Sunday Birding

After our naps today we visited the Birding Center.

Right at the front in the pond was a green heron.

I heard the long-billed curlew fly in and land quite far away. We didn't see one here in November and it's the first one we've seen on this trip.

Out on the bay a few redheads are still hanging around.

Double-crested cormorant.

This was the only wigeon we saw and it was snoozing.

The yellow-crowned night heron was well hidden among the reeds.

The light was finally right for me to get a good shot of the Northern Pintail. All the markings on the feathers are easily seen. Behind it is a common moorhen (aka common gallinule, waterhen, and swamp chicken).

We see this (not so) roseate spoonbill in this location a lot. We've never seen it with others of its ilk.

I took this shot to show 7 species that are in this spot (alligator pond).

1. White ibis
2. Roseate spoonblill
3. Northern pintail
4. Mottled duck
5. Great blue heron
6. Yellow-crowned night heron (zoom in!)
7. Alligator

Nearby was another green heron.

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Crabs are a favourite food of several of the larger birds. Their legs are blue.

A very handsome red-winged blackbird.

Kildeer.

My camera battery ran out at this point. We also saw what we think were long-billed dowitchers. Also present were black-necked stilts, green- and blue-winged teal, and greater yellowlegs. I also caught a quick glimpse of a sora - one of the 'regulars' on my checklist that I hadn't seen yet.

Now when we go birding, we are watching for species we haven't seen yet this year. As the migration progresses we will see more and more species. We will have to tear ourselves away when we leave in mid-April because the warblers will be arriving in droves. The migration continues well into May but, of course, we will be well settled back at home and welcoming spring and the good weather.

Starting a New Project

After finishing my 'Bee Kind', I rummaged through my craft suitcase for something quick and easy. I pulled out the Hands On Design pattern, 'Sunshine on a Stem', the fabric (28 count evenweave), and threads. I'm using 2 of the Weeks Dye Works threads that I had in my stash, 2 called for DMC substitutes for the WDW threads I didn't have on hand, and totally substitued a different blue for WDW Dungarees for the jar.

The strip of green wool is included in the kit. the leaves are cut from it and sewn on after all the stitching is done,

I'm not sure I'll make a pin cushion out of mine. Whatever I decide to do won't happen until my return home in April.

15th Annual and Final BirdFest

This morning Skip and I got up in time to make it to a 9am talk at BirdFest at the golf course in Laguna Vista. Javier González (aka Javi pronounced "have-ee") did a great slide show about distinguishing characteristics of sparrows and warblers that frequent this area. Listening to him speak, one can tell he really loves his job being a birding expert at the Birding and Nature Centre on the island.

Before his talk started, BirdFest coordinator, Janet Randall told us it was the 15th BirdFest and would be the last. In recent years it has been more and more difficult to arrange for speakers and other activities. One of the scheduled speakers had to cancel on fairly short notice so Janet, and Mary Ann and Bob Severson showed slides of their birding whilst travelling to Africa and South America respectively. Janet remarked that she could now totally empathize with new birders who really don't know the names of any birds as she was totally stumped when seeing new birds in Africa.

During one of the breaks, Janet gave a plug for the Fish and Shrimp Fry fund raiser for the Laguna Vista library that was taking place at a nearby park. Skip and I headed there for lunch. For $8 we got several deep fried shrimp and a decent-sized piece of a white fish. They had run out of cole slaw so gave us extra shrimp. There was also a cookie in each container. It was all very yummy.

Then we went for a walk on the Laguna Vista walking trail.

Up on a wire was some kind of flycatcher. The light was bad so I'm not sure what it was.

The huisache have reached their blooming peak. They still smell great.

I'm very pleased with the birdwatching setting on my Nikon CoolPix B700. It makes a very small focus 'box' which allows me to take shots of birds behind branches and foliage.

The Northern Mockingbird is the state bird of Texas. It's also the state bird of Tennessee, Florida, Mississippi, and Arkansas.

A few yuccas are in bloom.

At one of the bird blinds, a female ruby-throated hummingbird was sharing the feeder with some bees.

Yellow-rumped warbler.

Orange-crowned warbler.

The grey catbird didn't come out from behind this branch.

Then a rabbit hopped in to take a drink at the water feature.

It didn't seem to be bothered by this white-tipped dove.

This is the white-tipped dove's habitat.

A lot of the birds we see here are only place they're seen in the US.

The rabbit hung around for a while. It didn't know that I hate rabbits.

On our way back to the car I looked up at the overhead wires and saw a Great Kiskadee.

We'd had a lot of activity for one day but stopped in at WalMart to make a couple of purchases then headed back to the condo for naps.

Bee Kind II

I finished my Bee Kind sampler. It is stitched with 1 thread over 2 on 36ct Edinburgh linen.

Feb 17 Birding

It was warm and sunny two days ago. We took a quick spin around the Birding Centre in search of any new species.

Some of the 'usual suspects' were there.

Spotted Sandpiper

Great Blue Heron drying its feathers

Snoozing Northern Pintails

Black-bellied Whistling Duck

Our first spotting this year - the flash of green alerted me. It's a green-winged teal.

The greater yellowlegs was hopping around on one leg. It is missing its right foot. It was here a couple of days ago. We call it 'Stumpy'.

The pied-billed greve was snoozing and gently drifting.

We always check the overhead wires on our way back to the parking lot. That day there was an American Kestrel surveying the area.

On the way back to the parking lot we spotted a couple of Pyrrhuloxia hopping around an in a brush pile. The Mockingbird was on the top.

There is a big 'Betony Mistflower' (conoclinium betonicifolium) garden beside the parking lot. There were lots of Fiery Skippers. They're only about 1.5cm in diameter.

To me, mistflowers look like blue ageratum we grow at home but these are on much longer stalks.

Queen butterflies are about 2/3 the size of monarchs and easy to distinguish because of the white dots.

There were also several Tropical Buckeye butterflies. They look a lot like Common Buckeyes but the 'eyes' are a more uniform size on Tropical Buckeyes and the part encircling the top 'eye' is paler.

They're also quite small - maybe 4cm in diameter.

Debate Stitching

I got more done on my ‘Bee Kind’ sampler while listening to the heated Democratic debate tonight.

It was cloudy and drizzly today - perfect for napping and stitching. We tried to go birding while it was drizzling lightly but the birds weren’t where we were. Then it started to rain harder so we went in search of lattes. 

An Arkansas yarn shop, The Stitcher’s Garden, has a whole bunch of sneak peaks for Market in Nashville and is adding more each day. I’ve made a list of a few charts I’d like to acquire.

RGV Quilt Show 2020

On Friday, I attended the Rio Grande Valley Quilt Show that was held on the island at the Convention Center. I took over 200 photos so will only share my highlights.

I liked the rag quilt in the shape of a dog. It was cozy flannel.

Lava Lamp had the 1960s aesthetic. It wasn't that remarkable from a distance.

Up close, I marveled at the 'matchstick' quilting. It used over 10,000 ft (almost 2 miles) of thread.

This looked like an accordion-folded Texas flag.

I liked the different sized 'jars'.

The bee-themed fabric was the labels.

This hand-dyed fabric represented the felled tree stump.

 The maple leaf was 3D.

This piece used batiks and had a lot of dimension

Several quilts had the kaleidoscope technique.

The piecing wasn't the most accurate. But the overall effect was 'mille fiori'-esque.

There were wool appliquéd pieces on this "Where the Cows Come Home" quilt.

The John Deere tractor caught my eye.

And the sheep.

This was another use of multiple cuts of the same fabric.

Paper piecing.

A string-quilt with the 'illusion' floating block technique.

This is one my friend, Barb, would like with the many blue fabrics. It's called "Blue Delft".

All the fabrics in this Dallas Cowboys star were either Dallas Cowboys prints or colours.

This had a very vintage look with crochet doilies attached to it and various block

of cross-stitch

and embroidery embellishments.

"Blue Birds" featured many fussy cut birds

that had quilting around each and stipple quilting beyond that.

Laura Heine designed this pattern called Pinkerton. The quilter calls it 'Pretty in Pink'.

"Around the Village Green"

featured some lovely appliqué work

and embroidered stitches.

This was a very interesting use for a cutwork tablecloth. It was sewn to a solid background then quilted.

The pileated woodpecker piece could hang in a corner of a window,

"Our Town" was the most intricate quilt of all.

The OPP badge caught my eye.

as did many other Canadian icons.

This was a great use of Kaffe Fassett flowers.

"Birds on a Wire" featured wool felt birds appliquéd and quilted on a random newsprint background.

Each of these snowman blocks represented a different month of the year.

They were beautifully embroidered with variegated blue thread.

There was also some 'bling' on some of the snowflakes.

A unique treatment of hexies.

"Wild Orange Cat" is a Mill Hill pattern  with beads, stitched onto Aida fabric then sashed and quilted.

There were SO many more I could have included but I had to draw the line somewhere.

There were dozens of vendors. I didn't buy any fabric but did purchase a two-fabric quilt applique kit. Instructions say to lay the appliqué fabric on top of the background fabric and stitch along the lines on the template. Then cut away parts of the appliqué fabric to expose the background fabric.

I'm pretty sure I can find some more exciting batik fabrics for my turtle quilt.