A BEAUTIFUL LATE WINTER'S DAY AT BLACKWATER WILDLIFE REFUGE, Cambridge, Maryland, USA

What a spectacular place to spend a day - driving the trails, or hiking the paths - and just soaking up the scenery.  When they say "refuge", they mean it.  The 25,000 beautiful acres on Maryland's Eastern Shore is a waterfowl sanctuary for birds migrating along the Atlantic Flyway.

Melting ice

A stream runs by the walk in the woods

Marshlands provide habitat to a variety of birdlife

Canada Geese about to head north for the summer

Grey heron posing in the shallows

A stand of "Loblolly Pines" are home to many bald eagles

The exquisitely beautiful Pine bark

A little friend peers down from a tree - Possum, or to be proper, an Opossum - don't you just love those pink fingers and nose!!  Then there is the little baby carrying pouch which makes them one of the "marsupial" family.  Interesting…….

Seagull glaring at me as I disturb a fishy feast - wipe your beak!!

A flock of Tundra Swans going for an icy stroll.  

SPECTACULAR SNOW GEESE

The Eastern Shore of Maryland and the Delmarva (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia) Peninsula are home to a huge number of migratory birds that over winter in the colder months.  SNOW GEESE are just one sight to behold, and after breeding way north up in the Arctic Tundra, our winter to them must seem warm.  Ever seen the movie "Fly Away Home"??  One of the most amazing sights I have seen is a flock of SNOW GEESE take flight and land again.  There are so many of them that all flock together, when they take off the flurry of activity and sound of them honking is indescribable.  Other than to say, breathtakingly beautiful.  Yesterday we went for a drive up the Eastern Shore of Maryland and spotted a field of white - no not snow, SNOW GEESE.  So a quick u-turn, a short trip down a farm road and there they were in all their glory.  After a short while, they put on a show for us that was so magnificent, and so special, it made our entire day. 

ST. MICHAELS, MARYLAND - THE GORGEOUS LATE AFTERNOON SUN

Walking around St. Michaels on a late afternoon Winter's day was as beautiful as ever;  being one of my favorite small towns on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.  It was a perfect day and as the sun dropped in the sky, everything suddenly blazed with vivid color.  I left the main street of shops and restaurants and almost ran down to the water to capture the last glorious rays lighting up the lighthouse and lovely wooden buildings of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.  It was breathtaking.

CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF CHRISTMAS - ST. MICHAELS, MARYLAND - part 1

Heading out of Annapolis, and only a short drive across the 4-mile Chesapeake Bay Bridge, heading east, you get to the Eastern Shore of Maryland - scattered with waterfront towns, farmlands, farm stalls, fields of Canada and Snow Geese in the winter, lovely old barns, and some wonderful shopping and eating venues.   One of many small historic towns to day-trip to is St. Michaels aka "the town that fooled the British", referring to the war of 1812 - more of that in another post.  This is about the main Street of St. Michaels, quaint, pretty, small, colorful, classy, a shopper's and foodie delight.  And bedecked for Christmas.  I spent a late afternoon walking up one side of the main street and down the other, snapping madly at almost every little building.