Viewing nature with Eileen: butterflies

Showing posts with label butterflies. Show all posts

Saturday, January 18, 2025

Saturday's Critters # 579

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!

These are a few of my favorite things and places I was able to photograph and post on my blog during the year 2024.

Click on images for better viewing.

2024 favorite things from January through June.

1. Jan 2024, Prettyboy Reservoir, we enjoy our local walks on the fire roads, through the forest and to the lake. The Bald Eagles are a common sight to see around the reservoir and our neighborhood.

Jan 2024, our second grandson turned 2 years old.

2. Feb 2024, I love to check out the local Friendly Farms ponds, in the winter we can usually see some ducks. Below are the Buffleheads, Hooded Mergansers and an American Wigeon.

Our first grandson, turned 3 years old in February 2024.

3. March 2024, I love the Woodpeckers and the Pileated Woodpecker is at the top of my favorite woodpecker list.

4. April 2024, the Snow Geese are a favorite sighting, we can usually see large flocks in Maryland and Delaware.

5. May 2024, more favorite woodpeckers seen during our Arizona trip are the Acorn Woodpecker and the Arizona Woodpecker.

6. June 2024, another favorite thing is spending time with our grandsons and our grand-dog Winnie.

2024 favorite things from July through December

7. July 2024, a favorite sight to see in our yard is the visiting Peacock.

I have two photos for July, my favorite granddaughter Sophie was born.

8. Aug 2024, from our Arizona trip is my hubby the butterfly whisperer.

9. Sept 2024, seen on one of our many walks at the Prettyboy reservoir, is the mama deer with her fawn.

10. Oct 2024, during our Alaska trip I loved seeing the Moose. This one was seen along the road near our hotel not far from Denali Park.

11. Nov 2024, from a visit to Bombay Hook NWR are the Sandhill Cranes.

12. Dec 2024, I love the seashore, the photo is from a getaway to Chincoteague Island NWR.

13. The December puzzle finished, I love the dolphins.

A bonus image from Jan 12, 2025. We decided to foster a dog with the option to adopt if all goes well. Miney is just over 6 months a mix breed, part Retriever and part Border Collie. Her litter mates had the names Eenie and Moe. She is super friendly and was house trained. She is jumping up and we are working at training her to stop that bad habit.

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.

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:

Thank you for sharing your critters and post!

Sunday, August 28, 2016

Birds, Butterflies and blooms

Hello,

It is almost the end of August, where did summer go? I hope you are not tired of seeing Butterflies. I have been enjoying all the butterflies in my yard this summer. The buddleia bushes are filled with various species like the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, the Great Spangled Fritillary, Red Admiral, Cabbage Whites and the beautiful Monarch.

A few Black-eyed Susan's have survived the bunnies and deer that roam our yard and neighborhood.

A cute Skipper was also seen on the buddleia bush.

These are some barn scenes we pass by on our way to our favorite local ice cream place. We did enjoy some ice cream this summer, surprisingly we did not get to our favorite snowball stand.

A female Cardinal, looks like a juvie.

As I mentioned on a previous post I have been reading a lot more this summer, another book I enjoyed was called The Life List by Lori Nelson Spielman. The title caught my eye being a birder "a life list" is a list of all the birds you see in your lifetime. The list in this book is more like a bucket list. Do you have a bucket list of things you would like to accomplish or places you want to see before you die? I can not count how many places are on my bucket list, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and some of South America are on the top of the list.

I hope you enjoyed my birds, butterflies and blooms. As always, I thank you for visiting and as always thank you for the nice comments. Have a great day and new week ahead!

Here is my list of memes for the week, I hope you can check one or some of these fun memes and the participants post.

Thanks to Tom for hosting the The Barn Collective
Thanks to Jesh for hosting Seasons
Thanks to Maggie of Normandy Life the new host of Mosaic Monday

Thanks to Michelle for hosting Nature Notes

Thanks to the hosting team of Our World Tuesday!

Thanks to Stewart for hosting Wild Bird Wednesday

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Birding the Watergardens

I have linked my post for the first time with Beverly's Pink Saturday click on my link to go and visit. And here is a cute blog and pretty pink post from last Pink Saturday Pink Paper Rose

My hubby and I visited the Lilypons watergardens, a popular place for birding. Birding was my main reason for going there but seeing all these waterlilies and lotus flowers is just a stunning sight. If you are looking for pond supplies or waterlilies this is the place. They have many colors of both hardy and tropical waterlilies. Over 70 of 260 some acres are used for the waterlilies. It was hot Monday morning so it was a short visit. Some of the birds I saw were the Great Blue Heron, Egret, Canada Geese, Kingbird, Catbirds, Robins, Blackbirds, a Green Heron in flight and many Swallows. I have read that they offered a guided bird walk on their grounds, it is so nice to see a commercial business so inviting to birders. You can walk on your own on the trails or walkways between the large ponds.

I was amazed at the dragonflies, they were everywhere.

The lotus flowers are gorgeous.

I was also checking out all the butterflies and moths.

Redwing Blackbirds were plentiful and noisy.

I just love the color of the waterlily below, it was one of my favorites.

This cute little guy stared at us while we sat on one of the shaded benches.

I am linking up this post with Michelle's Nature Notes thanks to our host Michelle of Rambling Woods.

And

Click here for Claudia's Friday Finding Beauty thanks to Claudia for hosting.

and

Outdoor Wednesday click on the link to visit Susan's Outdoor Wednesday

and

Check out the critters at Misty Dawn's Camera Critters

Thanks for stopping by my blog and I hope you enjoyed my watergarden post.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Birding and hiking Shenandoah

When we get the chance, hubby and I like to spend a day driving on the Skyline Drive and hiking on the trails in Shenandoah Nat'l Park. So, yesterday we left early in the morning and returned after the sunset. The skyline drive is a great place to see the black bear, we lucked out and saw a medium size bear crossing the road in front of us. I love seeing any kind of wildlife and seeing a bear is really exciting to me.

After a 2 1/2 hour drive we were happy to get out of the car and take a hike. Our first hike was on one of my favorite trails called the Limberlost trail. It is an easy 1.3 mile hike consists of a gravel pathway and some boardwalk. It is lined with beautiful mountain laurels, they were blooming beautifully with white and pink blossoms. The deer practically walked right up to us, which was great for photos. The area was once known for the beautiful Hemlock trees mostly gone now due to an imported insect called the hemlock wooly adelgid. Limberlost trail seems to be an appropiate name for this trail. There are still lots of trees and the mountain laurels and wildflowers are plentiful.

I think these are wild pink azaleas

The wildlife is a big attraction for me, not only seeing bears is exciting but the deer, birds and butterflies are wonderful. After the hiking the Limberlost trail we drove down to the Big Meadow area. which has a nice camp store and restaurant for a quick bite before we went on our next hike.

Some of the birds seen, id and pictured in my mosaic are the Cedar Waxwings, Eastern Phoebe, Scarlet Tanger. The deer is one that walked up to us on the Limberlost trail. I am not sure of the Butterflies and the tiny blue moth was beautiful.

After our lunch we decided to do the hike called the Stony Man nature trail, which 1.6 miles and a gradual climb to the second highest peak in the park. This trail leads to a wonderful vista of the Shenandoah Valley. Along the trail we heard many Eastern Towhees, Vireos and was able to catch some glimpses of the beautiful Scarlet Tanager.

If you click on this photo you can see some of the Skyline Drive way in the distance.

Part of the scenic view from the Stony Man Peak

I am combining memes with this post and will be joining Mary's Mosaic Monday and That's My World
Thanks to Mary for hosting the fun meme Mosaic Monday and thanks to the hosting team of That's My World. Also, thank you for stopping by to see my blog and post.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Morning hike at the nature center

One of my favorites the Green Heron

The Green Heron is one of my favorite herons. A long time went by before I was even able to see one. The Green heron blends in well with their surroundings making it so hard to find them. Now since seeing my first Green Heron I am able to spot them a lot faster. I see them everywhere now, why did it take me so long to see my first Green Heron. Maybe I am becoming a real birder.

The lake at Hashawha

Hashawha is one of our favorite places to go hiking, there are several trails we like to walk. This time we took a longer loop trail that takes us by several ponds, a nice wooded area, the raptor center, fields, a stream and ends near the lake.

Catbird

We watched birds all along the trail. The Catbirds tried to be secretive but I was able to spot them right away. The Indigo Buntings were all singing so they were easy to pick out. I also came across a juvenile Common Yellowthroat Warbler, it was making small chirps while climbing around some tall grasses in the field.

Bunny on the trail

Bunnies, turtles and frogs seemed to all be out enjoying the day too.

Swallowtail butterfly

I also enjoy seeing all the different butterflies and the flowers we saw during our walk. Monarchs and the Swallowtail butterflies seemed to be everywhere along the trail.

The flowers were beautiful too. One of my favorites is the Cardinal flowers that were growing near one of the ponds.

It is so nice to be able to take time on the weekends to enjoy nature and take a walk. The work week can be such a drag. Enjoy the flowers, butterflies and the birds!

Viewing nature with Eileen