June's Honeysuckle in January

A truly remarkable series! 

I think each month is prettier than the last.

Here's "June's Honeysuckle".

Design - "June's Honeysuckle"

Designer - Cottage Garden Samplings

Fabric - 32 count White Chocolate linen

Fibers - GAST, WDW, & DMC - 2 strands over 2 threads

Started - 17 November 2013

Completed - 5 January 2014

Saturday evening we had a lovely quiet sunset while the moon rose high in the sky. It was a fitting conclusion to a special day.

Special how?

Well, a New Bird came to the feeder! 

Meet Mr. Yellow-rumped Warbler!

Not a very nice name for a rather dapper looking fellow.

He checked out my suet feeder.  

As you can see, he does have a spot of yellow at the base of his tail feathers.

Also nice flashes of yellow on the crown of his head, his throat, and the sides of his breast.

Yellow-rumped Warblers are insectivores, but also will eat berries.

I need to make sure I get some suet with a berry mix. 

Most Warblers fly south for the winter, but the Yellow-rumped Warblers hang out here all winter long.    

They are supposed to appear most often in flocks, but I just saw this singleton.

Waxy food are extremely hard for birds to digest, but Yellow-rumped Warblers are able to ingest the waxes found in bayberries and wax myrtles. The ability to eat these fruits allows the birds to winter much further north than other warblers, sometimes as far north as Newfoundland!

Other sources of winter food include the berries of juniper, poison ivy, poison oak, and dogwood.  They will also eat wild seeds like goldenrod, and may come to feeders for sunflower seeds, raisins, peanut butter, and suet.

     

In the Pacific NW, the warblers can be found from the Cascade Mountains to sea level - wherever conifers are present.  During the winter,the birds find open areas with fruiting shrubs or scattered trees - places like parks, stream-side woodlands, open pine and pine-oak forests, and dunes  where bayberries are common.

I've been on the lookout, but haven't seen the Warbler since Saturday.

I remain hopeful!  I'd like him to bring his friends and become regular visitors.