chick-a-dee-dee-dee  

We have 4 blue jays that have been coming around. Two of them have the baldest heads! Here's one of them (through the screen door) 

one - two - three - four!

Four chickadees at the feeders this morning!

Look who caused a stir this morning. I heard a strange bird out back (still don't know what this Blue Jay was mimicing) and looked. He laneded on the new feeder with a flourish (startling the other birds on the ground) and proceeded to make himself at home on the feeder. 

All sorts of stuff!

Well, I had a good day. I managed to make a curtain for the guest room! I can barely sew a straight line, and I made a curtain - no pattern at all!

Not bad, eh? When I wasn't in the basement sewing, I was watching for birds. I saw a white breasted nuthatch the other day. He was sniffing around the new feeder in the garden. It's the iron sunflower that I mentioned earlier. I didn't catch him at the feeder, but I did catch some house finches there. They look like little brown blobs on it.
Here's the feeder, in the sunlight so you can get a good look.
The little brown lumps in the second picture are birds chowing down. I have circled them in pink.

We've had a lot of mourning doves this summer. Especially this week. I did find a pile of grey feathers under one of the feeders. I'm not sure if this means the dove got caught or not. They are supposed to have loose feathers, so they can escape a predator. I think I may have seen the sharp shinned hawk last night, so that might be the explanation.

The petunias I started from seed are doing well, finally. I was beginning to loose hope for a while there. Here they are looking pretty.

BIRDS

Well, I looked out the window tonight and saw such a delightful array of birds! I had a white breasted nuthatch, sparrows, gold finches, house finches, chipping sparrows. One little guy had even found the new iron-flower feeder.

Misc Stuff

Well, it's been a week since I posted, so I thought I should say something.

We've seen a young bunny in the yard a few times. He's been eating dandelion leaves, so he's welcome to stay and do that! I saw a chickadee for a fleeting moment yesterday. He stopped at the empty safflower feeder and decided it wasn't for him and left.

I got a new feeding station as a birthday present. It's an iron sunflower that holds seed cakes. I put it out Saturday since the ground was nice and soft from the rain. As far as I can tell, the birds haven't discovered it yet, but it's only been a few days. I'll post a picture here soon.

We got the baby's room painted (three coats of yellow!!), and a new crib mattress purchased. Just want to clean the carpet and we'll be able to get things more organized in there. My dad has offered to help hang the wall paper border, so that will be great! Pictures of the painted room will follow one of these days.

Look who came to stay for a picture this morning, even if it is a little fuzzy. I had to take the picture through the window in the kitchen. Opening the curtain to the glass door scared him off.