Recently in Birds Category

I saw SIX egrets yesterday (No, Cop Car, I don't know exactly which kind they were.) I was driving to exercise, and saw two to the right of the road, and four to the left. And, earlier, I saw one of the herons. There must be a shallow spot at that point in the retention pond, because that seems to be a favorite place for fishing for both the herons and egrets.

Spring is really strange. I think we have had below normal temps for the past week, and last month it felt like late June. I'm glad that I didn't plant anything tender this past week, because we had a hard frost and I would have lost it all.

Several of the iris have bloom stalks! Nothing is open, but give us a little warmth, and I'm sure the buds will open.

Have you heard about "Pink Slime?" Some companies add this sludge to their ground beef. Essentially, it's assorted meat parts that are ground to a filler and treated with ammonia gas. I discovered that in my area, Target, Whole Foods and Costco do NOT use this filler, so I've changed my shopping habits. I stopped at Whole Foods for the first of my shopping today and picked up ground beef, fruit and bread. I also bought a basil plant. My car smelled like and Italian eatery on the way home! *G*

It's supposed to rain tomorrow, so I'm going to spend the morning boxing things up. I need to begin shifting winter clothes out of my closet, but our weather is not cooperating. I still need sweaters and wraps in the evening.

Dear Husband is clearly ready for spring to land and stay. He asked for Taco Salad for dinner this evening. My new "Cuisine at Home" magazine came, and the cover features a shrimp boil for those of us who are land locked. Sounds like a good idea to me! I think it cooks in one pot, and you eat it like a picnic meal. Very little cleanup!

Dear Husband has an appointment to put the Arr!! into Lake Michigan, May 12th. Boating season is almost upon us. (Quilting days, here we come!)

And last, but not least, today is my little sister's birthday. Happy Birthday, Frankie! I hope you have a wonderful weekend of celebration, and many, many more to come!

I've spent a lot of time in the past two weeks looking out the windows in the kitchen and the "green" room. We've had a love affair with the wildlife around us, and frequently spend time watching what they are doing.

We've been amazed at the numbers of birds and squirrels we've seen lately. Normally we have about four or five grey squirrels under the bird feeders at a time. Of course, they don't wear little name tags, so there could obviously be a lot more than four squirrels in the area. I was astonished to see thirteen of them under the feeders at one time, all playing well with each other. I started counting them, and called Dear Husband to the window because it was so unusual.

Later that same day, I called him back to the windows to see what had to be the re-staging of the Hitchcock movie "The Birds." I have NEVER seen so many birds land under the feeders at one time. This was a very large flock of red-winged blackbirds. Those birds are not uncommon visitors, but we've never seen them in such numbers before. They covered the ground in a ten-foot circle, so tightly packed that you could barely see the ground, and almost as many were under the second feeder. They were with us for about fifteen minutes before exhausting the seed and moving on.

Mother and I used to have a game we played in the spring, as we watched life return to our area. There was a race to be the first one to say "I saw a robin!" Usually Mother or Dear Husband won that race, but I was looking out the same windows last week and saw a robin on February 27th! "Wait.....there are two. No....Look....THREE. By damn, there are FIVE ROBINS in my back yard!!!" I won the race, Mom. Did you send them to me???

Meanwhile, the shrubs around the feeder looked like Christmas. This winter we've had ten to twelve male cardinal visiting at one time plus a lot of lady cardinals. I'm sure they were watching the robins and red-winged blackbirds and felt they needed to get their numbers up. We did a fast count and figured we had seventeen or eighteen male cardinals that morning.

It's been a wonderful winter, and it looks like spring is on it's way to visit us. It's been a joy to get to watch all our visitors.

We have a store nearby called "Farm & Fleet." It's one of a chain of stores, and we used to have to drive all the way to Ottawa to shop at one. Dear Husband looks for tools for work, and things from the hardware section. I've purchased boots and gloves, and work pants for DH. They have cleaning supplies, and a big Santa's Workshop in November, but the thing that drew me to them today was bird seed.

I had two-thirds of a bin of seed and wanted to stock up while it was still on sale. I bought 100 pounds of black oil sunflower seed, and several mixes of seed. There was a Golden Harvest Blend that was heavy on cracked corn, and one for Songbirds. I bought one bag of nyger that will carry us through the winter, and a "Midwest" blend that looked just right for the birds we hope to attract. I also bought two bags of shelled peanuts. When it was all mixed into the bins I ended up with three and a quarter bins plus the nyger and a dozen suet cakes.

I'll have to go back. If we have a tough winter, this won't be enough to fill three feeders on a regular basis. I'd rather buy a little more, now, while it's on sale, than risk running out and having to pay much higher prices, or not finding any left to purchase.

I've cut back in a lot of ways over the past year, but I'd like to keep feeding the birds.

Why is it that I'm never close to the computer when I have a thought I'd like to share?
Mostly those thoughts are just worthy of a line or two, so a bunch of them might make a post. I'll see how many of them I can remember.

This has been the warmest Fall on record for those of us on the outskirts of Chicago. We FINALLY had our first measurable snowfall on Thursday night, and it amounted to less than 1/2 an inch. We have been known to have snow as early as the end of September, or into October; definitely by November, so it's quite a surprise to have waited well into December for the first white stuff. Dear Husband would like me to be quiet and quit tempting fate.

Thanksgiving went very well. As usual, we had plenty of food to send home with everyone, and we ate leftovers on Friday. It was a joy to have not only sisters and nieces and nephews, but some of their in-laws and pets as well. I was thankful that so many of us were able to gather.

The Sunday following Thanksgiving I was invited to do a short trunk show of some of my quilts for the Empty Nesters at church. The theme for the pot luck which followed church was "Leftovers," which seemed fitting following Thanksgiving. I made a raspberry pretzel salad to share, one of my favorite salads/desserts. I'm usually lucky to have just one piece a year, and this year I've topped out at more than FOUR!!! YEA!!!

The trunk show was fun. I started out by saying that I was NOT showing all my quilts. I showed enough quilts to fill about 25 minutes, and was gratified when one of the men told me that he found the presentation interesting.

I've been watching the birds at the feeders, thinking of how my Mother loved to watch them. We have the usual suspects: blue jays, chickadees, juncos, mourning doves and a host of other small birds (mostly sparrows, I think), but my favorites are the cardinals. They are truly gorgeous against the snow.

The house is chilly now. I've been considering using a space heater in the studio when I'm working in there, and I'm rarely without a quilt over my lap when I sit to read in the living room. I don't know whether I just need to acclimate to the lower temps or whether I need to get more exercise to warm myself up, but I'm not fond of the cold. I can appreciate how much DH must dislike having to be out in it most of the day!

Midweek, as the temperatures were dropping, a skim of ice was beginning to develop on the retention ponds. I'll be watching tomorrow when we go out to see if they are totally covered with ice.

I've started a new quilt for Scraps on a Mission. A friend at quilting bee showed us a pattern that I thought might use up scraps. After the next session at the sewing machine, I'll have 25 blocks done. I've used bright children's fabrics, and the blocks will be set with white sashing to a finished size of 40x40.

My plan for the coming week is to finish labels for baby quilts that I plan to give just before Christmas. I'm using "Printed Treasures" to make the labels, adding a picture of the baby to the inscription. This is the first time I've added pictures, so I hope they turn out well.

I'm sure there are lots of other short thoughts that have gotten away from me. Perhaps it's just as well that I've forgotten some of them, or you'd be here all day! *G*

I hope you are all enjoying the preparations for Christmas, are well, and have good weather. Merry Christmas to you all!

Janeywan, a friend whom I see regularly on Facebook, reminded me that I hadn't posted recently. I've been pondering what to say, when I was handed an opportunity.

I was sitting at my personal computer, working on labels for quilts, when I heard a tapping at the windows behind me. When I turned to see if it was a flock of little birds, I discovered that we were getting a rain of tiny pellets of hail! It's all melted off, but that gives you an idea what the temperatures are like here. A cold front moved in yesterday with winds almost strong enough to blow me off my feet when I was running errands.

I took a break after watching the hail for a moment, and headed out to the kitchen, where i practically came beak to beak with a Cooper's Hawk, who was sitting in the bushes right next to the bird feeder just outside the window. They are incredibly smart birds who have learned to use the feeders to their advantage in hunting for their dinner. I watched for a bit, and then moved so that he (or she) would fly off. I understand that they need to eat, too, but I don't feel that I need to assist them. We don't harm them, but we don't encourage them at the feeder, either.

Speaking of feeders, I need to find a bird seed sale! And, the juncos are back!

I hope you've all been enjoying Fall, and are deep in plans for Thanksgiving.

Could it really be nine says since I last posted? I've certainly thought about posting, but my days have been full, so the ideas haven't made it to the page.

The egrets and herons returned around the seventh of May. We don't have huge numbers of them yet, but I have the pleasure of seeing at least one of them each time I go out. I have seen the big gray herons in flight several times, and they always remind me of pterodactyls.

Up until this week we had a long run of gray weather without the rain. This week we have finally gotten the rain. I made a trip to Morris, Illinois last Tuesday, and was pleasantly surprised to see that about 90% of the fields between Yorkville and Morris were planted, and many even had corn 4-6 inches tall. I know that many of the Midwestern states have had so much rain that the farmers haven't been able to get into the fields. We seem to have been a little area short on precipitation, so I'm not complaining. What I don't care for is being drop-kicked from the 60s to 90 degrees overnight!

Despite my post on being frugal, I bought a sewing machine! I have been concerned that my beloved Singer 301A would eventually go kaput, and not be repairable. I've sewed on that machine for more than fifty years, and adore it! I thought that it might be wise to have a newer machine as a back up, before Dear Husband and I retire. The new machine couldn't be more different. The Singer is a straight stitch portable machine made of iron. While I can drop the feed dogs to stipple quilt, it was never really intended for that purpose. The new machine is computerized, has a built-in dual feed system and an 11 inch opening through which I can feed quilts. There is a built-in needle threader. It has more than 100 stitches, an alphabet and numbers, and pattern memory. I can arrange for the needle to stop in the down position and there is a knee lever for lifting the presser foot. It's possible to run the machine without using the foot pedal. Most women who sew today take a lot of this for granted, but it's all new to me! I hope the learning curve won't be too steep.

I've planted all but two of the plants I picked up in my first garden shopping trip. The last two to go in were purple fountain grass, along the back of the bed next to the garage wall. If I had planted them a month ago, it would have been a lot easier, but this week I had to work around iris that were ready to open, and the last of the tulips. I asked DH to bring a chair and sit where he could keep an eye on me as I planted. I was afraid that I would get into a position I couldn't get out of. Luckily, the plants went in well, and with the use of the shovel handle, I was able to maneuver myself out of a tight spot and back onto my feet. I'm sure that his presence was what made that work. Had he not been there, I'd still be waiting for a hand out of the garden! *G*

I believe that eight to ten iris were blooming yesterday. One was open for a couple of days, and then it was a domino effect. It must have been just warm enough, and sunny enough to move them along on Tuesday. I have a lot of dark colored iris: navy, purple, burgundy, bronze, contrasted with yellow and peach. There's no rhyme or reason. If I see one I like, I try it, and they almost always multiply for me. They are at the top of the list for my favorite flowers.

We are going to celebrate my oldest granddaughter's seventh birthday today. Her birthday was last week, and they did a party for the kids, but the adults are gathering this weekend to celebrate. Last weekend was so popular there wasn't enough time to fit everything in. I was tickled to hear that GD1 wanted to be the Cake Boss. To further this goal, I bought her a Nordic pan that lets you create filled cup cakes that resemble a soft serve ice cream cone in shape when they are assembled. The top and bottom are baked separately, and then pudding or frosting or even ice cream can be spooned into the indentation in the bottom half. I doubt her mother has the time to cook with her, but I thought it might be something that GD1 and I could do this summer. It interests me that it's not the eating of the cupcakes, but the baking of them, that appeals to her.

Tomorrow is Memorial Day. I hope that those of you who have been around for our wars will help our younger generation understand why we choose to remember those who have fought on our behalf.

I've seen egrets this week! Or, maybe I've seen the same egret more than once. He/She must be the scout to see if our weather is ready for the migration! lol Now, I'm watching for the herons. They are harder to see because of their smoky gray color, and how thin they are. If you are not seeing a side view of those birds, you might miss them!

Spring is FINALLY showing up!

I asked the man who has helped with some of our landscaping to fill my veggie beds with a mix of compost and dirt. I thought it would be delivered about three weeks ago, and was getting ready to call to find out what had happened. Dear Husband pointed out that it had been delivered yesterday. I have seeds to plant! I'll have to pass on the spinach until this fall, but I can get other things in, soon!

Tomorrow the Arr!! goes into Lake Michigan. Dear Husband is going to come home tomorrow night. He says that it's a bit too cool to sleep over on an unheated boat. He'll go back Sunday to get things squared away, and I'll spend the day piecing quilts!

Egrets, the Arr!!, seeds and quilting. It's Spring.

We have a young robin that thinks he has to defend his turf from another bird in the window of my office. While it's cute to watch, he is the messiest bird I've ever known! While he's busy making faces at the "Other" bird, he's pooping on the limestone sill. Do you suppose he's scaring himself, or is this just the nature of the bird?

I hope he gets the idea soon that the reflection is no threat, and gets on with his life!

Dear Husband took me out to lunch today. We visited a Cooper Hawk's Winery and Restaurant and had a lovely meal. I tried tiny tastes of four wines and settled on a red wine that neither of us can name at the moment.....a red with "Bolla" or "Bolo" in the title, very smooth, with a nice body to it. I didn't care for the Petite Syrah, or the Chardonnay. I did like the spiced wine they served as you walked in the door!

Those of you who know me are probably astounded to hear that I was actually drinking wine, at noon yet! But it went so nicely with the meal that I decided to enjoy myself.

Fortunately for me, Dear Husband took the role of designated driver. We arrived home, and I realized that I had announced that "WE" needed to dig a path to the farthest bird feeder, which is clearly empty following our blizzard. The drifts are so high near the feeder that you can't see the raised herb garden next to it. I decided that I would be happy with a path one shovel wide, and went at it, happy head and all.

It was like shoveling three times the length of that short path. For each foot of snow, it took three scoops to clear it out: the top layer, the middle scoop, and a final push that took me near, but not to the grass. When I had the path finished, I had to walk back around the garage to get the seed. The drift is so high that we can't get in and out of the back door of the garage.

I put out three gallons of mixed bird seed in the feeders and on a ground feeding platform that is sitting on top of the snow. I filled the nyger feeder, added a suet for the woodpeckers, and put out three ears of corn. I don't know if the squirrels will give the deer a break and leave the corn. Thursday I looked out the kitchen window and saw a squirrel dragging an entire ear of corn toward the woods. I wish I had been there to see him carry it up the tree!

So, I'm full, the feeders are full, and I hope that shortly the birds will be full, too. The local grapevine must have ratted me out, because the air and feeders were filled with birds as soon as I made it inside. Yea....birdies! We're glad to have been able to help!

We have a large number of retention ponds in this area. Every subdivision has one, and so do the industrial complexes. Where there's been a lot of growth, there are a lot of these ponds, and the birds love them.

I've noticed that the geese snooze on the north slopes of the bigger ponds in late morning. Some of the geese stand on one foot and some nestle into the grass, but they all bend their necks to put their heads under their wings while they sleep. We don't see this type of behavior much at all during the summer, but we see it a lot in the fall.

Herons and egrets are still with us. We've been having incredible fall weather here the past few weeks. Mostly, it's been in the upper sixties and lower seventies, with a lot of sun and no rain. The past few days it's been in the upper seventies into the eighties, quite warm for October in the Chicago area. The weather forecast for this week has very little rain in it. We could use the precipitation to be getting ready for winter. I worry about our trees not having enough water.

Each year I keep a watch for the return of the herons and egrets. This year, I saw one of each on April 14th. I've seen the heron once more and also what we think may be a cormorant. The cormorant fishes at the same curve of a retention pond each day. I think this might be a returning bird rather than a new visitor, because he's chosen the same spot as last year to fish.

I was reading "Birds and Blooms" with Elegante Mother last month and learned that when you empty bird houses out for the new nesting season, you should also spray the interior with a 10% bleach/90% water solution to prevent carryover of infection. Dear Husband repaired one of the houses for me and then helped me to reposition the houses in the apple tree and pin oak.

I made a "nesting wreath" this year. I bought a straw wreath form and wrapped five inch cuts of yarn, ribbon, and raffia around it, along with lint from the drier. I thought it was a cute idea, but I haven't seen a lot of takers yet. Perhaps those who build their nests later in the season will be interested.

I have an office with two windows. Under the windows there are two lateral files, and siting on the file cabinets is a Wheelwriter typewriter. Edward Scissorhands, my old cat, has taken to sleeping on the typewriter. It's covered with a quilted cover, and sits in a sunny spot in the morning. I can kinda understand his choice.

This spring, we have had a rufous sided towhee visiting at the window. This little bird thinks he can see his competition in the window, so there's lots of posturing, and pecking at the glass, and flying up parallel to the window pane.

When the cat discovers the bird is there, he goes into instant hunting mode. I've been worried that he's going to hurt his nose on the screen, and yesterday I had to move a geranium that has been grown in that window, lest he break off the branches.

My brother has a cardinal that is in love with his own image in the right rear-view mirror of one of his trucks. I've heard of other birds who couldn't be persuaded that it was just a reflection.

If this little bird isn't careful, Ed will find him one day, and that will be the end of the posturing.

Over the last week of February and the first week of March, Dear Husband and I spent ten days in Florida. We had really looked forward to getting away. DH needs to be spared from the Chicago area hard winters, given that he works construction, and each year he has the opportunity to play in the memorial golf tourney which is named for his son. This year, we flew in and spent the first four days in the Orlando area. We went to Disney with our granddaughters and their parents, and then, Sunday, we headed for the Florida Keys.

I'd never been further south than Cape Canaveral, or Siesta Key. It was roughly a five to six hour drive from Orlando to Key Largo, and we stopped halfway to refill the gas tank. DH must have felt we needed to refill our tanks too, because he stopped at a McDonald's for lunch. We were getting ready to order when I realized that three sand hill cranes were walking across the lawn at the front of the building. Perhaps they needed to top off their tanks before beginning the trek north. I'm sure these birds were very clear that they could get hand outs at Mickey D's.

We weren't giving the handouts. In fact, we did not feed ANY wildlife while we were there, despite a lot of opportunity.

P.S. I didn't get my bird book out to make sure I have the species right. If I'm wrong, I hope Bogie or Cop Car will set me straight.

I was astonished and delighted to see our first heron yesterday, standing in the icy waters of a retention pond near our home. Then, today, I passed by a preserve that has been devoted to herons. I don't know if it could be called a "rookery" or not, but this is a major breeding site in the Chicago suburbs, and the trees and man-made "masts" were covered with birds. YEA!!!!

While we were in Florida, we visited a bird refuge, and saw many of the heron and egret varieties that come to this area for the summer. They are simply beautiful birds! And, on our trip south I was able to get within twelve feet of three sandhill cranes. Dear Husband said that he saw some of them flying north today.

Yesterday, I looked out our kitchen window, toward the bird feeder a short while before dusk, and counted TWELVE male cardinals feeding. Of course, there were most likely twelve females, too, but it takes a little more careful searching to see them, since they blend in so very well.

My friend Cop Car, and her daughter Bogie, are much more informed birdwatchers than I am, but one day I may catch up to them. It's a lovely hobby.

It was in the upper sixties today. It might have even hit 70. As I went out to call in Edward Scissorhands, I noticed that the daffodils along the east wall of the house have begun to bloom, and I can see the heads of the lily plants poking out of the earth.

Somewhere back in my archives there is an entry or twelve on Scilla, a tiny blue flowered bulb that blooms early in the season. Last week I noticed a sea of thin green leaves around the base of one of the trees in the grove, and today the flowers had opened. Here's a good picture of scilla thanks to the University of Illinois.

I went back through my archives, and was interested to see that the squill bloomed much earlier in some years than others. This must have been a tough winter, with all the snow and cold.

And, we have at least one Rufous-Sided Towhee! Welcome back little bird!

Today, April 12, we saw our first egret for the year. I'm pretty sure it was a snowy egret. It was at the edge of a retention pond that is ringed with cattails, and it was fishing.

Personally, Elegante Mother and I feel that both the heron and this egret are a bit early, but that doesn't make us any less happy to see them. While robins are generally a harbinger of spring in this area, the egrets returning is usually a signal that we are going to start see the weather warming.

It's drizzly and damp, and rather chilly today. The skies are a sullen gray. It's a good day to be inside, getting indoor chores done so that we will be free to go outside once the sun finds it's way back.

We do have two birds that are content with this weather. For quite a number of years, we have had a pair of Mallard ducks come to visit in the spring. Papa duck keeps an eye out for danger while Mama duck Hoovers (as in vacuums) up any stray birdseed and corn she can find. Occasionally we will see Mama contentedly eating away, and wonder where her mate has gone. One day, Dear Husband told us that he has seen Papa duck sitting up on our roof, where he can apparently get a better view . We've enjoyed their visits. They are beautiful birds.

Yesterday, I saw the first large gray heron for the season, about two miles west of our home. Sorry, Cop Car, I'm not sure exactly which of the birds it was. I saw it as I was "on the fly" (sorry, couldn't resist...DH at work *G*), so I didn't get a close look. But where there's one, there may be others.

At least SOME ONE thinks it's spring!

Addition, later the same day.....

I checked the Sibley Field Guide to Birds, and it's likely I saw a Great Blue Heron. It was the appropriate size and coloring, and is the only heron listed that fits what I saw. Thank you, Nan, for the Sibley book for Christmas!