"Thanks" card and a few more birds

What a day we had yesterday. Perfect weather for May. Perfect day to walk thru the bush at Point Pelee to see the migratory birds. Perfect day for the picnic lunch! But, oh boy were we tired when we got home. We walked over 10,700 steps and were on our feet from 1:00 to 7:00 with only about a half-hour break. Too tired last night to even download the pictures I had taken; but I have now and I'll share a few for those that like the birds. For those of you that don't, I hope you enjoy the card that I  have to share.

Still working on reducing the stash! I had the flowered paper from another project so I found this pink paper with a faint diamond pattern that looked great with it so I put them together and added the ribbon that is the same shade as the dark flowers. Love it when everything matches and they don't come from a set. Then I stamped the fancy label (Hot off the Press) and the sentiment (came with the set) and the butterfly in the same shade as the light flowers on pink cardstock, cut it out leaving a border and attached it with dimensional dots. I love this label set that I bought. It comes with various small sayings that fit in the different labels. I bought it from Paper Wishes.

Now for some more bird photos.

 

Look closely at the tree trunk. Follow that horizontal limb and right where it hits the tree, and there sits a small Eastern Screech Owl. He looks like he's be carved out of the tree but he is alive. He was a long way back in the bush so my little camera did well to capture him at all.

 

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This is actually the same bird but sitting on a different branch with the sun hitting him differently.

What a difference the lighting makes!

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Front and side view of the same bird. The warblers are so colourful and I'm so happy to see them every spring.

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This is the female Scarlet Tanager. Yes, she really is that green which is why we seldom see the females. They blend right in with the foliage. Such a pretty bird. For comparison between the female and the male, I've posted a photo of the male Scarlet Tanager that I took last year.

Quite a difference!!!

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Have a great weekend everyone!

Boys and Parks

What a change in temperature overnight! It was so cold all week we were under a frost threat and yesterday we had on winter coats, hats and gloves. At 9:00 this morning it was already 19C (68F) and by 1:00 it was 30C (86F) and humid. Time to put the winter coats away again and bring out the shorts and T-shirts!

I thought I'd mix things up today and post a scrapbook layout. I haven't posted one in quite awhile. I have several more that are finished and waiting to be photographed but I like to do it outside and it has to be sunny but no wind...which hasn't happened yet!

This one is from a couple of years ago.Yeah I'm just a wee bit behind on my scrapbooking - like a few years behind.

 

 

I bought a brand new 12x12 scrapbook book at the thrift store and it had these pre-printed pages and embellishments inside. Not bad for $6.99! This is the double page layout and now I'll post the individual pages.

 

 

 

 

The background came just like it is but I added the butterfly which came with the kit. I blacked out where we were because I don't post that information.



Once again, this page came pre-printed and I just added the photos that I mounted on white first. Here's a tip for you. If you have some paper, 8", 8x11,or 12" that you don't really like, just flip it over and use the white side to mount your photos on. Waste not, want not as my mother used to say.

Birthday Ice Cream Cones and more birds

Still cold here. Brrrrr. I did not believe that I would be turning the furnace back on in May but we had to break down and turn it on. Sunday afternoon Joe got antsy from being in the house for two days and we decided to take a ride out to Rondeau Provincial Park. We figured there would be few people or birds but we would go out and chat with the staff that we know so well and have a coffee at the restaurant just to break up the day. To our great surprise the park was busy! The staff at the Visitor's Centre told Joe that they already had over 1,100 people come into the Centre over the weekend, and of course, not everyone goes inside! We ended up walking a couple of trails and saw a couple of incredible birds up close....photos at the end of the post. It was cold and we had on hats and winter coats and once in awhile it would sprinkle rain, then the sun would come back out, back to rain and on and on. In fact, for a few minutes we had hail bouncing off of us! Monday was grass cutting day for Joe, quilting for me and today we went back to Rondeau - still cold and few birds. Not a great day today and we were happy to be home. It's suppose to warm up tomorrow and stay warm and I hope they are right.

Today's card is another Stamping Bella stamp. Love her stamps.

 

This one is coloured with Prismacolor pencils and gamsol and then die cut with a Spellbinder's die.  When I bought this die (on sale at the Paper Pickle) I wasn't sure how much I would use it but it turns out I use it a lot. Before I die cut it, I made a straight cut beside the ice cream cones at the top to put them on top of the die so they would not be cut off. It works fine but make sure you cut straight and not on an angle. And or course I added some glitter. The paper is from my stash and the bow came from the shoe factory outlet.

And here are more bird photos. Birding is coming to an end so there won't be many more.

Lots of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks in the park.

At least these one sit still once in awhile!

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The most colourful warbler. Joe's favorite.

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This Cerulean is so blue it's incredible.

He was hopping all around right by us and was not the least bit worried about us.

Here are another couple shots of this bird.

 

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Lots and lots of Chipping Sparrows. It was very windy as you can tell by the ruffled feathers.

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This is the female Eastern Bluebird. First time I was able to photograph the female.

 

 

Sorry for the long posts but some people like the cards, others like the birds so I post both.

 



Birds and Nature

Very cold weekend here in Ontario. Spring has slipped back a bit it seems. Too cold and rainy for me to be out and about yesterday and today doesn't look any better. I do have a few bird photos that I took last week that I haven't posted so I'm posting them now.

Lots of Red-bellied Woodpeckers this year.

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I love this Red-headed Woodpecker the best!

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Lots of Nashville Warblers too but hard to get a good photo of them.

They just won't sit still.

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I love the look on this Vireo's face - he looks annoyed at me taking his picture.

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First time we ever saw the Blue-winged warbler and I got one far away shot. Better then none!

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There were about 20 people snapping pictures of the bird. A must-see for most birders.

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You can easily see why this bird is called a Yellow-rumped Warbler!

 

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Well no birding today so I guess I'll work on the quilt. This time of the year I prefer to be outside - normally that is, but not when it's this cold.

TGIF - a card and more birds

It was suppose to rain all day today so I was all set to work on Finn's quilt. However, by 10:00 this morning it looked promising so we went off to Rondeau for some more bird watching. Great day! Lots of great photos which will be posted at the end of the blog. The rain held off until we were on our way home too!! Just over 8,000 steps on meter today. Not bad.

I didn't have time to get to the lower studio and make a card for the Stamping Bella challenge but I do have a card to share.

 

Another simple but elegant card. The butterfly was embossed in black and then various Distress Inks were sponged around it. I had this piece of black cardstock already cut out so I trimmed it to size and placed the stamped image behind it. I always keep the negative part of a die cut and they really come in handy. All I had to do was add the peel-and-stick sentiment and called it done!

Now for the birds we saw today. Well, we saw more than this but these were the ones I was able to get some good, or at least, okay shots of.

It's not often a warbler will sit still enough for a photo! Lucky today.

 

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This little bird is quick. He never sits still it seems. The line thru him is a thin long leaf.

 

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The next three are the same bird - Blackburnian Warbler. So pretty. He was quite aways back in so they are small but you can see how colourful he is.

 

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Another lucky shot for the Eastern Towhee. This bird likes to be down in the brush and he just popped up long enough for a couple of good shots.



 

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We are guessing this is an Eastern Phoebe. Very similar to the Eastern Wood Peewee though.

This is one of the Flycatchers.

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My favorite bird - the Indigo Bunting. We were driving down Lakeshore and I saw two of them in the bush by the side of the road. I yelled "Buntings! Stop the car." Joe was a bit startled but stopped and let me out and I got just this one good shot in before another car came zooming by and scared them deep into the bush. Grrrrrr.

 

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The Nuthatches are quite nimble as you can see. They will turn right upside down to eat.

 

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Lots of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks today!

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This is a very tired Whip-poor-will! Not sure how the person who found him actually was able to tell he was a bird and not part of the tree but some people are a lot better at birding then we are. Not a very colourful bird but this is the first one I have ever seen. I used to live in Silver Water on Manitoulin Island and we had a bush lot near our house and we could hear the Whip-poor-wills sing about 8:00 every night. That's when my little girls knew it was time for bed. One night it was raining and they sang at 7:00 instead and the 4 year old said "Well, the Whip-poor-wills are singing so its time for bed". I was tired and was ready for them to go to bed so I let them! Bad I know.

 

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This is my husband's favorite bird - the Scarlet Tanager. He was way back in the bush and I didn't think my little point-and-shoot would even register it but it did. If you want a really good point-and-shoot camera I can recommend the Canon SX50! Love it!

Well that's all for tonight. Wishing everyone a wonderful and safe weekend. Hopefully the rain will hold off and I'll have some more birds to photograph and post.

A Purple Card and More Birds

Another wonderful day spent tramping thru the woods today! Yesterday we went to Point Pelee and walked over 10,600 steps looking for the migratory birds. They are trickling in but a bit slower then last year we think. Today we went to Rondeau Provincial Park and had a much better day...but we only walked half as far; mainly because we spent over an hour driving and walking up and down Lakeshore Road looking for the elusive Western Kingbird. This bird is suppose to be in the very south tip of Florida, not Southern Ontario. He was just a tad off course! We were always in the wrong place at the wrong time so we missed him. Drats.  I'll post the birds I did see at the end of this post.

Now for the card. I was obviously in a purple mood when I made this card.

The over sized purple banner down the centre is one of my homemade painted papers. It started out as a blah piece of paper and I transformed it. It was mounted on white cardstock and then glued to the light purple card base. The label is from Hot off the Press and so is the sentiment. I stamped them and cut them out and attached it with dimensional dots. Then I tied the dotted sheer ribbon in a double bow and glued it on with glue dots. A quick and easy card but very cute, I think.

And now for some of my favorite bird photos.

Finally a bird sat still for me!

While waiting for the Western Kingbird to show up we spotted this Eastern Blue Bird.

There were several Chickadees at the Visitors Centre.

A very cute little Sparrow

A rare visitor to Rondeau. There is only two known to be here.

A side view of the Yellow-throated Warbler

Another shot of the Black-throated Green.

He looks like he's giving me the evil eye!