Sunday's Hummingbirds

I'm going to let these photos speak for themselves - all are of Anna's Hummingbirds.

Saturday's Critters - Blackberry Time

Chipmunks, brush bunnies, and deer this week.

Friday the 13th

Design - Ear of Corn 

Chart - "Farmer's Market" #39

Designer - Prairie Schooler

Fabric - 28 count Natural Pearl Zweigart linen

Fibers - DMC

Started - 11 August 2010

Completed - 14 August 2010

I hope today is not an unlucky day for my quail and songbirds. 

This guy swoops in like a fighter jet daily.  I try to run him off, but I expect he returns when I go to work. 

I counted three Scrub Jays the other morning.

They are loud, but handsome intelligent birds.

There are probably a dozen Song Sparrows out and about.

On the Hairy Woodpecker front, I've seen both female and male - this is a male.

You Probably Cannot Tell

You probably cannot tell that I've worked on this a bit.  I frogged out the word 'March' and restitched it shifting it over to the correct place.  I also started a new bird - the brown blob on the bottom right.

As for birds - I'm seeing Red-breasted Nuthatches - but they flit too fast to capture - as have my recent sightings of a flycatcher, Western Tanager, and several Evening Grosbeaks flying overhead. 

A cute little Chestnut-backed Chickadee stayed put long enough for a couple of photos.

He's a bit rumpled looking as it had been raining hard.

I'm seeing nice groups of Black-capped and Chestnut-backed Chickadees.

I'm hopeful that this means they'll be regular winter residents.

Walk Around the House

We've had a good bit of rain the past few days, so I've not gone out recently.

Strolling around the house, I can see a Hawthorn full of berries at the edge of the backyard. 

The zinnias will bloom until the first frost.

This is a plant combo in the mudroom flowerbed - a pinkish agastache and some sort of sunflower relative.

A first year plant - rudbeckia triloba.

Mimulus Jellybean Fiesta Marigold

A hardy fuchsia of some sort.

Penstemon

Rudbeckia Henry Eilers

Nasturtium 

I canbnot remember the name of this plant - but the bees love it!

Douglas Aster Aster subspicatus

That's it for today!

A Most Generous Gift

Look what arrived in the mail a few days ago!  A very generous Follower, Kris, gifted me with several cross stitch charts. The Snowman and the bee skep in particular interest me.  Thank you so very much Kris!

Another Follower asked me about feeding Goldfinches...

So I feed medium sunflower chips in several feeders 12 months of the year. 

American Goldfinches come to my feeders in early April and leave by the end of October. While they are here they love to eat the sunflower chips.

Lots of folks also feed "thistle" seed, more properly known as nyger - a form of sunflower. Most years the goldfinches devour nyger especially from July-October.  This for me has been a weird year - the Lesser Goldfinches have eaten nyger, the American Goldfinches have not appeared to be interested - as you can see there's no one on the black feeder.  So sunflower chips it is! 

A couple of days ago, I happened to look over at the deer fence - and wow!  A female Western Tanager was perched there.

I am also beginning to see Cedar Waxwings more frequently.

This was a small group of mature birds.

Thus the frowning black mask and yellow-tipped tail feathers.

It was nice to see them.

This one puffed up and then flew off.