Patience

I am attempting to teach the Tumbleweed patience. As parents know, kids are not good at waiting. Instant gratification is what they want - and they aren't shy about it. Anyway, as my patience for demands and whining is wearing thin, I am trying to show the Tumbleweed that "good things come to those who wait."

What are we waiting for? Hummingbirds! After spotting a hummingbird checking out our bird feeder yesterday, we went and got a special feeder and a hanging fuschia plant.


We set them up after dinner, and settled in to watch. The Dandelion only lasted about a minute (no surprise), the Tumbleweed sat with a camera watching the usual birds for about 20 minutes before giving up, and I waited another 10 minutes --- and guess what? A hummingbird came! I would love to have pictures to show for it, but my camera picked the absolute wrong time to malfunction [I have to send it back to Canon for service - argh]. We hope to see our hummingbird more tomorrow, but patience is a must. Will the Tumbleweed have the patience to wait? I wonder...

*Additionally, we noted that moving the birdfeeders around deterred the grackles & cowbirds, but the little birds all found their way to the new locations.

Under Attack - Year 3

They're Ba-ack!

Well, sort of. This year there is a nuthatch flying into the family room windows (for the past two years it has been a robin - 2008, 2009). This poor nuthatch has been coming to the bird feeder for the past two months, and suddenly yesterday he decided to start flying at the windows. He is so set on doing this that he has done it while I stood on the deck taking pictures from about 5 feet away! Last night he did it for two hours while the kids sat inside laughing hysterically. I like to call it "Must See Bird TV"













This afternoon I will be attempting to construct something to break up the reflection.

Birdseed Ornaments

For Easter my parents sent the kids some birdseed ornaments to put out for our birds. The birds really like them - and it is fun to watch them try to land on one. So far the Downy Woodpecker and Nuthatch have had the most success, but all of the birds have enjoyed the seed that has fallen to the ground. I think we will make some more when these are gone.


Birdseed Ornaments

1/3 cup gelatin (this equates to 2 of the little boxes each of which contain 3 envelopes of powder)
1 1/2 cups water
8 cups seed

1. mix gelatin and water on low heat until gelatin is melted clear
2. remove from heat and stir in seed (VERY STICKY!)
3. pack tightly in shaped container OR lay out in say a cookie sheet with sides if you want to do cut outs. Keep in mind this is jello - so unmolding it from a bundt pan or other container requires soaking in cold water.
4. refrigerate for 2-4 hours
5. dry on rack for couple of days
6. if you do cut-outs and want to hang as an ornament, use a pencil to make the hole for hanging, just be sure to give it a wide margin.

Thanks for the recipe, mom!

Birdwatching

Spring is in the air. We have had a nice stretch of warm days in the 50s this week. We have gotten back to walking the trail twice a week with our friends. The kids have enjoyed getting out in the afternoon to ride bikes and collect sticks in the yard. And of course the birds and bugs are reappearing all over the place.

Our new bird feeders have certainly been attracting our feathered friends. I am enjoying the challenge of sitting quietly by the window and waiting to get a good picture. I think the birds watch me too because when I'm not sitting there with a camera, I walk into the room to find the coolest birds on the deck. Sometimes I am sneaky enough to get some pictures, but most of the time they fly away.

I don't have a picture of our newest bird, a red winged blackbird, but I have managed to snap a few more good pictures.
























The nuthatch is certainly my favorite to watch. They visit regularly with their acrobatic perching and constant movement. The cardinals and blue jays pass through daily, but never stay long and are really hard to photograph. The Downy Woodpecker is a less frequent visitor so it was a nice surprise to find him dining along side a cardinal this morning.

Feed the Birds

Since we have been talking so much about the birds, Grandpa decided to bring a project for the kids when they came to visit. Over three days, they worked on making bird feeders. Grandpa really likes having a project to do when he comes to visit so he and the kids can wear their matching project hats. It was a good thing he brought an indoor project because, as it usually does, it rained the whole time my parents were here.

Day 1 - Painting
The first, and most exciting, step was choosing the colors. We had paint leftover from the Dandelion's bed for his but the Tumbleweed wanted purple for hers, so off to the store they went. A good project always has at least one trip to the hardware store, right?














Day 2 - Assembly
Hammers, drills and nails, oh my! Grandpa says the kids need to work on hammering slower before their next project because he almost lost a finger - LOL. I guess they were just a little excited to hammer. The Tumbleweed was all prepared to use the drill by herself as well, but Grandpa helped guide her a bit :)













Day 3 - Completion
While the kids were sleeping I added a finishing touch to each of their bird feeders, and when they saw them they couldn't have been more excited to hang them up. Except it was still raining. Hard. But, while we filled them, Grandpa put up a post in the rain and we put them out anyway.














The kids are so excited to watch them. And so am I :) By the way, we spotted a robin in the yard on Thursday. Hooray for Spring!

Caught

After several days of birdwatching, I was finally able get a picture of a nuthatch. Boy are they fun to watch! They are really hard to photograph though.

Winter Window

We have had lots of winter weather this week. Since we put up our bird feeder in January, we have spent a lot of time on snowy days watching the birds out our window. The Tumbleweed is hard at work making a list of birds for Grandma, so each time we see a bird we haven't seen before it is a big deal and we have to get out the list and add to it (Grandma is making a list of the birds at her feeder in NY to compare to the Tumbleweed's list). Today I decided to try to 'capture' some of our visitors in my own way.

Several birds were easy to photograph with multiple birds taking their time at the feeder. Here are a titmouse, a chickadee, a goldfinch and a brown junco. We also had lots of house finches and black juncos.























But two birds were quite elusive - the nuthatch and the cardinal. The nuthatch spent a lot of time at the feeder but was so quick to dart around I got lots of blurry pictures. There were two pairs of cardinals in the yard, but none of them ever got very close. I don't know if they were seeing me in the window or just preferred not to dine with the other birds. Here are some lousy photos to prove that I saw them. (The nuthatch is the bird behind the goldfinch)

Attack of the Birds - Year 2

Thwack, thud.

What was that? I start looking out the window to see if someone was in the driveway & attempting to leave something in the door. No. Must have been the wind.

(a few minutes pass)

Thwack, thud.

Definitely something at the front door... I open the gate and go down to look. "Aha moment." There was a ruffled looking robin on the steps. Yup, the confused bird is back, and we have thrown him an extra curve ball this year by putting the storm window in the front door. My walking down the stairs spooked him enough to fly away and stop banging into our front door.

Hopefully the weather will stay warm & we will put the screen in soon... although, he will probably just choose a new window to scare me at.

Attack Bird

Spring is in the air, the birds are chirping & and flying into our house! Well, one bird is. We have a robin that has been flying into the windows of the house for almost a week. I have tried moving everything out of the window, opening the window, putting a picture of a bird in the window... but he keeps coming back. Sometimes he switches windows, but every morning he has been here "thunking" against one of the windows.

At first it was pretty freaky, but now I guess we have gotten used to it. He is our "crazy bird" and he comes to visit every day.