Category: Birds

Monday, July 7, 2025 Fluffy Danger

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Suppose you got news that a darling little fluffy seagull chick was just outside your domicile. Would you:

A. Jump up, grab your camera, and run out to get a photo, or
B. Say, “Oh, that’s interesting,” and go right on with what you were doing.

If you answered A, you are a kindred spirit. Read on. If you answered B, I wonder if you wandered into this blog post entirely by mistake. No one will fault you for leaving, but you may find the proceeding story will vindicate you.

As it happens, I did recently have an opportunity to jump up, grab my camera, and go in pursuit of the aforementioned baby seagull. I took a few photos, getting closer and closer. The baby didn’t seem to mind. I like to think that we were having a moment.

Suddenly, a loud noise interrupted my reverie, accompanied by the sight of a large seagull swooping down toward me.

I yelped and backed off, but was dive bombed twice more by this very protective parent as I tried to get away.

Since I yelped each time, the crowd of kids on the beach got quite a show. You’re welcome.

Fun times!

If you hear me yelping in the morning, you’ll know I had to delete this.

Monday, June 9, 2025 Mr. & Mrs. Mallard plus a Rabbit named Willow

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We have a largish fountain in the front yard and a smallish one in the back (an embarrassment of fountain riches). For the first time in 20 years of living here, our tiny little ponds have attracted a pair of mallards.

Is it just me, or is her beak longer than his? Lately, the mister has been showing up by himself, which makes me wonder if his lady love is nesting nearby. Will they bring their darling ducklings to our pond? Is that a good thing? They’re fun to watch, but it’s not all glistening green necks and plump feathery bodies on orange legs and feet. They’re also leaving their ducky calling cards on the edge of our front fountain. What if their new habitat catches on and we have a veritable mallard tourism site in the years to come?

Stay tuned.

In the meantime, I’ve developed quite the relationship with a rabbit doe who likes our perennial garden. I call her “Willow.” You ask how I know she’s a she? I was privy to a very public courtship between Willow and an ardent admirer of hers. Although she rebuffed his advances, he kept chasing her around the garden. When he’s not around, she comes surprisingly close to me, perhaps it’s because I’ve honed my sedentary skills to an art and I seem more like an unmoving part of the garden landscape. As much as we’ve hit it off, I have strongly discouraged her attempts to build a nest in the garden by putting our scare owl in the hole she started to dig. Sorry, Willow. I like you but I can’t have you ruining our garden.

Willow eats our dandelions, which endears her to me.

I’ll probably use a scare owl to ruin this post in the morning.

Wednesday, May 21, 2025 Geese, Eh?

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The Canada goose
Is on the loose
The Canadian geese
Evade the police

If seen in your counties
Please call the mounties
If loitering in lobbies
Call for the bobbies

Don’t try to chase ‘em
Don’t try to race ‘em
Just frolic and caper
And put ‘em on paper.

And that’s all I’ve got for today.

Time to caper off and delete this…in the morning.

Thursday, April 10, 2025 space space bar learning to use dictation feature, plus some art

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It turns out that using the dictation feature on my keyboard, isn’t always as intuitive as you would think. Nevertheless, it seemed like a good option to spare my arm some typing. So here it goes!

I’ve got a few pieces of artwork that I finished last week before deciding to give my arm a break.

Shrews are kinda cute! 
My first drawing in the owl series that I hope to continue. 
This is the only way I can do humans – from behind and with no hands. Ha ha!
The same chick as I did previously, but this time on watercolor paper. 

Most of these, as usual, are copies of things I found on Pinterest, with the exception of the owl which I drew from a photo.

Is the owl a fowl?
Certainly not! Perish the thought!
Is the owl very nice?
Certainly not! Just ask the mice!
Has the owl gone crazy?
Certainly not! Nor is he lazy.
Does the owl bill and coo?
Certainly not! What’s wrong with you?
Will the owl teach and preach?
Certainly not! Just hear him screech!
Is the owl a night sleeper?
Certainly not! He’s a night peeper!

About the owl
I’ve told you a lot
You now are an expert
On what he is not.

The end.

…in the morning.

Thursday, October 10, 2024 The “P” Birds

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Said the puffin to the penguin
You’ve got a lot of nerve
You waddle around pretending –
We know you’re not a bird!

Said the penguin to the puffin,
Oh goodness, just my luck –
I’ve met an orange-footed fop
Who thinks he is a duck.

Said the pelican to the penguin
Don’t mind this little puffin
He’s lacking in self confidence,
His ego needs some stuffin’

Said the puffin to the pelican
Oh look! A beak with wings!
You could rent that big mouth out
For critters to store their things.

Said the peacock to the pelican
Why bother with this ruffian?
Don’t you know better than
To trade insults with a puffian?

Said the puffin to the peacock
Look whose talking now?
A bird with eyes on his feathers
Is uglier than a cow!

Said the peacock to the puffin
Let’s settle this like birds
We’ll show off what we’ve got
And not rely on words

So the puffin flapped his feet
The penguin wore his tux
The peacock spread his tail
Which was so very deluxe

But the pelican was more clever
He made a wise decision
He opened his mouth wide
And swallowed them with precision.

I’ll probably swallow this post up tomorrow with precision.

Thursday, August 25, 2022 The Dancing Peacock

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I recently came across the oil painting I did as a wedding gift for my sister and her husband back in the day. It wasn’t as awful as I remembered, so there’s that. But it’s definitely up there with Weird Gifts. I think it’s safe to say that I was marching to the beat of my own drum. Since I mentioned it on a previous blog post, I thought it only fair to share it with you. (See The Puffin Post)

The best part is the way the peacock is dancing through the tall grasses, perhaps a wedding dance. His feathers are out, so you’ve gotta figure there’s at least peacock romance in the air.

My first and last oil painting, circa 1979.

I’m deleting this after doing the peacock dance in the tall grasses in the morning.

Wednesday, January 20, 2021 Encourage Chickadees

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I mentioned on this blog that I wanted to do more knitting in 2021 and received a commission right away to work on two pairs of mittens for a friend of mine who donates them to an afterschool program for kids. This coincides nicely with my desire to use up my yarn stash, so I plucked a handsome little skein of yarn out and got the needles going.

I was sailing along smoothly until I realized that I had read the instructions wrong, starting the thumb a full three inches above the cuff. You’d think I might have noticed this as an error, but I didn’t think about it until I was way up on the hand and had a thought that either this mitten was going to have to be for someone of very unusual hand anatomy or I had to “tink” those 3 inches off the mitten. (Note: tink is knit spelled backwards – a knitting friend of mine introduced me to that charming way of referring to the process of unknitting.). I wish I’d thought to take a photo of that monstrosity, but you’ll just have to imagine it.

Progress was made.

One down, three to go! I’ll use a different yarn for the next pair, though.

In other artsy news, I had a dream recently in which someone was giving a series of 2-word imperatives. The only one I remembered when I woke up was “encourage chickadees.” Strange, I know. I’m not sure what this means, but one thing was clear: this must not be ignored.

Can t-shirts and mugs with this motto be far behind? It’s probably going to become all the rage and you guys can say that you were here at the beginning.

There you have it – Watercolor Wednesday!

I’ll probably delete this in the morning, whilst encouraging the wee little chickadees in our yard. They must really need it.

January 27, 2020 Puffin Post

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I think it’s time for the puffin post (should I call this a puffin piece?). At the beginning of the year, I decided to enroll in a course of my own making, called “Learning How to Draw Real Animals by Looking at Real Photos of Them.” This was to correct my lazy tendency to try to draw things from memory. When my sister got married, I was in college and decided that what she and her new husband really needed was an oil painting of a peacock done by yours truly. That’s wrong on so many levels, it’s hard to know where to start.

First of all, I’d never EVER painted using oils. With the careless abandon of youth, I forged ahead. Second of all, I didn’t even bother to look at a photograph of a peacock. I just fudged my way through it and came up with something that I’m not sure anyone would have been able to identify as a peacock, although I think it did look like a bird of some sort. Thirdly, nobody needs this kind of item as a wedding gift. At least it was a small painting. Fourthly, I’m sure it presented quite a social conundrum for them as to how and where to display this little monstrosity when I was visiting so as to reassure me that it was appreciated. As I recall, they found a little space on a wall between their refrigerator and some other large item – more space than it deserved, actually.

And so it has continued. When I want to draw something I haven’t wanted to hamper myself with the details. My speciality is stick figures, but this doesn’t tend to work well for animals. You may ask why I’m even bothering with this. Go ahead and ask. I don’t have an answer.

I started with owls and after a few weeks of that, moved onto puffins, penguins and pelicans. Here’s the puffin page:

I have no idea where to go with all of this, but it was worth it all just to find out that a baby puffin is called a puffling. Come on, you’ve gotta admit – that’s pretty darn cute.

I’ll probably delete this in the morning.

May 4, 2018 Nest

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Just a little something...“Just a little something I picked up for the new house – I know just where I want it to go!”

“I’ve got this eerie feeling I’m being watched?”

“Uh oh – I’ve been spotted. Stay still…stay very still.”

First of all, can you tell that these photos were taken through a window screen? I tried standing outside on the balcony to get an unobstructed view, but Mrs. Robin demurred to make an appearance with me right in plain sight. I just happened to see her yesterday when she was first checking out the place above the lamp as potential nest real estate. She hopped around up there, her little birdie feet slipping down every time she tried to get a purchase. It all looked rather precarious to me, but others of her kind have nested there before and perhaps the word had spread, even though we had removed last year’s model home when the occupants were done with it. Here’s an interesting thought: what if she was raised here last year? If so, she had to be rather puzzled about the disappearance of the old homestead.

At any rate, I’m impressed with her craftsmanship and look forward to watching her accomplish in about 8 weeks what took me 20+ years. I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

I’ll probably delete this in the morning.

April 25, 2018 The Right Sort of Bird

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Full disclosure: this is my copy of something I found on Pinterest, a way to practice watercolor painting.

Edmund: “But have you realized what we’re doing?”

“What?” Said Peter, lowering his voice to a whisper.

“We’re following a guide we know nothing about. How do we know which side that bird is on? Why shouldn’t it be leading us into a trap?”

“That’s a nasty idea. Still – a robin, you know. They’re good birds in all the stories I’ve ever read. I’m sure a robin wouldn’t be on the wrong side.”

C.S. Lewis, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

I’m just as sure that this bird wouldn’t be on the wrong side and wish I had a story to tell you about it.

I’ll probably delete this in the morning.