Winter Wonderbird

Over the years, Jim and I have grown quite fond of the quirks and personalities of the birds that share our backyard and sup at our seed-y smorgasbord.   I'm particularly fond of the Eastern bluebird and Jim's favorite is the Black-Capped Chickadee.



I think he sees a bit of himself in its capable, efficient manner.  Targeted in its feeding style, the chickadee avoids the food squabbles of the finches, sparrows and jays.   Waiting patiently for a break in the fray, it flies in, gets a seed, and flies away again to eat in peace before any protest is mounted.  Though the titmice are similar; the chickadee is the only bird to let us know when the feeders are empty by calling just outside our window...chick a dee dee dee, chick a dee dee dee.

They're also the only birds that escort me across the yard while I'm carrying the newly-filled feeders, taking seeds as I lift them up and before I can even get them hung.  We've seen pictures of people training chickadees to eat out of their hands and Jim has often said he wants to try that once he retires.

I mention all this as backstory so that you understand why I said "yes" without any hesitation when Pam Kellogg asked if I would be willing to make the January artwork for her annual Crazy Quilt calendar.  This year's theme was birds and would I be willing to do a Chickadee?

Jim's favorite bird and my favorite month...slam dunk...I was in.



Another reason Jim loves the chickadee is because it's with us all year round.  A fierce little bird and a scrappy forager in the worst of winter weather.

Inspired by their brazen, insistent requests, I decided to place my chickadee on the crepe myrtle branch outside of the window, winter bare but for the seed pods that are left closed until Spring...



This is the branch from where our chickadee friend, seeing us seated inside the warmth of our home, calls to us to come out and fill the feeder.



I splattered the block with Lumiere textile paint in pearlescent white, wanting the bird to be in the middle of a snowstorm. 

I envisioned snow to be everywhere so I spent some time studying photographs of snow crystals and reading up on the properties of snow in this book...



I can't recommend it enough!  Find it at the library or bookstore and spend some time looking through its pages...it's a beauty to behold.

The snowflake structures lend themselves beautifully to embroidered interpretation...

And I discovered that all snowflakes have either six- or twelve-sided symmetry...never four or eight as I've sometimes seen them depicted.

Each stitched snowflake is unique...

And I was able to use the painted watch parts and beaded snowflakes I had made a few years ago.  Evidently, their time had come...

The crepe myrtle seed pods were "stitched" by making knots of Au Ver a Soie silk chenille thread, sinking the ends, and sculpting them with needle and thread...



I found that the thread was too thick to stitch with a french knot without serious worming.

The snow on the branch was made in the same manner as my January Reflections piece.

As for the chickadee itself, I wanted to give the appearance of the feathers being fluffed out, trying to retain body heat so I stitched in a few fluffy feathers to give the suggestion of cold.

And the little blue beanie?

The inspiration for that came from none other than my son Jack himself.  He wears one pretty much every day...



And I was in the process of making a new hat for him when I dropped him off at school...

To keep him warm through those cold Boston winters.

So I knitted one for him and one for the bird...

I had to steek the bird's beanie so I could cut it in half and sculpt it with thread onto the piece.

Steeking is a method of cutting a piece that has been knit in the round.  I had never steeked anything before so I learned a new technique.

Thanks Pam for including me in your calendar.  You can see the other birdy pieces in the calendar and purchase your own here.



I know I haven't been blogging very much lately but it isn't for lack of desire.  I still love my blog like an old friend and plan to be here more regularly, life willing.

Waving to you all!

You Can Lead The Bird To The Berries But...

This weekend the cedar waxwings descended on my Yamazakura Cherry tree.

 

 To fill their bellies full of bitty ripe cherries...

Most of the time they are so busy, bobbing and weaving and picking and flitting, that it's all I can do to snap a few shots...



This year to my great surprise, I noticed a pair of waxwings perched on a branch and staying put.

Slowly I moved to where I could see what was going on and set my camera on continuous burst...



At first, I thought it was a loving couple but when I watched the back and forth that followed, I recognized the behavior immediately...

It was exactly the same behavior that I observe at my feeders in late Spring when new bird parents bring their fledglings to the gourmet smorgasbord that I set out for them.

The newly fledged birds sit there dumbly amongst all the seed and continue to chirp for their parents to bring their food even though the food is right in front of them.

And so that's what was happening here.  The fledgling is on the right and the Mama is on the left trying to teach the young adult how to forage and eat his own berry...

Time and again the adult passed the berry to the youngster...

And time and again the little one would try to get the berry centered in his beak...and not quite get it...

And not knowing what to do, he would pass the berry back...

And Mama would pass it back again.  

This time I thought for sure that the baby bird would get it.  I mean that berry is pretty well centered in his beak.   I think Mama was thinking the same thing...

But no.  It wasn't going to happen.  

Just when the kiddo decided to do the flip...the quick motion of tilting back the head and letting go of the berry so he could quickly gobble it up...it got off center...again...

And he passed it back again...

And she tried again...

And he aborted again.  

It reminded me of when I used to put cheerios on Jack's highchair and he would pick them up and try to feed me...and I would eat one...and pass one to him and he would shake his head no and laugh, with his lips pressed shut...and pass one back to me to eat...and so it went...

Except Mama wasn't eating this berry-o and this little guy wasn't getting the idea that he was supposed to.

It went on for minutes.  I have hundreds of pictures of this dance.

Until finally, he squished the berry in his beak and just like that, it was gone.  Down the hatch...

A little cheer erupted from my heart as I watched Mom fly off to pick another...

And Junior just sat there, waiting around...not even trying to pluck his own berry...

For the sake of that Mama bird, I hope I observed the first berry eating lesson of the day and not the tenth!

And we think human parents need patience.

[Note:  Last year's Cedar Waxwing post is here if you're interested.]

[Back update:  Thanks for all the back well wishes.  I'm still lying on my belly and typing this.  Can't sit for any length of time still but I am slowly getting better.  Here's hoping I'll be stitching by the end of the week.]

Easter Butterflies

Last week Jimmy and I returned to Naples, Florida to spend Easter with my father.

Every day Jim and I trekked through the mangroves to visit the beach...



We were lucky that there was another Osprey pair this year with three fledglings in their nest.  I love to watch the Dad fish.  Last year, I wrote this post where the sea hawk caught a Florida pompano.  This year, he entertained again by catching this gar fish...



It didn't look like a very big meal...

But when you've got three hungry mouths to feed, you eat whatever you can catch...



The weather was calm and mild the entire time we were there which made for perfect beach-going.

There wasn't much of a wrack line this time...



Which was a huge blessing in disguise.

A full wrack line is like having too many choices on a buffet.  You tend to select the larger, more unusual dishes.   If there had been too much competition, I'm afraid we would have missed the treasures that actually were there.

Coquina shells. Donax Variabilis.
 

Small, edible saltwater clams that live below the sand in shallow water along East Coast beaches.

While I stooped to collect these tiny shells, an older German woman whom I had befriended that week approached with her cane.  She walked the beach every morning and we had struck up multiple conversations throughout the week about shells and birds and clams...basically, any and all wildlife that we saw in the mornings.

When she saw me down low, she said, "Oh, hello.  I see you've found something to collect."

"Coquina shells, " I said.  "Only little shells are here these days."

"Oh!" She exclaimed.  "They are so Be-YOU-tiful.  All those pretty colors.  I have a whole dish of them I keep out.  Just beautiful!  You have to be careful to clean them well though or they stink.  A little bit of the clam sticks to the shell and you have to get that out."

I waved to her as she went on her way, leaving this egret behind fishing in the surf.



I went back to collecting the tiny marvels and found they were most easily spotted in shallow water, as the lapping water lifted them up and they floated back down...



I wanted to find a way to share the pleasure of shell hunting, so I took a picture just for you.  Think of it as a virtual shell hunt.

There are eight coquina shells (3 doubles and 5 singles) in the picture below.  Can you find them all? (I'll reveal the answer in the bottom of the post.)

While I continued the delicate job of picking up wee bitsy clam shells, another woman approached and told me that she had grown up on Coquina Beach.  As children, she and her siblings had eaten the little clams as they played; their parents had made coquina broth from boiling the live mollusks in salted water.  I found a recipe here.  Who knew?

Jim and I weren't up to harvesting live clams, so we took our empty, bitty bivalves back home and followed the German woman's advice of washing the shells carefully...

Spending the time to pick out any remaining organic matter.  It was a tedious task as the shells ranged in size from 5mm to 18mm.

But it was exactly this slow, methodical care with each and every shell that caused me to fall in love...over and over again.

Together they were a kaleidoscope of Easter butterflies...



And individually, they were every shade of pastel with stripes and delightful combinations.



Like a box of antique buttons, each one held its own charm...

As I washed, dried and sorted my delicate swarm of shells, my father watched perplexed.  "What," he kept asking, "Are you going to do with all of those?"

"I don't know yet, Dad.  But aren't they amazing?"

"Hmmpff, " was all he said.

What I was going to do with them?  I didn't yet know.

But when Dad, Jim and I went to an Antique Mall the next day, look what I found...



This kitschy, old-fashioned souvenir bouquet of shell flowers.  It was love at first sight.

And look...

There are flowers made from all those tiny coquina shells.

And the hummingbird has a set of coquina wings...



Yesterday, I unpacked and sorted all the paired coquinas by color and placed them in a collection box...

A palette from the sea.

And I took all the single shells and placed them in a dish...just as my German friend had suggested.

And here they sit as I type this post to remind us that Summer is coming and the world is full of wonder and joy.

My new collection has led me down a path of researching shellwork which was all the rage in 18th century England.  I found this stunning example of shellwork from the reign of George III...

And then I remembered that my friend Mrs. Delany had created shellwork in addition to her 1,000 flower collages and amazing embroideries.  So I'm busy following that lead.

Looks like there's more shell embroideries in my future.  Found on the Beach might have to become a series.

Blowing kisses to you all and hoping that some unexpected delight washes up on your beach ;)

P.S.  Here's the solution to the virtual coquina search...



And here's a few other interesting shells that were also in the shot...