Tuesday, January 12, 2016

New Year's Day Bird Walk and a Snowman

Design - "Snow"
Chart - "Tiny Tidings XX"
Designer - Lizzie Kate
Fabric - 32 count Blue Petite Dot linen
Fibers - WDW & DMC - 2 strands over 2 threads
Started - 9 January 2016
Completed - 11 January 2016

The dot fabric works perfectly to simulate falling snow.
  
New Year's Day dawned crisp and bright. No snow - but cold!

My Mom, sister, and I bundled up and headed over to Delta Ponds for a bird walk. 

The ponds are former gravel quarries which have been restored for bird habitat. These are female Northern Shovelers.

Here's a male and female Northern Shoveler.  They have larger flat wide bills which they use to dredge for food.  

The ponds provide a home for other birds besides waterfowl. We saw lots of sparrows, jays, and crows.

There were lots of American Coots.

They eat aquatic plants.

Here's a Golden-crowned Sparrow.

This is a female Bufflehead.

Here's the handsome male Bufflehead.

This is a pair of Ring-necked ducks.  The stripes on their bills made them quite easy to identify.

This is a Blue-wing Duck.  See the bit of teal on the wing?

We were really pleased to see a male Belted Kingfisher.  As is often the case with this bird, we first heard it scolding, and then located it as it chattered away.  Kingfishers sound like no other bird.  If you want to be amused, take a moment to list to their typical voice

Though spring is far way, there are lots of great nesting sights! 

Ubiquitous Canada Geese.

Here's a pair of American Wigeons. 

This is the male.

We saw several Great Blue Herons.

This one look poised to strike!

The Double-crested Cormorants were everywhere.

This is a more typical pose - with wings spread wide.

I had to have help with these birds.  I think they are Lesser Yellowlegs.  They were very shy. 

Here's a small Pied-bill Grebe.

A Yellow-rumped Warbler worked away in the leaves. It was our final bird.  A nice day, a nice walk!

12 comments:

Shortbread and Ginger said...

What a wonderful variety of birds!
Liz

Vickie said...

'Snow' is adorable. Fascinating birds!

cucki said...

I love "snow" so much ...so sweet.
Birds are my fav :)

Amy said...

Such a cute snowman! I love the polka-dot snow.

The bird walk looks like fun. I really enjoyed the duck names - some of them are practical and make sense, like Blue-wing; and then there are the Coots, Wigeons and Buffleheads, which are just purely awesome. :D

Vonna Pfeiffer said...

Beautiful birdie pics! We got the cold and the snow and I haven't seen any fowl afoot around here...even the crows must be hunkering down somewhere :)

I love Snow and I have mine stitched too!

Le trame della Galaverna said...

All is so beautiful
The stitch is very cute
Pictures are incredibles
Many compliments

Justine said...

I love your cute snowman and you're right - that fabric is perfect!

Christine said...

Wonderful birds! I love that there is a bird called a Bufflehead, it sounds so insulting :D

Pam in IL said...

How fun to go see all those birds! I think I've heard the Belted Kingfisher, but have never been able to find it. Love the snowman!

Brigitte said...

This little snowman is so cute on the spotted fabric.
Great bird pictures.

daisy g said...

Your snowman is delightful! So cheery!

Wow, that's a lot of birds. It's so impressive that you can identify them all.

Maggee said...

Deja Vu! I just got a piece of grey fabric with white polka dots...now to figure out what to stitch on it!! And great bunch of birds... so familiar! Thanks for sharing!