Poor Little Robin

I'm on the computer and Irv comes in to tell me there is a fat robin sitting on a wire in the backyard "crying". "She sounds so sad," he said. "Come out and look at her."

So I finished up what I was doing and went out to the deck and sure enough....there on one of the phone wires is this fat robin, making a very sad little "peep" every few seconds. She looked like she was missing some feathers.

Our discussion was based on trying to figure out what was wrong with the poor thing. I stood there talking to her. "Hi sweetie" "It's okay honey".......she just kept up her forlorn little peeping. It sounded so awful. I felt so bad. I thought she might be sick. Her feathers didn't look nice at all. Irv thought she was looking for something. He thought maybe she was young and lost her mom.

I continued trying to comfort her, and then slowly she turned her little head our way, took one look at us.....and flew away into the trees!

Now could she have been everything we thought....sure...but I've decided that she was just an overweight chick with a lousy voice that was having a bad hair day!

Awestruck!

There were so many! They moved in sync like a well orchestrated ballet. Their moves were sheer perfection. The entire group moved as though they were one.

It was one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen...one of those "stop you in your tracks" moments....the ones that take your breath away and bring tears to your eyes....and I got to experience it.

I was on my way to work and a enormous flock of birds came into view. It was the biggest flock I have ever seen in my entire life. They "blackened" a huge area of the sky! There was no where to pull over to watch them, so I drove on with my eyes to the sky...making sure not to run into the guy in front of me....although I'm sure most eyes were glued to the "morning dance" in the sky.

Photo from the Science Series at PBS.com
For more info on "flocking" click on photo

They swooped and climbed. They made large circles and small circles.....all in perfect "step". It reminded me of the videos you see of the huge schools of fish dancing in the ocean current.

Even thinking about it now as I write makes me feel just as I did that morning. Awestruck!

The beauty of nature.....

Woe Is Us...Tweet, Tweet

At this time every year, we face the same dilemma. What do we do about the little birds that call our deck home?

I talked before about the little sparrows or wrens or whatever they are that have made our deck into their "home sweet home". They are so darn cute, but they poop everywhere and they narrowly miss your head when you are on the deck as they swoop in and out of their little nests.

This year they put out to the word to every one of their aunts, uncles and cousins....and now they all live on our deck in a lovely apartment complex! Sometimes you look up and there are all of these little heads peeking out in between every roof slat. It's a commune!

Irv puts a plastic tarp on top of the deck every year. It allows him to still sit on the deck if there is a light rain and it allows me to sit on the deck when the sun is shining. There use to be one little nest in one little corner of the tarp.....well, since they put the word out....there are many nests in many parts of the tarp.

We have to take the tarp down in the late fall so that the snow doesn't gather on it and put a lot of weight on the supports for the slatted roof that is over the deck. In the past, Irv has cut around where the little birds live and secured the tarp with a wooden roof to keep the little guys dry and happy all winter. Well, this year there are so many of them that we aren't sure what to do.

Irv said he is just going to pull it all down and they will have to hurry up and build a new nest somewhere else before winter. I don't think he will do that, but we aren't sure what we are going to do.

The little guys should have just kept quiet and enjoyed their comfy "digs". Now they might all end up homeless!

Welcome To The Frozen Tundra

Just a quick little post today. Michael just came over and I am going to get out of my workshop for the first time since 7:30 this morning! Don't forget to leave your comment each day on my blog for extra entries into my very first Giveaway. Remember to visit my shops and leave your favorite item in a comment for a couple of extra entries.

Welcome to the frozen tundra of northern Illinois! Wow, what a week we have had. The temperature reached about -25 and with the wind, there were some areas with wind chills of -40. Our school closed yesterday because of the weather. There are a lot of kids that bus to school and it wasn't safe for them to be outside waiting for the bus I guess. (Gee, when my kids were in school and it was cold or raining, I drove them to the bus stop and let them sit in the car until the bus came......I guess parents don't do that anymore)

People's cars that sat outside would not start so that kept the gas stations in business running around jumping everyone's cars. Switches on the railroad tracks were freezing, so guys had to be out there working on those.

I felt sorry for the people that have to work outside. That wouldn't be for me. Once I am cold, I am cold for hours and hours after that, even when I am in the house!

I was out and about yesterday and had my camera with me so I snapped a couple of cold weather pictures. The first icicle picture is not my house, but the second one is. The horses looked happy enough, but something tells me they might have preferred a warm barn to the cold field, even with the little blanket on their backs.

The birdfeeders are mine. They are in an area that we don't shovel in the winter so they are empty. I just thought they looked cold and lonely like everything else right now. My other feeders get filled. Irv said the other night that he wished he could bring in the little birds that live on our deck. He said he could see the tail feathers of one of them sticking out of their little "house". They must have all been packed in there trying to stay warm.

Apartment for Rent....Cheep!!

It's supposed to snow and that means it is time to take down the tarp that we put over our deck. We have a slatted roof over the deck, but to keep the rain off of Irv, my husband during the summer, and the sun off of me....every year he puts an inexpensive tarp over the slats. It doesn't look the greatest, but it serves a useful purpose.

One year we got got a lot of snow. It was heavy and it was wet and it actually brought the roof of the deck crashing down! Since then, before it starts to snow, Irv goes out and takes the tarp off. Today, our son, Michael was here and got to help. Now the tarp isn't just stuck up there...it's put up very nicely with washers and screws so it doesn't tear when the wind blows.

It wouldn't be a very big deal unscrewing the screws and taking the tarp off, however when little birds decide to move in....it becomes a big deal. Since we started putting the tarp up years and years ago, a little family of sparrows has lived in the tarp. They made themselves at home inside the rolled up corner, and they live there all year long. Like I said a couple of days ago, I love all kinds of animals and I definitely love my little birds.

Besides having to hose off all of the bird poopies that our little feathered friends leave around our deck, we have had some wonderful moments with them. Each year we watch in the spring as they busily rebuild their nest. We also get to hear the little chirping when the babies hatch. We also get dive bombed every time we walk out the door, but it's okay...like I said...I love animals. We even put a little birdhouse up there for them, but of course they prefer the tarp!

Well, this spring our little family of sparrows must have put an announcement in the "Bird Nest News" and invited everyone they knew, to come and move into their great apartment complex! We had so many little birds swooping in and out of the tarp every time we walked out the door, that you never knew which way they were coming from!

Irv was not really pleased with the new apartment dwellers, especially when the little bird poopies became lots of bird poopies.

Well, today was take down the tarp day, but when Irv takes down the tarp, he always leaves the little corner apartment where in place, and to be sure that our little feathered friends are warm and cozy during the long, cold winter....he screws a piece of 2 by 4 on top of the slats! No wonder they invited all of their friends to move in this year.

So, I went out this afternoon to see how the project was coming and noticed that we had two lovely corner apartments with new roofs. Pretty soon we'll be heating the apartments for them!