monica for hosting NF Trees.
I wish everyone a happy week ahead!