birds — Page 16

Flora and Fauna

July 25, 2021 at 9:42 am by Claudia

The limelight hydrangea is in full flower. Unlike my Annabelle hydrangea, the limelight always blooms later in the summer. Eventually, these flowers will turn pink. It’s a beautiful plant, lush and full.

In case you’re interested, I filmed a short video yesterday. It’s just a short little tour of the big garden bed and the beds by the porch entrance. Everything is in flower and it was sunny and beautiful so it seemed like a good time. It’s on my Instagram feed.

But you can tell it’s rained a lot (an understatement) because in certain areas of the property, I’m getting a lot of mosquito bites. For instance, yesterday we decided to sit in the Secret Garden for a bit – mostly to see if mama robin objected. She did. So we quickly got up and left so she could relax. I’d say we were out there about 3 or 4 minutes. I got 5 mosquito bites. Yikes. The Secret Garden is at the bottom of a hill and it stays wet longer than any other part of the property, so it makes sense that mosquitoes would thrive there.

Nature update: So far, I’ve seen lots of butterflies, including a black swallowtail, an Eastern swallowtail, a great spangled fritillary, and a few monarchs. This morning, our little groundhog was hanging around the big garden bed and we saw our first bunny in over a year. Unfortunately, the little bunny was in one of my garden beds! I opened the door and eventually, he scampered off, white tail bouncing. Oh what a cutie! And of course, mama robin continues to feed her babies constantly throughout the day. She’s a single mother so she has to do it all. I see more of the babies bodies now as they get stronger and thrust themselves up even higher to get food.

I finished my book this morning and, since I’m reading them in chronological order and I missed the one that was published before this one, I’m going to catch up by reading that next. I’m really enjoying the Ruth Galloway series.

I haven’t begun another painting yet. Just wasn’t in the mood. Today is dark and rainy, so light might be an issue. We’ll see.

By the way, I’m finding the fact that the email versions of these posts have been going out on time consistently lately rather ironic since they will soon be no more. Ah well.

Stay safe.

Happy Sunday.

Painting #8

July 23, 2021 at 8:48 am by Claudia

This isn’t the best photo, but here’s the latest in my Pottery Portraits series. This is a basket vase in the Clematis pattern. I am unable to use Lightroom, my photo editor, because it’s on my laptop. I would have sharpened the photo and resized it, etc., etc., by my hands are tied. So this is what you get. I’m happy with this one – the handles were my biggest challenge. In fact, I had started a portrait of it a while back but the handles threw me, so I moved on to another vase. Glad I tried it again.

I got a little daring with the background color, but I like it. Don really likes it.

I miss my laptop.

I did a lot of weed pulling yesterday and that was satisfying. Today will be….wait for it…sunny. All day. So we’re going to mow the front lawn, and we’ll time the mowing of the area outside of the kitchen window (where the nest is) when mama is absent from the nest. Yes, she’s still doing it on her own. And yes, I know that normally, both parents take turns feeding the babies. I’ve watched robins and their broods many times – one time they were right outside my window on the balcony of a place I was staying in while working in Wisconsin. I got to watch the entire cycle. That’s how I know papa is absent. She is doing it all. I worry for her as she must be exhausted and there are probably at least 7 or 8 more days of this until they fledge and even then, she’ll be the only one helping them while they’re on the ground. I’ve called her my hero before and that’s even more true now. I don’t know what happened to papa, I don’t even like to think what happened to papa. If they are the same pair that had babies in the nest by the shed, he was a diligent, hard-working dad. It’s sad.

I stood in the bathroom, camera in hand, for a long while, waiting for mama to feed the babies. It’s hard to get a clear picture when there are black walnut leaves all around the nest, but here you can see her feeding one of the babies. I know there are at least two babies, but I think there are three.

We’ll probably take a short break from Wallander (last night’s episode was incredibly powerful) to watch the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics. I always enjoy them. I’m not sure actually going through with them was a good idea, however. And I keep reading of decisions made by the Tokyo contingent as well as the IOC that I find quite troubling. But watching a contest between superb athletes is always exciting, so here we go.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

Hollyhocks and Baby Robins

July 22, 2021 at 8:57 am by Claudia

Only a few more hollyhock buds to open before we say goodbye for this season. Since hollyhocks are biannual, this one should come back next year.

I’m almost done with my painting – a few more tweaks, then deciding on the background color. It will be done today. I had a nice session at the easel yesterday afternoon.

Today is a gorgeous day! It’s a sunny, coolish morning with flowers blooming everywhere. Don is going to go out and mow the corral area while I’m using his laptop to write my post. I may do some weed whacking or not. We’ll see! Certainly some weed pulling is in order.

Update on mama robin: We’ve been pretty sure she’s been feeding babies for a few days now. Yesterday afternoon, I happened to be in the bathroom and took a peek at the nest. Perfect timing, as I saw her feeding and I saw open mouths/beaks. It all happened quickly, so I didn’t have time to count them, but there are a least two babies in that nest.

She works so hard. I have not seen or heard papa at all, so she’s doing all of this on her own. In order to test this theory (and I’ve done this a couple of times) I walked outside under the tree where the nest is. Within seconds I heard warning cheeps, but only from one bird who was up in the trees watching my every move. I slowly made my way back to the house and the robin moved from branch to branch making sure I was gone. I turned the corner, but I took a peek in that direction. Still on alert. After quietly going back in the kitchen and walking directly to the window, I saw the bird on another branch, still on alert. Eventually, it flew to the nest and that’s how I know it was mama. Just to make sure, I tracked her movements as she flew to the ground to get worms for the babies. It’s always mama. I don’t know where papa is, whether something happened to him, whether he’s watching but wants nothing to do with feeding. But imagine how exhausting is for mama to do EVERYTHING. And she is.

I alternate between watching everything and then worrying about everything and then thinking I shouldn’t watch because I worry about everything. It’s always this way with me.

But I’m glad to have the opportunity to watch these little miracles up close.

Stay safe.

Happy Thursday.

Flora and Fauna

Painting #8

Hollyhocks and Baby Robins

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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