Birdbaths

Donna at Funky Junk Interiors is having a theme party on birdbaths and I thought I would revisit an oldie and feature mine!

When we moved into our new home there were no trees in the neighborhood so it took several years before I started attracting birds to the garden. Spring 2007, while cleaning the garage, I saw that I had a lot of bricks and things left over from various projects. I decided to stack them and make a birdbath stand.


This is still my favorite birdbath! It is also the favorite of the birds here at Robin's Nesting Place!


 
It has been here for five years now and even though it wasn't mortared together it has withstood our winter weather and many storms.

  
As you can see it attracts a variety of birds.




  During the heat of the summer I will often fill the birdbath with ice water. The birds will come in droves to sit and cool off.


I have a nice concrete birdbath, but the birds don't use it. The clay saucers filled with rocks are a different story!

The larger birds even enjoy the deeper plastic saucer with a few rocks to sit on. It is a great pleasure to provide fresh cool water for my feathered friends.


 http://www.funkyjunkinteriors.net/2012/08/sns-149-bird-baths.html

 

Hummingbird Wreath

This past winter I made wreaths for the birds and to brighten up an otherwise dull winter landscape. It worked beautifully and the birds kept me entertained through our long and harsh winter.



A few days ago I decided to make a summer wreath to decorate an otherwise ugly and faded hummingbird feeder.



The hummingbirds found it rather quickly and seemed to prefer it over the larger feeder that was hanging nearby.



My goal this summer is to master shutter speed and capture some decent hummingbird pictures that freeze the wings of these speedy little guys.



Here is a shot of a bird through the wreath. I think it is a female catbird since she was with the male all evening, but I'm not 100% certain.



I eased around the tree and quickly snapped better picture before she flew away. Does anyone know if this is indeed the female gray catbird?



Here is the gray catbird in the bird bath. We've had a pair of catbirds here for the last three summers. They are noisy but I love hearing them!



This robin is nesting in one of my trees. One of the four eggs had hatched as of yesterday when I checked. It has been sweet watching the male robin search for worms and take them to the female as she is sitting on her nest.

I have been busy working on a rain garden for one of the common areas of my neighborhood. I'll have to get some pictures of the project. Right now we are just digging up the "soil" that is either mud or like cement. It has turned into a much bigger project than I had imagined. Hopefully it will be worth it when we are finished.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Thankful for Distractions

Sadly the peonies are already past their prime. They are so gorgeous, I just wish they lasted longer. (I think I say that every year. )



I bought this chippy blue picnic table at a garage sale last weekend for $5.00. It is a large oval table and quite heavy. It will replace a small wrought iron table that fell over whenever the wind blew hard. One of these days I will probably repaint it, but for now I like it just the way it is.





I love this poppy! I wish it had more than this single bloom. It looks so pretty next to the lavender. I will definitely save the seeds and try to grow more of them.



I've never had much success with roses before, but the pink double Knockout roses are easy to grow and they are so pretty. I like them so much better than the single Rainbow colored one I have.



I need to get outside tomorrow with my spray bottle of soapy water and get the aphids off of them.



I noticed this robin at the birdbath yesterday. It kept its mouth open. I was curious about this behavior and read that when the weather is hot they open their mouths and pant to keep cool.



We went from cold and rainy to hot and humid. I was looking forward to warmth, but not quite this warm yet.



I am definitely seeing more butterfly activity this year!



The hummingbirds are back too!



My mother has been in the hospital for over two weeks. She had a serious case of Diverticulitis. It ruptured and set up infection and sadly she had to have part of her colon removed and now has a colostomy. I haven't been able to go home to Alabama to be with her. My heart is so heavy and I am very concerned about her. At times like this, it is very difficult being so far away from home.

My dad is still in so much pain after his lung cancer surgery last year. It is really painful for him to stay at the hospital so much with my mother, but he does it anyway. He had a spot on his rib during his last scan. He will have another scan in a few weeks. I'm concerned that his cancer may be back. If it is, I don't know how they will take care of each other. I try not to think about that.

I am so thankful for the beautiful flowers, bees, butterflies and birds that provide a little distraction from the worry and concern.

Caught in the Act...Nature Update

Every morning one of the first things I do while I'm stumbling through the house, making my way to the coffee maker, is open the blinds. This morning, as I raised the blinds on the landing, I noticed a lot of activity at the bird feeders. Not only were there birds, but I actually caught two rabbits munching on my burning bush. This is the first time I've actually caught them in my yard.

Momentarily I forget the coffee and grab the camera instead. Not wanting to startle them, I started quietly and slowly taking pictures from inside the house.

Then I slowly crept outside and of course they immediately started hopping away.

This one hunkered down for a few seconds for a photo-op and then quickly scampered into the neighbor's thick hedge of shrubs.


This is the same burning bush they nearly destroyed during the winter, chewing it within inches of the ground. I was shocked that it actually grew some branches this spring and looked like it might survive. Now they are attacking it again. I let Lilly outside after the rabbits were out of the yard. I was sitting on the swing and she was beside me. I notice she was sniffing and had become very alert and focused on something, I turned around and spotted the rabbit again. About that time Lily took off after the rabbit and chased it away. Hopefully, that scared it and maybe, just maybe it will stay away.

I put some peanuts out and it wasn't too long before the blue jays came. This one wasn't too sure about me being outside and was hesitant at first.

It was making an awful racket too.

After several minutes of screeching and squawking, it started gathering the peanuts. They don't take time to eat them, they hoard them, going back and forth gathering and hiding, until all of the peanuts are gone.

There were quite a few birds here this morning, the robins, doves, chickadees, grackles, cardinals, and sparrows. I also saw a great blue heron flying over head, and a hawk giving chase.

"George" is still taking up residence in the five winter sowing containers that remain to be planted. Today he is in the foxglove.

The pill bugs are still eating my plants and I've yet to discover anything that works. I've tried the grapefruit, and they do like it, but the minute you remove it they scamper like crazy and are very difficult to smash. I was hoping they would be all neatly clustered inside the grapefruit and I could remove the grapefruit and all the bugs would be inside. That isn't the case, they cover the ground underneath the grapefruit. Same with the newspaper. They love the wet newspaper and will collect underneath it, not on it, and when you lift it they scamper. Smashing bugs is not exactly my favorite gardening task. YUCKY!

It was about 70 degrees this morning, perfect weather for sitting outside and observing the creatures who are making Robin's Nesting Place their home. Unfortunately, not all of them are welcome guest.

Bathing Birds, Blooms and Butterflies

There hasn't been a lot of leisure time for me outside this spring, but this morning, even though there was plenty I could have been doing, I decided to sit on the swing and read.

I have had quite a lot of bird activity here today. This young robin was near the patio this morning.

A robin and sparrow enjoying the birdbath.

I made this simple birdbath last year out of things I had in the garage taking up space. I have two other birdbaths but this one seems to be the favorite. It definitely gets the most use.

I was delighted to see the bluebird back today.

I was standing outside and she seemed a little skittish about getting into the water at first.


Not a very flattering picture of Ms. Bluebird.

I have a few purple coneflowers blooming right now. This one has the prettiest shape and color and is in the mailbox garden. It probably gets a little more sun than the others do.

More of the lily blooms have opened...

and the spirea, that I moved last fall, is blooming. I wasn't sure it would survive the move, but it did. It's not my favorite shrub and was one of several that the builder installed in the front flower bed. I had already moved the others and they all promptly died. I've had to trim this one back to the ground for the last few years because it was getting too large for the small front flowerbed. I moved it to the side of the house beside the gutter downspout. It seems to be very happy with all of the rain we've been getting.


The parsley in the butterfly garden that survived the winter is blooming. (I didn't know that parsley was a biennial.) The blooms have obviously attracted the butterflies because I notice some little caterpillars on them today. It surprised me to find them this early because I have only caught brief glimpses of a couple of butterflies.

We had a terrible thunderstorm earlier this evening with a heavy downpour and high winds. I was concerned about the tiny caterpillars on the parsley and checked on them after the storm passed. Thankfully they were still there.

Buebirds Again

The bluebird is becoming a regular visitor now, I spotted him at the birdbath today. I'm not sure if he was checking out the nesting box again.

I got a few pictures before he flew away.

The ducks are so funny. I was outside on the patio this evening and spotted them coming into the yard. I walked over to Lilly and sat on the grass beside her to hold her leash so she wouldn't chase them. They walked right up to the patio and ate the sunflower seeds. I couldn't believe that they would come so close to me and the dog.

Hopefully Lilly will get used to seeing them and won't bother them, but between the cat yesterday and the neighbors dog in my yard today, they better be careful.

It was a beautiful spring day today with temperatures reaching around the low 70's. My son mowed our backyard for the first time today. It only needed it in the areas where Lilly regularly "waters".
I transplanted the zinnias and quite a few petunias. A few weeks ago, I took some cuttings from the sweet potato vines, that I had overwintered, and placed them in water.


They had nice long roots already and I put into containers today. I'm getting tired of taking care of all of these plants inside and I'm ready to do some real gardening. With temperatures in the 70's it's hard to imagine another cold snap, but I know better than to put these babies outside yet. I have so many petunias that I did get tired of re-potting them today and stuck a few into containers on the patio. I'll just have to cover them if it gets too cold.

All but two of the winter sowing containers have plants growing in them and one of those is purple fountain grass seeds that I just planted a few days ago. The other is columbine. Everything else looks great. We have rain, rain and more rain in the forecast for this week. I'm so glad I was able to play outside for awhile today.