Thursday, February 4, 2016

it's spring! no, it's winter. it's spring! no, it's winter


And so it goes here on the Gulf Coast Plains in February. The finches of both types are still here and also an occasional brown headed cowbird and a robin. We don't usually see too many robins out here though they were plentiful when we lived in the city. All the usual suspects are here as well...sparrows, bluejays, cardinals, titmice, chickadees, wrens, doves, warblers...and they would empty the totem bird feeder four times a day if I would fill it that often. Regardless of the temperature outside, the birds are convinced it's spring.

a bad picture of the brown headed cowbird

As is the 10 petal anemone, usually the first wildflower to make its appearance.


And I finally caught the squirrel climbing the rebar up to the totem bird feeder.






Other activities...

I am far behind in reading blogs and I appreciate that y'all still read and comment on me. And speaking of blogs, I lost about 20 followers overnight a couple of weeks ago because Google has decided not to count those that don't have Google/Blogger accounts. If I was up on this stuff I could have alerted those of you that got cut so if you are still here, I have added a 'notify by email' link on my sidebar so you can continue to keep up with fascinating me.

I've been trying to take advantage of the nice days to get some work done in the yard but really all I have managed to do so far is move the two stunted blueberry bushes and pull up some of the clover around the bluebonnets that are growing in the yard.

Beyond that, I have been working on the mounting for the magnolia leaves trying to decide what it is I want to do with them. I have several configurations going...all mounted on individual pieces of steel on a piece of stained interior grade plywood and framed with the narrow black frame I've been using (to hide the edges of the plywood), the previous with a stick from the magnolia tree worked through the leaves, or just the leaves on their pieces of steel and hung separately. It would probably help me decide if I would just go down and get the piece of plywood and stain it instead of using foam core board in a mock-up. Guess I'll do that tomorrow.




13 comments:

  1. Same here. Winter, spring, summer? fall? winter. No. Spring.
    Yes.
    It's so confusing.
    And birds galore. This morning there were so many little birds on the feeder it was almost scary.

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  2. Well, I'll take the birdies forecast to the bank. Oh I do miss the bluebonnets.

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  3. Strangely warm lately here in Massachusetts. It's going to turn colder in a few days, but we're still transported with excitement at temps in the upper 40s.
    And of course you would have such a lovely glass bird/squirrel feeder.

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  4. I think you may be one or two glass bud vases short of a squirrel slide back to the ground. The cow birds won the feeder battle, so I am back to safflower until they forget I used to put out good stuff.

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  5. It's warm in England too. Plants wise we've had primroses out since December and quince. The daffs are coming up 2 months early too and winter clothes are still packed away.

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  6. It looks more like Spring where you live than it does here in rainy dreary Portland.

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  7. Look at that squirrel. He looks a little guilty going up the pole, but once he's on top he looks right at home. :)

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  8. I wondered why i had that dip in followers. Lots of squirrels around me, I used to eat the little buggers.

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  9. The weather is a bit bipolar around here, too. Same goes for the bird. There were two blue jays playing around our window yesterday. Today we woke up to five inches of snow. Oh, and my pepper plant is blooming.

    I was wondering what happened to the followers of my archive blog. I lost around 100. Thanks for letting me know where they went.

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  10. I like the tenacity of that little squirrel!

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  11. Aww - cute squirrel! I love how ingenious & tenacious they are. I don't know why, but I think cowbirds are so pretty with their glossy brown heads - like burnished copper.

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  12. I'm such a fan of squirrels, I can't help but be amused by your little guy. What I'm most envious of is your clutch of anemones. I didn't realize that they were native to Texas, and they're on my list of gotta-sees for this spring. It looks like I'd best get after it. I don't even know if the grown over here. I'll have to get out my books and websites and see what the gurus say.

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