May 4, 2010 | Wildlife |
Instructions for the Royal Blog Tour Herb Expressions Flower Pot are below this so scroll down. Thanks!
I had a lot going on the last few days so I wasn’t able to post an update about the babies. These are pictures that I took on Thursday afternoon.
The Bluebird babies have gotten sooo BIG. And this picture shows all four little ones – I knew they were all there but it seemed one always had his head buried when I tried to take a picture. They do know that I’m not mom or dad – see how they all hunkered down when I looked in. When mom and dad come you should here the noise they make!
And if you look carefully in this picture there is a caterpillar in there – he is green on the right side by the piece of mesh on the side of the house that is under the hole. I wonder if he made it out of the house or if he was eaten for lunch…..
This will be my last peek into the bluebird house. They will start to practice their flying soon and I don’t want one to fly out early. I remember last year if I sat and watched the house you could see the babies flap their wings inside the house as they tried them out.
This picture is also from Thursday afternoon – these are the Tufted Titmouse babies. I think all 6 are in there – it so hard to tell when they are so young and just in a little pile in the nest. The mom and dad are feeding them too – but they are smaller and faster and not as easy to spot as the bluebirds are. The Tufted Titmouse seems to fly from somewhere else directly into the house to feed the babies. While the Bluebirds always fly in and perch somewhere nearby before they go into the house.
The Robin seems to still be sitting on her nest – soon her eggs should be hatching.
I also peeked in on the Chick-a-Dee and she was also sitting on the nest today. Maybe this weekend they’ll start hatching.
That’s all the news I have for now. This is posting on Tuesday. I’m writing this on Thursday night but because of the Royal Blog Tour post I’m waiting until Tuesday for this one to go up on my blog. I’ll have another update soon because I’ll actually be checking in on the birds on Sunday when I return home from my retreat.
Thanks for checking in with us!
Apr 26, 2010 | Wildlife |
I don’t think I have updated you on the birds in the last couple of days. So I wanted to share some more pictures and let you know what is going on. If you are here to read about today’s stamping project – I posted it earlier this morning so scroll down to see it.
More babies are here – I noticed Sunday after the rain on Saturday that the Tufted Titmouse was leaving the bird house so late yesterday afternoon I got the chance to take a peek and guess what I found – Babies! Her eggs just started hatching. She originally had 6 eggs and in this picture it looks like 3 have hatched and I can see 2 that haven’t so the last one must be buried under the pile.
And look at all the dog hair inside the bird house – my dogs have short hair so it isn’t from them but there are several neighbors with white dogs that the hair could be from! 
This morning I was able to get a picture of the Tufted Titmouse as she was leaving the house. Now it will be 15-18 days that the babies will grow in the nest before they fledge.
Yesterday afternoon I also noticed the Chick-a-Dee leaving her house so I was finally able to take a peek inside of it. And she has 6 little tiny eggs in there. She has been sitting on them faithfully for some time now so I wonder if they are close to hatching and she decided to go out for one last time before she gets busy feeding them all day.
The last time I was able to get a peek inside her house was on 4/15 and she had 4 eggs then. So if she finished laying her eggs on the 17th – then she incubates for 11-12 days – that would mean the eggs should be hatching the 28th or the 29th – so we have a couple more days to go.
The bluebird babies have gotten bigger but I wasn’t able to get a good picture of them this one is blurry but they are much bigger. Click here to see the first picture I got. They spend 15-18 days in the nest and we are on about day 8 so they will be there for another week or so. 
The Robin is still sitting on her nest so I don’t think those babies have hatched yet – maybe later this week.
I do have one more picture to share – a Red-Headed Woodpecker.
He has an all red head and the black wings with the white patches and the white body. He is very striking! I don’t see this one very often but he (or she) has been around the last couple of days. They like the peanuts and the suet that I have out. The more common Red-Bellied Woodpecker is the one I see all the time and people often call it Red-Headed because it has a partially red head. But the true Red-Headed Woodpecker is this one with the all-red head. The book I have says the nationwide populations of these are on the decrease.
This morning I saw them both at the same time but I couldn’t get to my camera.
Well have a great day! Thanks for checking in on the birds.
Apr 22, 2010 | Wildlife |
I was going to make a card for Earth Day but didn’t get to it yet. I did however finish all my projects for the Royal Blog Tour – I think I could have used some of those for Earth Day but you will have to wait until the tour at the end of the month. So do be sure to come back – I have three great projects featuring the Herb Expressions stamp set.
So instead of another stamping project (I already posted one today) I’m going to share some bird pictures I took this morning. The Bluebirds were feeding their babies so I got a few pictures of them.
Bluebird mom flying in
Bluebird dad bringing in food
I caught the mom flying in – her wings are so fast they are just a blur in the photo. She came in a dropped off something and then a few minutes later the dad came in with a little something too.
Bluebird dad
Then I got a couple of pictures at the feeders – the top one is empty again – it’s a good thing I got more seed yesterday. I also hung the hummingbird feeder out today so hopefully I’ll start seeing them soon too.
woodpecker at the suet block
Mrs. Bluebird getting some seeds
I hope you are having a good Earth day!
Apr 21, 2010 | Wildlife |
Bluebird Babies that is!
I counted on the calendar the other days – the mother incubates the eggs for 12-14 days. So based on my calculations the babies should have hatched from 4/18 – 4/20. Yesterday it rained so I didn’t go check but while I was out in the yard this morning I noticed the mother fly out of the box. So I went to see and yep – babies!
So in 15-18 days the babies will be ready to leave the nest. Right now they are tiny a helpless – I’m pretty sure all 4 are in there – but in the picture you can clearly see three of them. When I first peeked in I counted 4 but I had to go inside to get the camera and they had moved a little bit by then. As they grow a little bit I’ll check again.
The other babies probably aren’t due to hatch until the end of the month – some time next week is my guess – the chick-a-dee, robin and tufted titmouse are all incubating their eggs.
I have a cute card project to post shortly and I’ll share more about the tile coasters in another post.
Thanks for visiting!
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Join me for the Royal Blog Tour: April 30 – May 3rd.
Apr 19, 2010 | Wildlife |
I found this bird today playing in my fountain outside my kitchen window.
She was there for quite a while moving all around so it was hard to get a picture of her. She would dip her wings or head in and then shake.
I think this is a female finch of some type. I have a lot of them around and see them at the feeders quite often.
Shake it all out! Look at her go. It would have been fun to have a video.
All the moms are sitting on their nests today – chick-a-dee, bluebird, robin and the titmouse. The cardinal still has only one egg in the nest and I haven’t seen the mom. There have been a couple of the male cardinals around back by the feeders. I hate when they nest in the bushes it just seems like it isn’t safe. We have lots of other little critters around. I do my best to keep the cats out of the yard but occasionally they do try to sneak in.
Enjoy the rest of your day!
Early Bird pricing for Create with Connie & Mary: Summer Edition is going on now – $19.95 – don’t miss out!
Join me for the Royal Blog Tour: April 30 – May 3rd.
Apr 18, 2010 | 2-Step Stampin', Big Shot, Cards, Create with Connie & Mary, In Colors, Wildlife |
I created another Awash with Flowers card using the exact same colors and pieces of card stock as my first one. This is the second version.
I used this one for my class on Friday – I actually let everyone choose between making this one or my original design that you can see here.
The “Wonderful Mother” from the Well Scripted stamp set in the Stampin’ Up! Occasions Mini catalog was used so it could be a mother’s day card. Stamped on Whisper White and punch with the Scallop Oval punch. I added the little leaf petals at the bottom to dress it up a bit. Then layered it on a Wide Oval punched from Melon Mambo. The layer of Basic Black behind it is also the Wide Oval punch – either use two or cut one in half and add each half to the back of the other one so you can just see a hint of it.
I wanted to show you the cardinal eggs that I found on Friday – the mom finally left her nest late in the afternoon – that seems to be the norm for most of the moms from what I can tell. 
She has two eggs but one is much smaller than the other. When I checked on Saturday – the smaller egg was gone and only one egg was in the nest. She seems to be gone today so maybe she decided her eggs weren’t viable this time or another predator came in and took the egg. I don’t really know. I’ll let you know if she lays another one.
As for the other nests – the other moms were all sitting this morning – I need to go back and count the days to see how long before we can expect babies to hatch.
Thanks for stopping by. Don’t forget to check out Create with Connie & Mary – I’m so excited to be a guest designer! It is sure to be fun with lots of great projects – a new one each day for 5 weeks – right now is an Early bird special for $19.95 – then the first week is a preview week for everyone and then the next four weeks will only be open to those that join – so do it now while we have the special. Each week we will feature an assortment of products from the Summer Mini Catalog – there will be at least two tutorials each week.
Early Bird pricing for Create with Connie & Mary: Summer Edition is going on now – $19.95 – don’t miss out!
Join me for the Royal Blog Tour: April 30 – May 3rd.
The Bluebird babies have gotten sooo BIG. And this picture shows all four little ones – I knew they were all there but it seemed one always had his head buried when I tried to take a picture. They do know that I’m not mom or dad – see how they all hunkered down when I looked in. When mom and dad come you should here the noise they make!
This picture is also from Thursday afternoon – these are the Tufted Titmouse babies. I think all 6 are in there – it so hard to tell when they are so young and just in a little pile in the nest. The mom and dad are feeding them too – but they are smaller and faster and not as easy to spot as the bluebirds are. The Tufted Titmouse seems to fly from somewhere else directly into the house to feed the babies. While the Bluebirds always fly in and perch somewhere nearby before they go into the house.
