Whoooos That In My Tree?

The kid heard our local crows yelling like crazy, and discovered our resident Great Horned Owl snoozing in one of the elm trees that separate our yard from the neighbors.

This is the guy who likes to sit out there 'Who-Who'-ing his brains out all the time, so he's pretty chill with us standing under his tree and commiserating what it's like to have two crows and a hummingbird harassing your ass.

Because owls just aren't safe from the tiny fury that IS a hummingbird when you are too close to his feeder.

Poor guy. Sorry dude, nothin' I can do.

Attack Of The Giant Chicken

Just now there was a fat housecat half-heartedly stalking birds in my front yard...

The sparrows were barking, alerting everyone to his presence.  Then the quail decided this was bullshit and really started after him, chasing him down...

Then my kid, who is home sick today and never got out of her pajamas, stepped out onto the porch dressed in a chicken onesie.

Once the giant chicken got involved that was it, that damned cat ran for the hills.  Doubt he'll ever be back.

Eagles And Agriculture!

Every Spring, the Carson valley becomes a waystation for Bald Eagles as they gather during the birthing of the calves in the valley.

It's a great time to go admire cute baby cows and get a good look at the birds at the same time.  Bald Eagles being scavengers for the most part, they enjoy the...uh...'leftovers' the birthing cows leave behind and bat cleanup after the calves are born.

It's kind of a big deal for people to go out with binoculars and telephoto lenses to get pictures of the eagles, right along highway 395 on the way into Carson City.

Anything involving birds, especially birds of prey, is fun for us, so today we grabbed the binoculars and the camera and headed out.  We ran into lots of other people doing the same thing, newcomers would wander over and ask if we'd seen anything and get pointed in the right direction.

Lots of cows!

Including fresh ones!

Unfortunately we didn't see any Bald Eagles at this spot, although we did spot some Sandhill Cranes.

We hung out for a bit, then decided to drive a bit further afield and headed for Genoa.  We stopped to admire this guy's labor-intensive fencing, he had it all around his property.

The local newspaper has been warning people lately to stop feeding the Mule deer, they've gotten quite bold and lost their natural fear of people, coming right into people's yards and dangerously close to the highway.

This guy, for instance, had his own private herd in his yard...

This little buck waited a bit, then cautiously wandered over to the girls.

After we admired the deer we resumed our Bald Eagle search, trying some of the fields outside Genoa where things were quieter.  We lucked out and found some in the trees waaaay out in the fields.  This guy had his nest all built!

The bird in this tree didn't seem to welcome her friend at first...

...but they quickly seemed to get along quite well!

 Yikes.

And then they sat and stared at us.

One of the trailheads is also a Nature Conservancy wetlands...

...but only for important birds.

Hopefully the Bald Eagles qualify!

Baby Bird Cam!

Go here to see & here freshly hatched American Robins, with the world's most adorable mom:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/patrick-sinclair-washington-jones-iii

Fun Stuff...

Found a couple of old advertisements...

Bird cards! Yeah, all kids wanna collect Bird Cards! And that Flycatcher looks SO damned happy. I guess when you're a kid getting Shredded Wheat for breakfast, birds cards are about the best prize you can reasonably expect.  I can just see some little advertising exec, crushed, sitting in his darkened office with his head in his hands, wondering why it didn't work. It seemed so fool-proof.


Then there's this one, from the late 50's:

Just look at that hen gobbling down that Jello. I can safely say I doubt very much if my chickens would EVER touch Jello. And they eat anything.

But Hickety's hep, all you cats.

1971 In Progress...

Well, the 1971 calender is nearing completion.

It's funny, in the instructions they tell you that while they give you extra seed beads since they allow that some beads are too narrow to fit over the needle, they only give you just enough sequins to complete the kit. No lie, I ended up with only 4 extra gold sequins once they were all used. Apparently in 1971 there was a sequin shortage along with gasoline.

Anyway, here it is in progress.

Taking pictures of the thing is difficult, here is another with different lighting--the felt is nice and white with no yellowing at all. Neither really shows the true look of it, it glimmers a WHOLE lot more than this.

At any rate, it's fun and cute, and I've finally gotten the hang of sewing on sequins so the thing progresses at an acceptable rate, and the amount of finger stabbing hasn't been bad.

My favorite is the Kinglet, he's got such a cute face!

I figure I'll have it entirely done in about a week, give or take.

Sequins, Sequins Everywhere...

...and I think I'm going blind.

Sewing on sequins is surprisingly fussy, any little wobble in the design stands out like a sore thumb. This is taking some good strong lighting and LOTS of patience. I also noticed a problem with the instructions and the 'finished' shot they used in the cover sheet for the kit--they forgot to do the head of the Goldfinch! In the instructions, they show his little head literally encrusted with beads & sequins.

I'm thinking he looks better with his head unsequined, except I may do the black patch on the top of his head. Entirely sequined I think he'd look like he had a growth on his head.

It's proving every BIT as tacky and cheesy as I had hoped, though.

Onward to glory, boys.