Pondered In My Heart

Needle & thRead: The Black Linen

I'm joining Elizabeth and friends again for her weekly online sewing circle.

Back to that black linen I mentioned in my last post...Lydia had a music performance coming up and I actually realized ahead of time that she didn't have anything to wear. She was to play a piece her brother composed for harp, performing at the college in his composition recital. As musicians customarily wear black, and finding a suitable dress to purchase was so unlikely I wouldn't even try, I got it into my head to make her a dress. And as Lydia is not a synthetic fabric kind of girl, I knew at once it had to be linen. Classic black 100% linen.

Finding a pattern was a bit of a challenge. Lydia's sense of style required something simple and modest yet elegant and including these once popular but now obscure arm covering devices called sleeves. We liked the style of this dress I found on Etsy, although its slim sleeves and close fitting bodice wouldn't do for comfortably playing musical instruments. We settled on Vogue 8555 which has a similar cummerbund waist with flared skirt, and it just needed some slight modifications (such as longer sleeves as Lydia requested) to make it work.

I first made a 'muslin' out of some cotton floral fabric I had on hand. I was pressed for time so I made only the bodice (with nobbut one sleeve!); someday soon I'll finish it into a nice little summer frock.

As you can see, I raised the neckline of both the front and the back of the bodice by quite a bit:

And here we have the finished dress:

Would you believe I don't have a single picture of Lydia wearing it that night?! Next recital I'll get a photo, for sure.

As for reading, I never did get anywhere in Tolkien's letters that I mentioned last time; my library request became available and you know how you have to read your holds first. So Lydia, Anna and I are all reading The Bluebird Effect, with a most grateful hat tip to Tonya at Plain and Joyful Living who recommended it. We were going to take turns but the allure of this treasure of a book took over and we all dived in at once. It is such a delightful read and spring is the perfect time to indulge in these wonderful stories of 'uncommon bonds with common birds'. Julie Zickefoose is a naturalist and rehabilitator whose love, knowledge and intimacy with birds shine through on every page. She is also an artist and her own illustrations, from field sketches to watercolor paintings, make the book lovely to look at as well. It's filled with the kind of stories that are so endearing to birders - the little daily encounters and rare opportunities when one gets to connect with and sometimes influence the lives of our feathered friends. Zickefoose clearly loves birds, yet she doesn't succumb to excessive sentimentalism or worse, anthropomorphism. And her knowledge of the natural world remains willing to admit that in nature absolutes can be rare and surprises frequent. We have the book from the library but I surely think we need our own copy.

(watercolors in above picture are by Lydia)

Thank you again to Elizabeth for hosting!

Wordless Wednesday: Birder Girl

(psst! Lydia has pictures from inside the box over at her blog)

Wordless Wednesday: Flutterbyes

 

Wordless Wednesday: Lovely Luna

 

The Eagle has Landed

 
 

And two eaglets have hatched! One to go! Are you watching the web cams on the Decorah, Iowa eagles nest?

Because watching barn owls is just so last year.

Just kidding. We've actually been watching barn owls Mel and Sydney and their six owlets for the last couple of months. Now we have the eagles on as well. It is so fascinating to watch these big, bold, beautiful birds! The first eaglet hatched yesterday and the second one today, with one egg still remaining. The eagles keep a nice pantry with rabbit, crow and fish for variety. Their gigantic nest is amazing. Lydia keeps the netbook at her school spot, but we are all enthralled with getting such an up close view on these fabulous nesting birds. Nature study 24/7!

In Like a Lamb

Welcome, March. We'd been waiting for you, and you did not disappoint.

 

a little deck dancing

pussy willows just starting to peek out against an impossibly blue sky

three red-tails, a sharp-shinned, four robins, one black and two turkey vultures, red-winged blackbird, juncos, bluebirds, mourning doves, cardinals, song sparrows...

usually birders like quiet, but we're flexible

two of the three red-tails playing together

happy, slidey girls
 

stoking the cabbages (and I don't know why she was cooking cabbages)
 

hope and joy and trust and beauty and faith and patience all conjured up in little green sprouts
 

balm

lemon to rub on the skin, inhale deeply and perk up the senses, just like sun

Seeds of Love

I have nothing against roses or anything, but a husband who pulls over into a gas station on a busy road at night and gets out in the rain to get me these-

 
that's my kinda guy.

Preening Hummer

I had never seen a hummingbird preen before, but this sweet little hummer is suddenly fond of performing her ablutions several times a day on our deck.  

She favors my potted fig tree's post to primp and fluff and preen her wee feathers. It's quite a silly show as she contorts herself for all those hard to reach spots.
 

I'm very pleased I caught this shot - check out that tongue!
 
 

Sunday Nature Hike

 

Michael usually takes the big kids out on a nature hike on Sunday afternoons, but this week we all headed to a state conservation area together.

The big trees kept most of the occasional rain showers from even reaching us, and we enjoyed a lovely quiet time in the woods.

We saw millipedes plain
 

and fancy.
 

The children are very observant, and notice even the smallest specimens of plant or in this case

 a couple of red spotted newts. I was rather amazed they found these little guys, as they are so small and hide under the leaves.

I am able to discover large things, like this mushroom.
 

They pointed out this squaw root to me.
 
We heard pileated woodpeckers as soon as we entered the forest, but it took a long time to find the elusive chattering birds. Lydia told me last Sunday they sound like monkeys, and I think that's an apt comparison. I also saw a scarlet tanager - I think I even saw it before Lydia, as she was distracted watching the pileated. She also spotted a red eyed vireo and a flycatcher.

But I admit my favorite sightings are of my children making their quiet observations, like this.

Happy Spring Weekend

 

It rained all last week making the warmth and sunshine of the weekend that much more delightful. We happily devoured the season's first bowl of red, ripe strawberries from our backyard beds. Serving suggestion: Place strawberries on table alongside bowl of freshly whipped cream. The big (and little) hungry bears will know what to do.

Another harbinger of spring is Mrs. Robin sitting snugly on her nest-

Her three babies are getting so big they hardly fit in the nest anymore. Today we saw Mother Robin bring dessert to her babies - she delivered a beakful of grape jam to her good little birds to wash down all those worms they eat all day.

The lovely tree swallow eggs remain snug in their feather lined nest waiting to hatch-

 

And Lydia caught sight of three of the baby blues being fed by their mama across the street in the woods. It was the first we've seen of them since they fledged, so that was nice. 
 

On Saturday I planted out all of my vegetable seedlings I've been coddling for months. I was tempted to do it two weeks ago, but thoughts of  the stern Francesco De Baggio kept me in restraint. Though I've never met him nor even laid eyes on him, I kept hearing his admonition to 'not let my peppers see nights below 55' running through my head and I held off until this weekend. So now my tomatoes and peppers and cucurbits are finally in.

I have to show you my new cucumber frames Michael made for me. (I did oooh and aaah properly.) Behold-

  
Aren't they fabulous? By going vertical I can grow many more cucumbers, and they won't have to rest on the ground and get buggy. Cucumbers are one of the girls' favorite walk-out-to-the-garden-and-grab-something-to-munch crops, so I am very happy and thankful to have these. Michael says they were quite simple and inexpensive to make. The many little cucumber plants look so cute next to them, all lined up in a row-

  
I am also trying some companion planting this year to try to repel some pests. My favorite gardening book suggests marigolds to keep away cucumber beetles and nasturtiums to combat the dread squash bugs, so I added in some of those as well. But the weekend was not all work - there was plenty of time to sit and make clover chains in the sunshine. The girls made me a lovely clover circlet to wear so I was surrounded by the delicious sweet scent of clover as I worked.

 
 We were also delighted by the spotting of several red admirals-
 
 Fresh air and sunshine and hard work and new life every where - I do so love these simple pleasures of spring.

Fresh Out of the Box

 

Lydia thought the bluebirds would fledge today, and she was right!

She noticed they were peeking out of their box excessively, so we sat and waited and watched together as they made their acrobatic debuts one by one. Lydia waited a long time to get this shot of number four during its actual flight out of the box. It pretty much went straight down with a bit of flubbering and flapping.

The parents kept returning to the box with food, and then they would sit on top and call, coaxing the remaining chickens out.

There was nothing graceful about those first wobbly flights, barely getting off the ground.
 
  
Mom and Dad kept dashing about, bringing food, chirping encouragingly, and scolding Lydia and I when we got too close. Lydia captured this great shot of Mr. B. on the move. 
 
 
 And here's a little one, so proud to have scaled the great heights of the bird bath.
 

But not too proud to keep begging for food from mom.
 
 Mostly they just hid in the grass, pretending to be invisible. They seemed like they didn't know what to think of big, bright life outside of the box. 
    
  Here's what they looked like just twenty days ago - damp little wrigglers, fresh out of the eggs. (All five hatched, these are just the first two.)
 

And here they are today, out in the wide, wide world.

    
  
 Definitely a day we'll remember always.

Wordless Wednesday: Eye Opening

  
 
(photo of baby bluebirds by Lydia)

Um, Mrs. Bean?

How are we supposed to get anything done around here now that you've got us hooked on the owl webcam?

The theory teacher was quite disgruntled with his distracted student. Good thing he doesn't charge by the hour.

Will they ever hatch? Will Molly show us how pellets are made? Will anyone do Lydia's algebra for her?
  

Still Snow

It was a beautiful, bright sunny day today so Miss Eliza was able to get out and enjoy the snow. She wanted to shovel with her Pa, and she worked like a trouper imitating his every move.

She even had the noises down pat, grunting and groaning along with every shovelful she heaved. :-)

 

We also had a snowy birder, her enthusiasm not hindered a bit by the knee deep white stuff.
  

She was all excited at the sight of two pairs of red tails, screeching and screaming their territorial claims at each other. We watched them soaring with their mates, seeming to enjoy the beautiful sunshine and gleaming snow as much as we did. We even saw one of them bearing a nice mouse -so romantic. How do they know it's almost Valentine's Day?

And finally, for Meredith, we have Our Lady of the Snows.

 
  

Wordless Wednesday: Snow!

(this is our Christmas tree sitting out on the deck)

 
 

 

(For pictures of snowflakes and tips on how to photograph them, see this old post.)
 

Weekend Sightings

Northern Harrier
This is the second Harrier we've seen this week. I actually spotted the first one, which was quite dark unlike this one. Of course I had no idea what it was, but I knew to call Lydia. (Josiah says he can tell when there's a bird by the way I say Lydia.) They do not normally reside in our area, and it is past migrating time, hence Lydia is occasionally heard muttering, But why are there Northern Harriers flying west in January?

House Finch, yellow variant

This House Finch is the first yellow variant we have seen, and it seems to be hanging around for the winter. According to the field guide, yellow variants occur 'occasionally, most frequent in the southwest', so it seems to be a rather unusual sighting for this area.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Water color and photos by Lydia, for sure.
   

Weekend in Pictures

On Saturday after Mass we visited a cemetery where our priest led prayers for the Poor Souls.

It was a crisp, clear day with a beautiful blue sky. This ancient-looking Madonna was atop a priest's grave from 1901. Josiah noted it was a good example of how pollution causes erosion of statues. It gave her quite an eerie look.

Everyone is happy to have Jonathan around on the weekends- moods are jolly and lightheartedness prevails throughout the house. Miss Chocolate Eyes lovin' on her big brother-

 

And today we took a drive to the hawk lookout for a last look at migrating raptors. The weather was exceptionally mild, the sky clear, and no wind.

I never get tired of the incredible view. To the north is this:

And to the south:

My children don't get tired of being up on the mountain either.

And I love seeing them all, being their regular selves, on a mountaintop. Josiah carrying on as Bellarius,

Jonathan studying Gregorian chant-

Little girls who love to paint-

We also caught a glimpse of the rare Rainbow Crested Elizabird-

 I thought of other moss-and-fungus-loving bloggers as I delighted in the sunlit sights-

 And I somehow squeezed in just a wee bit of watercolor journaling myself-

It was a very slow day raptor-wise with a very low count as there was little to no wind. But we did see a couple of Red-shouldered Hawks and Northern Harriers. We were really hoping to see Golden Eagles, as this is their migrating time here and we had never seen one before. The last bird of the day, the only eagle of the day, was a Golden. We were very pleased, and Lydia gets one more for her life list.

 

 Hope you had a grand weekend, too!

Wordless Wednesday: The Great Blue Takeoff

 

 

 
 (you know who took the photos)

Raptor Rapture

Late Sunday afternoon we took off for a little drive to a nearby hawk lookout to watch for migrating raptors. We are in the middle of the fall migrating season, and many species of hawks can be observed making their journey south. It's a great chance to see birds not normally visible in an area, such as the osprey Lydia spotted on a nearby cell phone tower during the spring migration. Volunteer counters spend many hours a day during spring and fall migration seasons observing, counting, and entering their data in national databases that track raptor populations.

After climbing up this winding, never ending steep pile of rocks trail:

we ended up here:

 

and with one happy birding girl:

Right off she spotted a Sharp-shinned hawk, and impressed the official counters with her identification skills. We hung around for about an hour and a total of eighteen sharpies. The full count for the day was 533 raptors, including American kestrels, Bald eagles, Ospreys, and a Peregrine Falcon, but the vast bulk of the migrants was sharpies.  Also noted were a number of Monarchs and Chimney swifts.

 

Everyone enjoyed the beautiful surroundings and gorgeous fall weather,

and of course the incredible view:

 

Sam and Frodo wandered about on their quest,

 and even this cute little mountain goat did a great job tackling the rocks:

 

But this one had the widest grin, keenest observations, and exuded the most serene sort of bliss, just sitting on the top of the mountain watching the hawks fly past.

We all hope to go back again very soon, earlier in the day when the birds are more active.

Here are some informative links if you're interested in learning more about raptors:
 
 Hawks from Every Angle: How to Identify Raptors In Flight - Lydia received this book for her birthday and has read and used it for reference extensively. The books covers the nineteen most common species seen throughout the US and Canada.

Hawks Aloft: The Story of Hawk Mountain - Another gift for Lydia, this tells the story of Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Pennsylvania, the world's first refuge for birds of prey. Unbelievably, until about the 1930's when people's perceptions about wildlife began to change, these majestic birds were hunted and killed by the thousands just for sport. I don't know how Lydia can bear to read it, but she has several times. She says it's only dreadful for a little bit and then it's all good. 'A classic conservation story. '

Online Raptor Identification Quiz - this is a great quiz with some tricky ones in there!

Raptors of Hawk Mountain Coloring Book - free download of a nice coloring book with illustrations of various types of birds of prey, along with a fair bit of information about each

Raptor Fact Sheets - lots of information about hawks of the Northeast, much more detail than say the Cornell site which we usually use for bird identification help

Hawk Migration Association of North America 

Silhouette Hawk Id Guide  Raptor ID Slideshow - Power Point presentation for free download - I just found this so we haven't watched it yet, but it sounds great.

Juvenile Cooper's

Although it sat for a fair while, this juvenile Cooper's hawk couldn't find anything for lunch while sitting on our swing set a couple of weeks ago. This picture is for Jennifer, who recently had a very close encounter with a majestic hawk. You have to see her pictures! It's also cool to look at the two pictures side by side (this one and Jen's first shot) to compare.
 

Pigeon Post - Part 2

Well now, if you've read my first Pigeon Post you might be wondering what became of said pigeon. And if you are familiar with the real Pigeon Post (as you know we certainly are), then you might know of the threats of a certain Squashy Hat...

Friday proved to be quite a dreary, rainy day. We spotted the pigeon on our house when we got home in the morning after church, but then we didn't see it for quite some time. The girls went outside occasionally to see if it was around, but no success. Finally, in the early afternoon as I was reading to the little girls in the sunroom, I suddenly saw a flash of white. I stood up to get a better look out the windows and I announced, "The pigeon has just flown in!" And indeed it had, landing right in our back yard.

And then my brain was confused as I saw another brown head on a brown bird on top of the white one... and realization gradually dawned and I declared,

"A hawk has got the pigeon."

"A hawk has got the pigeon!"

Followed by a grievous, "Oooohhhhh..." And I was sickened at the thought that we were about to witness our friendly pigeon turn into a messy lunch...

And then suddenly something shifted just slightly but I saw movement and realization dawned again and I shouted,

"It's still alive!"

And then my poor befuddled brain made its final seemingly brilliant interpretive analysis and I yelled,

"We have to save the pigeon!"

And I went screaming out of the house with Lydia and Anna shrieking and running, arms waving, right behind me, "Save the pigeon!"

And the commotion successfully startled the Cooper's hawk into releasing its prey.

We watched incredulously as the beautiful white flapping took off immediately in its customary circular flight, and the brown flash went off in the opposite direction to the woods.

We saw the pigeon fly past a few houses and then it was out of sight, and we went running up the street after it in disbelief trying to no avail to follow it. All's we saw was a hawk flying around up the street, but no sign of the pigeon.

The girls went out on numerous occasions throughout the day, calling and looking for their pigeon friend. It was pouring heavily at times, but the rain didn't stop them. They searched and searched.

 

Moods were somber throughout the rest of the day as we saw no more of the pigeon. I speculated that perhaps the hawk attack 'spooked' the pigeon enough to make it want to fly back to its proper home. But we all knew that perhaps the hawk was only temporarily thwarted and had found and finished off his intended prey. Or perhaps the pigeon was wounded and hiding somewhere, where it would be end up as dinner for a wandering cat instead of lunch for a hawk. Time and time again my disappointed, soggy girls returned home without a clue.

Bedtime, folks! To be continued...

Pigeon Post

But shall we call it Timothy or Slater Bob? 

The other day I noticed a strange bird flying about from house to house. I mentioned it to Lydia and she of course had also noticed the large white-tailed bird hanging around. It looked like a pigeon.

We don't have pigeons in our neighborhood.

Over the course of the past few days the visiting pigeon has been seen flying around, drinking from the neighbor's bird bath, pecking here and there as it wanders on the ground poking in the mulch. It especially favors waddling in the gutters nibbling on whatever interesting tidbits one finds in the gutters, so the girls can't help but call it a guttersnipe. It's quite an attractive bird, as far as pigeons go, and it looks rather lovely as it takes off with white wings flashing in the sun.

flying right out of the picture

Then yesterday it landed on our deck and Lydia of course took its picture and noticed it had a band on its leg. So I went and looked up banded birds and what to do if you see one (what did people do before the internet?). The first thing I learned is that birds that are part of the federal banding programs in the US and Canada have metal bands with etched numbers. Pigeons by contrast have plastic covered bands, and they are the only bird with this type of band. The major pigeon organizations have information on their websites to tell you how to identify what club the bird originated with and what year it was hatched. We discovered our pigeon visitor lives about a hundred miles away and it is a young pigeon, hatched this year.  

 

The guttersnipe! What are you looking at down there? Haven't you ever seen a handsome pigeon like me?

So we have been learning a lot about homing pigeons and racing pigeons while we follow this most interesting 'rabbit trail' of pigeon knowledge that came to us. Pigeons eat primarily grains and seeds. They drink by sticking their beak in the water and sucking it up - they don't tip their heads back like other birds. They are able to fly hundreds of miles a day and can find their way home from thousands of miles away. They have been used extensively in wartime and have even won medals for bravery. Their ability to find their way home has intrigued scientists for eons, with some theories saying they use the earth's electromagnetic field and others showing they rely on a sense of smell. Many people keep flocks of pigeons as a hobby, training them to perform in races that test both their speed and homing abilities.

having a little peaceful rest in the flower bed

We have spent an extraordinary amount of time distracted from our regular work and following the pigeon around. The girls like to run outside to call and locate the pigeon after every subject (!), to make sure it is still around and doing well. We have been in touch with several pigeon fanciers by phone and via email to get help and information about our little visitor. It seems the birds can get tired out on a race and land for a rest, but if they like their surroundings they might get cozy and comfortable and just stay put. This seems quite possible as our bird appears healthy yet has been around for five days, and it is quite young. It was suggested that if we can catch the bird we should take it about five miles away and then release it, and it might take off and head right home.

 

pigeon portrait by Lydia

Or it might head straight back to our house. That seemed rather outlandish to me - this creature with a, um, bird brain, has to try and decide where it wants to live. :-) In the meantime I worry about the hawks and feral cats who might like something unusual to munch on. For now we are all greatly enjoying the science lesson that landed on the roof, and no doubt getting in some extra prayers to St. Francis as well.

(all pictures by Lydia)

Wordless Wednesday: Late Summer Nature Study

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(You have to click on this one to see its fuzzy antennae close up - and its eyes and proboscis!)

 

Sweet Phoebe, do not scorn me...

-all photos by Lydia

Spectacular Sunflowers

Sunflowers are one of our favorite flowers, and we have lots of them blooming this year. They are one of those flowers that just seem to cheer you up with their bright yellow color and, well, sunny disposition and looks. It's fun to watch them unfold, as the pucker faced sour pusses

 

 slowly, teasingly, almost reluctantly reveal their beauty.

They look coy as they play a shy game of peek-a-boo

and then suddenly they are all bold, brazen beauty, shining forth in all their golden glory.

We have some impressive giants this year:

I called this one the sunflower fountain:

The birds are loving them right now. Every time I go outside there are numerous goldfinches in the sunflowers and I love watching them eat,

 

especially their up-side-down tricks.

The bees and butterflies love them too, such as this one:

I have a long row of giant sunflowers along my back deck, and a lineup of the shorter, branching sorayas along a flower bed in the back yard, and some scattered surprises that have popped up here and there on their own. It's so neat and tidy how they all face east. Sunflowers are heliotropic, turning their heads to follow the sun, until the blooms open and then they stay facing east to get the most sun.

 

 I recently had the pleasure of meeting Jennifer at the FCL conference, and I was delighted to read her garden post featuring sunflowers. She wrote about the patterns of the spirals and how Fibonacci numbers are present in the seed patterns. I'd been taking pictures of the spirals, so I was greatly intrigued by this mathematical information. Apparently the seeds are arranged in spiral patterns as that is the most efficient way of filling the circular space of the flower head. The seeds are placed at precise angles, with spirals going both clockwise and counter clockwise. The number of spirals is always two consecutive numbers in the Fibonacci sequence. There are typically 34 spirals in one direction and 55 going the opposite way. A very large sunflower may have 89 and 144 spirals respectively ( I think my big ones do, but it was hard to count them from the picture taken so far away). The spirals are easiest to see and count when the flower is just opening, or after all the florets have fallen off and just the seeds remain.

I was totally intrigued by all of this information, especially after recently hearing Macbeth's talk on using nature to study math. The wonderful mathematical intricacies of order shown in God's design of these sunflowers fascinated me, and I wanted to count the spirals. It took me a little while to figure it out, and I wanted to draw the spirals to help me count and see the two directions. My dear husband who is a mathematics loving scientist, came along and set about to do it proper. Michael took one of my photographs and very precisely drew in the spirals so they can easily be seen and counted. Here is the original picture:

 

Here you can see the 34 counterclockwise spirals in blue:

 

Here you can see the 55 clockwise spirals in purple:

 

Here are both together, so you can see the intersecting patterns:

 

He also put the pictures into a handy pdf so you can see them in higher resolution or print them out for your students: Download Sunflower More information can be found in the Wiki article Jenn linked to, and there is also more info here: Flower Patterns and Fibonacci Numbers. Thanks so much, Jenn! And thank you Dr. K!

Spring Sights

Glorious, delightful, fickle, teasing spring is finally here-

Lovely blooms are everywhere-

Last spring Dawn mentioned her spring violets, inspiring us to dig up some from the empty lots nearby.  Now we have our own cheery clumps, so pretty to look at and a lovely reminder of Dawn's sunny spirit -

The goldfinches are fairly neon-

New life is everywhere-

There are lots of extra chores to do, but it feels so good to be working outside. Not to mention the breaks-

Yes, dining al fresco is definitely in style. Nice warm lid-potatoes, anyone?

We've also been doing lots of this-

So that my kitchen looks like this-

And outside there is beauty unfolding on its own-

And beauty thwarted-

Albeit by cuteness-

But these are cuter still-

And verily bursting with the flavor joy that only warm sunshine and fresh air can bring-

Tree Swallows in Action

 Guest post by resident birder, Lydia

Every year the tree swallows put on flying shows before they start nesting. Every year we have a lot of fun watching them. A little while ago we saw our first swallows of this year. Five or six flew over the field together. Then we had a few rainy days and didn't see them much. Today it's finally sunny again and the five swallows are back! They have been flying all over the yard, gracefully circling and looping. Then chattering, fighting, inspecting nest boxes, and swooping at the bluebirds.

We have four birdhouses up and the tree swallows investigated them all. Last year a pair nested in one of our houses, and also the year before that. The swallows seem to still prefer the nest box they used last summer. It is right next to the garden so the birds often perch on the garden fence posts and on the board above the door. Since there are five tree swallows who all like the same box they do have a lot of fights! They stay together, but they almost never stop scuffling with each other. I was outside watching the swallows for a while and they kept flying around the yard at top speed and coming back to the one bird house. Then whenever one landed on a perch, another swallow would at once come and swoop down and chase it off. Pairs of them fought in mid air, too.

 

When swallows fight they make short, sharp twittering noises. However, when they 'dive bomb' each other on the posts, they make their usual calls. Their call is very pretty and sounds liquid, like running water. But they call so fast and so loudly when they're angry it just sounds like chattering. With five tree swallows all chirping at the top of their voices it gets very loud! In this picture the flying swallow is about to land on the post and knock the other one off. The perched swallow is about to fall off and is flapping wildly trying to keep balanced. You can see how they yell at each other - the first tree swallow's mouth is wide open!

 

Sometimes if a swallow's mate comes they will still fight a little.  Usually though, the first will make room and share its perch with its mate. Then they sit next to each other and observe the nest box.

 

The tree swallow in the next picture has just taken off and is flying right towards me and the camera. Tree swallows aren't scared by people, so when you get too close to their nest boxes they swoop right at you. They will go so close that they are only a few inches away from your face! As they fly they make angry chirps.  Last year the pair that nested was used to me being around because the year before I had also tried to get close to their nest. Some of these swallows, however, were not used to me at all. One of them kept swooping at me so I finally moved over by the swing set to avoid them so I could take pictures.

 

Here are two swallows at the bird house pole.

 

It's far too hard to take pictures of swallows flying around, they go so fast. I got some good pictures of the birds in the air by focusing the camera on the bird house or on a perched bird. When the swallow took off or another one came I would snap a picture. Of course then I got a lot of pictures of the empty perch! 

This tree swallow is just leaving the bird house. It seems to be floating in mid-air.  The screws dangling from the bird house are weights at the end of pieces of fishing line, which is supposed to scare away house sparrows. (The trick is not working)

 

Just taking off:

 

Now the swallows are doing a pretty good job keeping the sparrows away from their favorite box. I certainly hope they decide to use it this year!

A pair of tree swallows snuggles together:

 

The return of the tree swallows every spring is one of my favorite air shows!

Wordless Wednesday: Welcome Back

Six Sided Beauty

With Advent and Christmas reading behind us it's time to get out all of the other beloved winter books. I think Snowflake Bentley is surely in everyone's stack of winter favorites, so I am re-posting this entry written by Jonathan two years ago explaining his method for photographing snowflakes. If you live where the white stuff is flying give it a try!

Everyone knows that snowflakes have six sides.  If you take the time to look at them as they land on you, you can see for yourself.  A couple days ago it occurred to me to try taking pictures of them with our digital camera. This produced some interesting pictures, but they were mostly blurry because I could not hold the camera still enough.  Then my Dad made a simple stand to hold the camera.  This made it very easy to get quite good pictures of your average snowflakes. 

If you want to make the apparatus we used you will need two small pieces of wood, two screws, a bolt, some cardboard and some black velvet or other dark cloth. You need to find a 1/4-20 bolt that will fit into the hole at the bottom of your camera where the tripod adapter screws in (see picture below).

Screw the two pieces of wood together at right angles as shown below.

Tape the velvet to the cardboard to make a small “tray” about the size of the bottom board.  Put the small velvet tray on the bottom board (see final picture).  Get your camera and see how close you can have it to the tray and still get it to focus (use close focus mode).  Our camera will go within ½” of the velvet tray. Mark where your camera is and estimate where the hole in the bottom of it is.  Mark this spot and drill a hole there for the bolt.  Put the bolt through and screw it into the camera.  If your camera will focus nicely on the tray, you are ready to go. We drilled a hole in the top of the piece of wood for a handy place to store an Allen wrench for the bolt.

 

To use this device, go outside when it is snowing and catch some snowflakes on the velvet tray.  As soon as you see a snowflake that has a distinct hexagonal shape, position it under the lens of the camera and use the display on your camera to center it in your camera’s field of view. Press the trigger button on your camera, make sure it focuses, and take your picture.  You probably want to view your picture right away so that you can take another if it didn’t come out the first time.

If your tray is too large, like ours is, you may be annoyed to find that gorgeous snowflakes are landing on an area of the tray where you cannot get them under the camera.  This is not too much of a problem because it is possible to move around snowflakes with tweezers-they are fairly sturdy. Be careful to first chill your tweezers or they will melt the flakes.

When you look at your pictures, you will probably want to zoom in to see your snowflakes in detail.  The following pictures have been extensively cropped for easier viewing.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. Have fun!

          

        

 

The top photo was taken by my husband; all of the others were taken by Jonathan.

The Sibley Guide to Birds

Book Review - Guest post by Lydia

I just got a new book for Christmas from Nana. When I opened it I was very happy to see it was a fabulous field guide!

The Sibley Guide to Birds is by David Allen Sibley and is full of useful features and information. In most ways I think it's better than our last field guide (though to be sure it's bigger and bulkier to carry). Our old field guide, National Audubon Society Guide to North American Birds is a good guide, but the main advantage of Sibley's is its many labeled illustrations. For nearly all of the 810 included species there are lots of pictures by the author. The different pictures show all manner of plumage variation. Adults are compared with juveniles, different color phases are shown. Even the differences between birds in different parts of the country are shown because Eastern birds will sometimes look different than Western ones of the same species, or Northern birds from Southern ones.

 

Hello Amazon box, goodbye Lydia

The way all the different variations are shown and compared is what I like best about the book. Often at the top of the page are pictures of the bird in flight, views from the side or above and below. For raptors especially, the guide explains how to identify flying birds. It describes how each different kind flies and how the shapes of the wings and tail can help in identification. I've never seen other field guides have so many details about that.

Another good thing is that usually the very similar species will be shown right next to each other and Mr. Sibley points out the different ways of telling them apart. The new field guide also describes more of the various calls and songs and random noises the birds make. This also is very useful because it makes it easier to learn to identify the birds by their calls.

One thing the old field guide has that the Sibley guide doesn't is nesting habits. Sibley's doesn't give a description of nest and eggs; the Audubon guide does and so will surely come in handy in nesting season as it even includes the length of the incubation period and number of eggs. However, as I said, I think that The Sibley Guide to Birds is an improvement from our other bird guides. It is quite a grand field guide and I like it very much. I'm looking forward to identifying more of the birds we see around here.

Winter Birds

Right on cue, the cold weather feathered friends have arrived and daily populate our feeders.

The juncos, which we haven't seen all summer, are plentiful and so are their sparrow friends. Chickadees are seen and their cheery buzzing fills the air but they rarely sit still long enough for a photo.

 

But the big hairy woodpeckers do,

and their little downie twins do too.

 

The sunflowers are no longer sunny looking, but tasty just the same.

 

All photos were taken by Lydia, of course.

 

Sunday Night Visitor

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

This little guy provided interesting entertainment this evening. We usually feed crickets apple cores or carrot peels, but this one sure loved his corn - such an enthusiastic little nibbler!

 

Juveniles

Guest post by Lydia

During the summer we see many different sorts of juvenile birds around. It is interesting to watch how they behave and see how different they look from their parents:

One kind of juvenile we see a lot is the bluebird. We had a pair of bluebirds nesting quite late in one of our nest boxes. One day we saw their babies on our deck looking much younger than the other bluebirds around. They had blue backs and were speckled all over their breasts which weren't orange but white. The juvenile bluebirds also seem to have white around their eyes. When we first saw them they would all perch in a row on our deck railing and their father would feed them. Every time he flew to them with food they would all crowd towards him chattering. When just one baby was alone it would crouch on its perch and flutter its wings frantically whenever it saw its parent coming.

 

 Now the babies can catch their own food, and I saw one looking quite strange because they are beginning to have more orange. This one had a patch of orange on either side of his speckled belly:

Quite some time ago the robins in the nest under our deck fledged. We saw one of them which was quite speckley and it couldn't fly very well. I got rather close to it once when it was sitting in the grass before it flew away. Other times we saw it flying crookedly around and crash landing into trees.

One time it landed on a high windowsill which disturbed its mother as she kept trying unsuccessfully to perch next to it:

 

Another interesting juvenile is the cowbird. We were surprised to see a very small chipping sparrow feeding a cowbird chick twice her size! Later in the summer the older male juveniles have very strange coloring: black and brown patches all over.

 

The juvenile red-bellied woodpecker is grayer than the adults, and instead of its head being red it is a dull pink. The red belly likes to squawk quite loudly whenever it comes to our feeders and its call is quite different from the adults.

It's fun to watch juvenile woodpeckers try to figure out how to eat from the suet feeder:

     

The eastern phoebe is a very sweet little juvenile:

It sits on our deck and chirps. The juvenile is more grayish and fluffy and its beak is bigger and more yellow than the older phoebes. Its call is also not as clear - it has a more chirping sound so we can tell when it is around.

We also watched a family of two eastern kingbirds and their three fledglings.

The adults and juveniles looked about the same but the young were being fed. I watched one of them be given an insect and then its sibling came up and snatched it. The two birds scuffled with each other until the first bird got it back and gobbled it up.

One day I heard something screaming in the woods. It turned out to be one of the two juvenile red tailed hawks. It was sitting on a telephone pole eating what looked like a snake. In between taking bites it would look around screaming constantly. Then it would stamp on its prey and scream some more. I don't think it liked its dinner.

The hawks were always screaming and the parents didn't like it. Whenever a juvenile came and screamed next to one of its parents the older bird would fly off to a quieter perch.

The juvenile red tails didn't have red tails at all. Their tails were brown with black stripes. There backs were dark brown and they had brown streaks across their bellies. Above the band of streaks was pale yellow, and below was whitish. Sometimes the young hawks were so fluffy they looked bigger then their parents and they did all sorts of funny things.

One of them tried to catch a huge ground hog but it wasn't sure how to do it. After one try it landed on the ground and looked around confusedly, then it swooped over the groundhog with its talons out, but it must have decided it was too big to catch. The hawk then sat on a branch and watched as its would-be prey waddled off. Eventually it gave up and flew away, screaming of course.

I also watched a hawk investigating a power tower. It walked carefully around the pole on a narrow ledge, squeezing past a wire and pecking at things. It also tried out several places to perch. The hawks were around for a long time and were probably my favorite juveniles. However, all of them are fascinating to watch.

There and Back Again Again

Well, we are just returned from visiting Nana again. Our travels were pleasant this year as both little ones were extremely well behaved in the car for a total of ten hours, thanks in part to very attentive and entertaining big siblings. I've learned that Kateri is much more content when I'm not sitting next to her, although with me crammed in the front middle seat I think I did more are we there yet whining than anyone else. Josiah now sits beside Kateri and he is very adept at amusing her with some Monty Python or Narnia scenes if she begins to get bored. (Nothing like a teen and a two year old going back and forth at No more buttered scones for me!  I'm off to play the graahnd piano! Pardon me while I fly my aeroplane! But I digress.)

Our visit had some variations on last year's themes.

We visited a farm one afternoon, and my two littles were completely enchanted by goats and sheep and ponies and chickens, oh my.

  

 And my big girl spent some time whispering to the ponies.

 When I told Eliza it was time to get ready for church the next morning she answered, 'No, goats!'

Peek-a-boo goats.

There were the requisite hikes through the woods to explore the quarry.

Unlike last year, it was very full of water.

We enjoyed the sights in Nana's lovely yard.

There were the mandatory games

and traditional painting parties.

And of course the final night was Literary night. Tradition! They started off reading some Lear to get in the mood, but the new twist this year writing Limericks by Committee.  Everyone would write one line of a limerick, and then pass the paper to the person on the left who would add the next line. This proved for much entertainment and generalized hilarity, as everyone from the eight year old to the almost eighty wrote together. 

 The final poems were then passed to a most austere judge who would read them aloud and assign a numerical score. 

 

And then another round would start. If you've never written limericks this way you simply must try it! You could end up with such 'treasures' as:

There was an old person of Beaker

Who was an incredible squeaker

He attracted some mice

(and twenty-five lice)

All tucked in a smelly old sneaker.

The cutest thing was when Kateri went and got herself a piece of paper and a pencil and a book to write on and demanded, 'Spot for me!' so she could join the fun. Literary peer pressure! (You can see Josiah was highly dismayed by the competition.)

There was a nice Nana from York

She served veggie dogs without pork

She made mean root beer floats

And dispatched guests to see goats

So great was dear Nana from York.

Once again, a wonderful time was had by all. Thanks Nana and David - we love and miss you!!!

Wordless Wednesday: Simple Blooms

Wordless Wednesday: Spring Sights

 

 

 

 

 

 

They've Hatched!

The first thing the girls do every morning after we get home from Mass is check the Fort. We knew the killdeer were due to hatch any day now, based on an incubation time of 24-28 days from the time the fourth egg was laid. I could tell by the way Lydia came dashing up the yard, braids flying, anxious to announce the news and find the camera: today is the day! We found Mrs. Killdeer with two little hatchlings, and she was very determined not to move from them or her remaining eggs. The little birds were so still, yet obviously very much alive with their eyes open and heads held up. Killdeer are precocial birds, meaning their young hatch with eyes open, able to walk and covered with feathers, like ducks and chickens. Their eggs are much larger and the incubation period longer compared to similarly sized altricial (opposite of precocial) birds.

We are used to seeing little naked hatchlings and we think they are sweet; although they look like floppy-necked bulging-eyed aliens, our brains know they are really baby birds and so we like to look at them. But they don't really look much like grown up birds; in fact Eliza always calls pictures of little baby birds 'turtles' which isn't a bad approximation. On the other hand, the little killdeer look like miniature copies of the parents, and as such are just incredibly, ridiculously, cute, cute, Cute.

We kept running out to check on their progress. Within a few hours they were up and running, scuttling about on their impossibly long legs and finding their own food. But as the young ones went off to seek their fortunes the doting parents followed them everywhere, chattering and displaying furiously if we got too close.

The girls spent a good part of the day parked in the grass at a distance that was comfortable for Mrs. Killdeer and suitable for constant viewing. They brought their school books down to this spot, binoculars and camera in tow, and kept vigil. A third bird did hatch, but not the fourth. The mama did seem to keep her hopes up for quite some time, remaining staunchly perched on her last egg.

Looking at a picture of just one it's hard to tell if it's a baby or adult!

Here are the three little ones back home in their scrape of a nest. Their mother is very adept at fluffing herself out to cover all of them, just like a good mother hen.

I hope she can keep them all safe in this big, wide, dangerous world they've hatched into. She certainly looks determined to try her very best, don't you think?

26/30: Morning Birdwalk

Michael took the five eldest children on an early morning birdwalk at a local wetlands nature center.

They spotted some birds we don't usually see

such as the phoebe and yellow warbler.

They also saw egrets and herons.

Josiah said this was a rare two headed goose. (He's the goose!)

They also saw some big burbling fish.

Strolling down the trail.

I like this colorful picture they took of the 'squirrel-proof' bird feeder. They watched the squirrel deftly hug and shimmy up the smooth post and then flip himself onto the platform.

Lydia was able to add a rather exciting bird to her life list - the Bald Eagle!

Fort Killdeer

The Killdeer is one of the birds that we see frequently since we moved across town, but had never seen before. Lydia has been hearing them in the morning as if they are close by, and the other day we found out why. It was very mild on Tuesday so we went walking around the yard after dinner to enjoy the pleasant evening. Lydia was the first to spot the killdeer doing a little April Fooling in the  form of the hurt wing act. This bird commonly uses distraction displays to lure intruders away from its nest. Not that it has much of a 'nest'. The Killdeer lays its eggs on the open ground away from any vegetation or cover, so we were anxious to find the spot before it got stepped on inadvertently. Mr. and Mrs. Killdeer did a fine job of twittering and displaying while scuttling here and there and eventually leading us right to the egg, which nicely blends right in with the bare ground.

We set up some cones and sticks to mark the spot and hopefully keep it protected, so now we have Fort Killdeer. I don't know what the Missus thinks of her new decor, but she's stuck with it.

We don't see too much of the pair yet as she is not finished laying the eggs and hasn't started incubating them. The girls ran out several times on Wednesday to check for another egg, but all day they returned disappointed. Then in the evening I noticed both the male and female poking around in the 'fort'. They were pacing around together like a husband and wife, and I thought I bet she's laid an egg and she's showing it off to him, making him look at it. I imagined their chatter - Look dear! See what I did! Isn't it extraordinary?! And his proud reply - Splendid, splendid! Wonderful, Dear! Do it again! I sent the girls out to check and sure enough there was a new egg. She didn't lay one yesterday (too cold and rainy? not in the mood?) but she did today.

They're up to three!

One More for the Birds

We ended our counting for the Great Backyard Bird Count on Monday. Josiah caught this picture of the hawk bringing a long bit of something to its nest:

Lydia had the best count on Monday, sighting 124 birds of twenty-one species.

My brother-in-law is an avid birder and photographer. He came across my earlier bird posts so he decided to email me some shots he's been getting of his local birds. Here I am posting mourning doves and sparrows on my little blog while he's been shooting these:

Here's a juvenile Bald Eagle-

And one of the juvenile in flight-

And here's one more from him, which I just had to share as it's so lovely and peaceful looking-

Many thanks to Uncle Alan for letting me post his gorgeous pictures!

And since it's Lent I can't possibly even think of coveting his camera, right?!

Wordless Wednesday: First Up

For the Birds, Part 2

This is what Lydia looked like for most of the morning. I couldn't drag her away from watching her beloved hawks. They were busy working on their nest, and she witnessed many of the pair's flights to and fro, bringing twigs and all to fashion a home for their young.

Red-tailed Hawk by Josiah via telescope.

Come feed the little birds,
Show them you care
And you'll be glad if you do
Their young ones are hungry
Their nests are so bare
All it takes is tuppence from you

The essentials: Black oil sunflower seed, water, empty suet wrapper.

Dawn wrote a wonderful informative post a couple of weeks ago about bird feeding basics. Feeding birds takes more than tuppence for sure, but it's worth every penny and it's such a simple way to foster a love of natural science.  I would heartily second Dawn's assessment, and studies show as well, that black oil sunflower seed is the best all-around food for backyard birds. We were in the habit of buying safflower seed as well, as squirrels and house sparrows were quite a nuisance at our previous house, and they won't eat safflower. But it is quite expensive compared to sunflower, and the birds seem to like sunflower as well. Lydia likes to fill the tube feeder with alternating layers of white safflower and black sunflower just because it looks pretty that way. Like Dawn, we stopped using thistle (nyjer) as the finches seem to prefer the sunflower or safflower. As it gets closer to March we will start putting out our hummingbird feeders and dishes of grape jelly for the catbirds, or Jellybirds as we call them. :-) Last summer we sighted an oriole a few times, so I would like to make some sort of oriole feeder this year as well.

We also provide suet for the woodpeckers. I just buy the least expensive cakes, as the woodpeckers don't seem to mind and it makes it easier to bear when the occasional flock of flying pigs starlings comes through and gobbles it all up in an instant. We regularly have Downy Woodpeckers, Hairy Woodpeckers (we call them Narnians as they look just like the Downies only larger, and the animals are larger than usual in Narnia, the talking ones that is), and Red-bellied Woodpeckers.

Pencil drawings by Lydia.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has a most informative site with all sorts of information on attracting birds to your yard, choosing seed and feeder types, setting up nestboxes and much, much more. Their bird identification guide is really wonderful. Every so often we'll spot a new species that we are not familiar with, like the white throated sparrows that showed up during the snow the other day. We start with our field guide (National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds--E: Eastern Region - Revised Edition) of course, but it is not always clear what species we are seeing. The online site is handy because there are several pictures, such as a male and female and perhaps one of breeding plumage and a juvenile as well. You can also listen to the calls or songs of many birds to help with identification. If things are still tricky, I like to bring up close-ups of the possible species, and then looking at them side by side identification usually becomes crystal clear. You just can't do all that with a paper field guide.:-)

Our counts for the day:

European Starling - 20

Mourning Dove - 6

Dark-eyed Junco - 11

Ring-billed Gull - 1 (seen on the way to church)

American Crow - 11

Mockingbird - 1

Red-tailed Hawk - 2

Goldfinch - 1

Tufted Titmouse - 3

Chickadee - 1

House Finch - 19

White-Throated Sparrow - 1

Turkey Vulture - 1

Blue Jay - 1

Downy Woodpecker - 1

Hairy Woodpecker - 1

Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1

Red-winged Blackbird - 7

Eastern Bluebird - 2

Did your birds count? Who do you have at your feeders?

For the Birds!

Don't forget - The Great Backyard Bird Count starts tomorrow, February 15th!

From the website: "The Great Backyard Bird Count is an annual four-day event that engages bird watchers of all ages in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of where the birds are across the continent. Anyone can participate, from beginning bird watchers to experts. It takes as little as 15 minutes. It’s free, fun, and easy—and it helps the birds."

We have been participating in Project Feeder Watch this winter, but the neat thing about the Count is you can include all the birds you see during the four days, not just ones at your own feeder site. So we can report Mr. Kingfisher who we regularly see perched on his favorite branch above the creek, and all the other interesting hawks and kestrels and vultures that 'fly over'. There is also a photo contest for pictures taken during the count.

This is a great opportunity to make your nature studies 'count' for the study of  ornithology.

Happy counting!

Valentine Views

Happy Valentine's Day to one and all!

It was a beautiful sunny day here with an incredible blue sky.

We saw some lovely creatures out in the snow.

They seemed to welcome the warmth of the sun as much as we did. Just soaking up some rays.

This, of course, cheered me:

 

I had never heard the legend that Dawn mentioned in her Valentine post, but perhaps there is a bit of truth to that romantic notion. Lydia spotted a pair of red tail hawks carrying twigs and such to a cozy spot in the top of a tall tree. Love is in the air, indeed!

Pencil drawing by Lydia, 2/14/08 

Hope your day was love-ly as well!

Pretty Weather

Ice

is everywhere

like dangling jewels

bringing feathered guests.

Mid Pleasures and Palaces We Have Roamed

We've just returned from a fast but fabulous little vacation! And it's all thanks to Suzanne!

The pleasures we enjoyed were of the natural beauty and beachy sort and the palaces were basically made of sand.  Around here it is typical for people to spend their summer vacations at the shore for a week. But beaches lined with high rise hotels and sands packed with well oiled sunbathers are not our cup of tea, so we have always avoided the beach. So when I saw Suzanne's lovely pictures of her family's recent vacation on Chincoteague and given our recent success at traveling I thought Hey! We should go there! To a beautiful, uncrowded beach with a national wildlife refuge all in one!

We were all so excited to be going to this place we'd read so much about in beloved books. When we arrived on the island we didn't stop to check in at our hotel. We kept driving, straight over to Assateague, and onward to the ocean. Our proverbial jaws dropped in amazement as we took in the sights of increasing expanses of water and inlets just teeming with all sorts of aquatic birds. Cormorants! Skimmers! Sandpipers! Gulls! Herons! Egrets! Egrets! Egrets! At home here we get so excited to see one egret - down there we saw so many and several different kinds. Michael was amazed when we spotted the famous wild ponies on our first drive in. (He was also amazed at the fierce and impressive twist-and-strike abilities of the huge snapping turtle we encountered on the road, but that is an entirely differnt story.)

And then we got to the beach and got out of the car and presented the children with the sight of the Atlantic. And the smell of the misty salt spray. And the taste of the cool salt water. And the sound of the screeching greedy gulls. And the feel of the crunchy shelly sand and the hot smooth sand and the hard wet sand and the never-ending crashing of the waves and that delirious feeling as the sand whooshes away from under your feet as you try to keep your balance. They took it all in.

We packed a lot into our short stay. Waking early to see the sun rise

and playing

and exploring

and discovering

all day

until it set.

On Suzanne's excellent advice we rented bikes and spent a day touring Assateague on wheels.

The boys chose a tandem which they promptly dubbed The Banana Machine.

Talk about male bonding! We all had a great time cycling. I pulled the two littlest girls in a kiddie cart aka The Bairn Box, the big girls rode regular bikes and Mary Rose enjoyed her tour on a tag-a-long.

The sights

were lovely.

 

My horse-loving girls were in equine heaven as right across the street from our hotel was a collection of Chincoteague ponies

just waiting to be fed and petted and nuzzled and scratched at any time of day or night.

We truly had a wonderful, wonderful time and it bears repeating so we'll just say it one more time:

!

Note there are additional photos in the albumn in my sidebar, including Michael's friend the  snapper.

Meez is Back ...

...or My Week in Pictures.

Like several other bloggers have noted, life has been rather busy IRL to keep up with blogging it all. I haven't really been standing still in a sunflower field drinking tea all week. It would be lovely if we could all get together to visit in person as easily as Ruth's virtual Meez party that she so kindly linked up.

Michael had time off from work last week and he used the time to work on lots of home projects. Step one was the managing of the Mulch Brigade:

Six scoops of mulch needed to be distributed to the various landscaped beds and eleven trees around our house.

Here's a little Mulchy Angel, with a pitchfork!

By the time they finished the girls were so mulchy they could have passed for a bunch of  sweeps straight out of Mary Poppins, which we enjoyed watching Friday night.

Josiah worked throughout the week to complete Our Lady's restoration.

He did a fine job on the paint, detailing in the menacing viper and continents on the globe. He even put rings on her fingers, which surprised us. But the always observant and faithful Josiah pointed out that Our Lady is depicted with rings on her fingers on the Miraculous Medal.

Our Blessed Mother is now in place, flanked by lilies that I transplanted from our old house. Every year my neighbor would place a lily at the foot of our cross on Easter morning, and I always planted them in the ground. I was quite pleased that they survived the relocating. I also transplanted a shrub rose, which really did not seem like it would revive after the traumatic transplant. But happily it recovered and is right behind the statue, with its first new buds just getting ready to open for Our Lady!

Michael worked very hard putting in a hundred foot long raised bed so we could also transplant and enjoy these, the one thing we miss from our old house:

Unfortunately we had some torrential rains that washed away some of the bed so he had to repair it, adding in drainage channels.

Let's see...what else..oh yeah, Otmin the minotaur showed up in my kitchen. I sent him outside to run around and he did no harm.

Lots of nature study... That's Lydia with a wee toad.

Literary pursuits always continue, of course. This picture is for Elizabeth, ;-).

Do you know how long two toddlers can sit still with a few sheets of unwanted address labels?

I'm sure you do.

Actually, since I just finished with portfolios, I could go on and on in educationese about the numerous benefits of said stickering activity- social skills involving sharing and taking turns, sensorial (sticky) stimulation, fine motor skills in peeling (stickers), creative expression in applying the artistic (sticker) medium ...but I digress. Do please pardon my lapse, as I did just finish documenting a mere week ago.

 

All six of our bluebirds hatched! This was quite a thrill after our adventures with claim jumpers and other nest troubles. Lydia went to check on the nest and she actually saw  one 'oozing out' of its shell. 

 

The eyewitness reported that it looked quite silly with half a shell stuck on its head!

I enjoyed some fast moves with my Honey:

And now I think said Honey will be somewhat pleased to return to work and sit still for a change!

We sure will miss him in the morning!   

   

Morning Fog

This morning's view off our back deck-

photo by Josiah.

Bye-Bye Birdies

We moved to our new house in March, the beginning of nesting season. We soon set Josiah to digging a hole for a post to mount a nest box. We had a pair of bluebirds move right in and build a nest, but they were soon intimidated by some tree swallows. So we mounted another box on the back of the pole, as bluebirds and tree swallows will supposedly nest peacefully back to back. The tree swallows promptly built a nest, and even lined it with their signature white feathers, but no eggs. We then set up another post on the other side of the yard with a third box, hoping to lure the bluebirds there. Of course the tree swallows beat them to it, white feathers and all.

The tree swallows went on to actually lay a clutch of five eggs in the new box. They politely removed the white feathers from their first nest, kindly letting us know they weren't planning on using it.  The bluebird's nest went unused as well, covered with twigs from claim jumping wrens. On June 4th, four of the tree swallows hatched.

Feeling sorry for the blues, we put yet another post in the front yard with a brand new box on it. The bluebirds came and saw and constructed, but that's all. I eventually cleaned out the boxes that the swallows and wrens had rejected, and the bluebirds returned and built a new nest in the very first box we had put up! We are now waiting for the lovely blue eggs to hatch.

In the meantime, the swallows grew... 

...and ate and ate and ate and grew. Lydia enjoyed attempting to monitor the boxes and getting dive bombed by the aerial acrobatics of the tree swallows. They make a zzzt-ing noise as they swoop down at you to chase you away. The neat thing about tree swallows is they will defend all of the nestboxes in their territory, so the bluebirds also benefit from their excellent policing. We actually had a house sparrow (ssssssss) show up in our yard the other day, but the tree swallows seem to have succeeded in driving him off. Quite a feat, as anyone familiar with house pests sparrows knows.

She did get some good photos of their graceful maneuvers, but the defensive parents wouldn't allow many photo shoots of the babies in the box.

And last night they fledged! Oh, they grow up so fast! We will surely miss them, but hopefully they'll be back to visit.

And although it may seem like time flies with our own children, thank heavens it doesn't go by that fast! 

Empty Nest Syndrome

Remember this lovely bird and her sweet little nest of five eggs? Right in front of our house Mrs. Chipping Sparrow had her nest of four eggs, plus a little gift from Mrs. Cowbird.

Well, the other day all of the eggs disappeared.

We kept checking the nest throughout the day and one by one they sadly vanished without a trace.  Poor Mrs. C.S. seemed so distraught as she sat chipping nearby. Eventually she left as all of her future hopes and dreams of offspring had drifted away. It was very sad. And frustrating. What happened to the eggs? They disappeared during the day, so it wasn't a hungry coon. I couldn't imagine a snake climbing that little tree right in front of the porch without anyone noticing. We are unfortunately familiar with the destructive habits of house sparrows and wrens, but there weren't any smashed eggs or shell bits around. What happened?

I wanted to know! My stubborn determined, demanding inquisitive nature insisted on finding out. But there were no further hints to the mystery, no trail of clues to follow. How to reconstruct the scene of the crime...

How does that picture look? My only hope of solving the C.S.I. was to try to have the crime reoccur. Those five eggs are really candy malted robins' eggs - a bag leftover from our Easter treats.

They all disappeared without a trace! The next day I put five more eggs out. They sat in the nest most of the day, and then suddenly on the next nest peek we found two had gone missing. Did I mention I'm a little stubborn? I sat myself on a stool in front of the window to watch that nest. I settled Kateri in for a nurse, and I waited. And waited. Finally I had to leave my perch, but I got Lydia to take over my post. And on her watch the truth was revealed...

It was a Blue Jay! (A Thieving Magpie?)

I had never even seen a blue jay in our yard before, but the girls told me they had heard their chatter at times. And the bird must have quite a sweet tooth, too!

Naughty thief.

All Creatures Great and Small

The boys have been out exploring more of the woods and stream near our house.

They have a great time doing nature study, physical education, photography and male bonding all at the same time.

It's hard to remember life before the digital camera. It's very neat how they can come back from a hike and immediately share their discoveries with the rest of the family. They found Mrs. Mallard contentedly resting in a cool secluded hideaway, unlike the Canadian Geese who had their nest right on the lawn.

This is a northern water snake. They left him alone. (!)

The boys notice pretties, too.

Even the small and ordinary beauty.

Closer to home we have a nest of the cutest little groundhogs. Josiah enjoyed snapping their photos and recording their strange squealing chatter as they played hide and seek popping in and out of their hole.

The other day I was startled to see this creature fluttering in our yard. We are not used to seeing gigantic grasshoppers in the spring and had never encountered this species before. Jonathan got this great photo so we were able to look it up and identify it as an American bird grasshopper. They overwinter in the mature adult stage.

And right in front of our house we have what we call our Truffula Tree. It's actually a small ornamental conifer, which is the preferred nesting spot for chipping sparrows.

Here is Mrs. C.S. herself perched right on our Easter cross. 

Unfortunately lazy Mrs. Cowbird dropped by and left a little present for Mrs. C.S.. I hope there isn't any trouble due to her unwelcome hostess gift.

And here is a bit of domesticlife as seen while we were over working at our old house. This geriatric Pampered Pooch has arthritis and can't partake of his neighborhood stroll any more. But not to fear, no deprivation here - his devoted mistress takes him for walks in his very own doggy stroller!