4_4_to7_2013 Palos Verdes Birding Part I

Dave and I flew to LA to spend a few days birding. We met up with Steve Wolfe as well as several climbing buddies. We saw over 70 species and some were life birds. This is a good-looking Snowy Egret with breeding plumage moving in the wind.

Male Peacock. These guys are some major show-offs!
 Cute little Allen's Hummingbird. This is one of the best looking Yellow Rumps I've ever seen. He was simply magnificent!
We saw several very healthy and colorful Yellow-Rumped Warblers.  Beautiful!
 What a beautiful photo of a female Western Blue Bird foraging on the ground. The ground cover here was really striking.
 Perhaps the  best birds of the trip were the wild Mexican Red-Heads and Lilac Crowned Amazons. To see our birds out in the wild, calling, flying and interacting with others was beyond cool. I couldn't get enough of it!
 Another gorgeous Mexican Red Head aka Green Cheek aka Red-Crowned Amazon.
Handsome Lilac Crowned Amazon giving the threatening eyes to some other amazons taunting her nearby.  She had a next above where she is pictured here.
 This Common Yellowthroat came out and gave an excellent show as he posed for photos.
 Gorgeous Common Yellowthroat. The Common Yellowthroat is always a treat. Dave got several beautiful shots of this hansome male.
 The elusive (to me) Red-Whiskered Bulbul.
Handsome Song Sparrow
 The Red-Whiskered Bulbul was a bird I really wanted to see. I'd searched for these in Miami years ago but was thwarted.  Steve Wolfe mentioned he knew where some were and he was correct! We got to see many Bulbuls which was super cool!
Bulbuls everywhere!
 A Bushtit on a tall bloom. Love the texture in this photo.

More photos on the next blog entry...

  Free Blog Counter

4_15_2013 Birds in the Winter that Won't End!

It really is the winter that won't end. We have been vacillating between 70 degree beautiful days and snow storms. Yesterday, it was sunny, windy and 70 degrees. Today it is snowing. We had about 14 to 15" of snow last week. Great to have the moisture, but enough!  The birds have been slow to start migration. Happily, we have lots of beautiful resident birds to watch. The first bird is our resident Sharp Shinned Hawk. He uses the bird feeders like a fast food drive through.  Here is a nice shot Dave got of the moon setting a couple of weeks ago.
  And a photo of the ubiquitous Red-Shafted Northern Flicker. I love these birds.
 A Junco. Some call these Snow Birds for obvious reasons.
 About a week ago, we were thrilled to have flocks of Mountain Bluebirds on our street! They and their relative Thush - Robins - were busy eating berries. Really beautiful!
 Mmmmm. Berry!
A very Audubon-esque photo of an American Robin. Love it!
 Robin foraging in the snow.
 A Mountain Bluebird finds a treasure on the sidwalk!
 It was hard to capture the numbers of bluebirds. It was so cool to watch!
 Mtn Blue Bird. You can see why these birds are favorites of so many people.
 Love love love this Mtn Blue Bird photo!

Gorgeous Mountain Bluebird photo!

Another beautiful Sharp-Shinned Hawk in the back.
 Another gorgeous Flicker.
 Finally, we found this little Red Fox sleeping in our front yard on a recent afternoon. Cute, but poor thing had some mange. Hope he is doing okay.

 Free Blog Counter

04_04_2013 Renovated Den, snow storm, boxes completed, embroidery...Miscellaneous Blog

Following the big house renovation, one room remained in need of help: the Den. We'd painted it a few years ago so it matched the rest of the house. It looked good, though it was quite dark. It's an oddly shaped room with a weird inset that could have easily been a closet. We used this spot to put my armoire and other things. The room looked nice and was certainly an improvement, but with the renovation, it needed help. Out with the dark...goodbye futon...goodbye armoire...goodbye giant speakers. Hello built ins. We opted to install built-in cabinets instead.

 Mark Cartwright came over to lead the way. Dave helped and I primarily watched and embroidered things onto garments I got my hand on.  The entire installation took only a day although they were working with a tricky corner with weird walls.
 Interestingly, it took Dave as much time to organize what is in the cabinets (climbing gear). It's a massive improvement.
 You saw the before at the top...here are the 'after' shots.  Lighter, brighten, neater and less dusting.  This also freed up the closet in the bird's room so I can put  my sewing things in there versus crawling under the house to get it each time it was needed.  March brought with it our biggest snow storm of the season. I actually missed it as I was stuck in KCMO. What was to be a 50 minute layover turned into an over-night stay. Good to get the moisture.  I embroidered a big dragon on one of Dave's jackets. It turned out great!  Also painted the Flicker's house so it'll look nicer attached to ours. While painting it, I opened the top and got a surprise! Eggs.  Those are pesky Starling eggs. They've been there since last year.  Who knew? Quails, dragons, flowers and other birds adorn many garments now. :) My robe is getting a lot of color. It's a great canvass. Pink dragon. :) Previously neglected shirt has new life breathed into it! (My hair in that photo could use some new life!). And finally, Dave finished a couple of dove-tail boxes. An earlier blog showed him working on them. One of the boxes he made for Ferne's remains. :(   They're beautiful and sturdy. Love the dove-tails.Inside, there are compartments. One is for Ferne's egg shell which I still have. Another is for feathers from his first (and second) wing trims. The third compartment holds the last feathers he molted. And the top shelf holds his remains.  Free Blog Counter