Saturday's Critters

Lots of Critters this week. 

Doe and squirrels

Young Buck

Doe

Tom Turkey

His Lady Love

Tom

A skunk

And a bear

I love the pads on bears' feet.

10 Years Ago

Design - "Joyful Journal - June"

Designer - Heart in Hand

Fabric - 28 count R & R Liberty Gathering Gray

Fibers - DMC, WDW, GAST, and Classic Colorworks - 2 strands over 2 threads

Started - 4 June 2015

Completed - 17 June 2015

Can't go wrong with a bee skep!  The ants along the top were to be stitched with French knots, but I chose to cross stitch instead.

The many of the smaller birds the cycle of choosing a mate, mating, nest-building and raising a clutch of young is accomplished in 45-60 days.   

On Friday I observed my baby Tree Swallow.  It looked ready to fledge.

Saturday morning I observed an adult at work removing feces from the nest.

Then I was gone most of the day for family activities.

When I next looked on Sunday morning, the birdhouse was abandoned.  The baby had, I hope, successfully fledged and the family has now moved on to an area like Fern Ridge Reservoir with lots of flying insects to munch.  

I am bummed that I also appear to have missed the leave-taking of my Black-capped Chickadee family.  As best I can tell, they too moved out on Sunday.

On a brighter note, two of the Violet-green Swallow couple now are feeding babies.  This house...  

...and this house both erupt with cheeping when the parents fly in. 

Two other pairs of Violet-green Swallows are still in the construction stage. 

I am looking forward to more bird babies.

This female Evening Grosbeak comes to my feeders two or three times a day.

I never see, or hear, a male Evening Grosbeak.  This gal is a bit of a mystery.  Why did she stay, when all the other Evening Grosbeaks appear to have left the area?  Is there a male somewhere?  Will there be a baby grosbeak or two?  Stay tuned! 

15 Years Ago

Saturday, June 11, 2011

A Bee For Your Pleasure and Other Things Which Fly

Some folks left comments requesting further "Bee Stitches". 

So here you are!

Design - "Saturday Sampler #4 - Furnished with Bees"

Designer - The Sampler Girl

Fabric - 28 cnt Wichelt Hazelnut Country French linen

Fibers - Crescent Colours - Olive Branch, Fools Gold, Tyler Boy Blue

Victoria Clayton Silk - Brown Ale

The Gentle Art Sampler Threads - Raven

Started - 9 March 2009

Completed - 30 March 2009

Framed - August 2010

This was a joy to stitch.  I loved the effect the variegated floss Tyler Boy Blue created with the verse.  The blue mat picks up the color as well.

Our Nature Post today is "For the Birds".

I bought a new suet feeder to try and keep out the starlings.  They flock the feeder and can eat a brick of suet in a day.  So this is the new contraption.  It looks rather like a jail cell, but the Downy Woodpeckers have figured out how to use it and don't seem bother by it - and the suet is lasting much longer.  

I also bought a peanut feeder and the Scrub Jays are thrilled.

Peanuts appear to be one thing the Band-Tailed Pigeons do not eat!

Nor for that matter do the Hummingbirds!

Wednesday's Walk

Let's take a walk.

Bitter cherry

Wildflower

Cobweb

Vine Maple

Blackberry

Cascara

Ash

Honeysuckle

5 Years Ago

Thursday, June 10, 2021

Interesting Visitors

Design - "Alpha Mania - B"

Designer - Heart in Hand

Fabric - 32 count Clay linen

Fibers - GAST & WDW - 2 strands over 2 threads

Started - 12 June 2012

Completed - 13 June 2012  

Wednesday morning a White-breasted Nuthatch came by three of four times.

I only managed a couple of mediocre photos.

The same morning, a Willow Flycatcher was active in the blackberry thicket. 

I think he looks like an intelligent bird.

Unusually, he was working fairly low to the ground instead of up on the tops of the highest branches.

His insistent "fitz-pew" call is one of the sounds that means summer to me!

His insistent "fitz-pew" call is one of the sounds that means summer to me!