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! 

10 Years Ago

Design - "Bee Skep"

Chart - "Adornments for Christmas and All Year"

Design - Homespun Elegance

Fabric - 30 count natural linen

Fibers - DMC - 2 strands over 2 threads

Started - 5 June 2014

Completed - 5 June 2014

10 Years Ago

This is Bird Baby time of year.  

Last week I watched this rather resigned looking father House Finch and his two newly fledged offspring. 

The baby in the center was the showman...

...chattering...and fluffing her wings.

It paid off!

Papa got tired of all the begging and posturing and fed her.

Parents and kids!

I've had two birdhouses on the east side of the shop for a couple of years now, and have been frustrated that they've been unoccupied.

That changed this year as a family of Black-capped Chickadees took up residence. 

The babies have hatched and the parents are hard at work feeding their brood.

They fly in to a couple of young Douglas Fir trees which are a few feet from the birdhouse.  There they pause to catch their breath... 

...then make the short flight to the house. 

They often pause there as well before entering.

The birdhouse inhabitants are making quite a ruckus - I'm guessing there are babies.  

With the exception of American Goldfinches, literally all other baby birds are fed a diet of protein, usually in the form of insects.

So while I see the adults at my peanut and sunflower feeders grabbing a quick snack for themselves, they are feeding the babies juicy green insects and bugs of all sorts. 

 

Sun