Tuesday 7 February 2012

Tit Day and a new block

Today was an amazing bird watching day. All last week we had very low temperatures, down to -29.5C/-21F, and the birds stayed in the woods, not wasting any energy in flying and finding food. Now the temperature is up in -3C/+26F, and they spend a long time on the feeder. New friends arrived too, like the Crested Tit:


Here you can have a closer look on the coiffure:


We hadn't seen Crested Tits in over two years.
The Blue Tit thought of making an early reservation for this house, where the Great Tit lived last Summer:


Then came the Willow Tit, for the first time this year. We keep a record of our first sight of all the birds we can see in or from our garden.


Here he is approaching the sunflower seed while the Blue Tit sits on the roof of the feeder, ready to defend his right to the seeds. The Blue Tit can chase away any number of other birds when he comes to get some food.


Naturally there was also the Great Tit, our most numerous tit. He likes peanuts too.


I didn't get a picture of the little Coal Tit, who returned in January after several years of absence. The trees in the woods around us have grown so much that many species are coming back. They don't like too open places where they can be caught by Owls or Falcons. The Coal Tit only came once to the feeder today. To complete the series of Tits, Mr. K saw a flock of Long-tailed Tits high in the birch tree on his way out, but they flew away before I had the camera ready.

On the crafty front I have been making some crumble work but not enough to show any progress, and I have started the Block 2 of Scandinavian Christmas:


The appliqué is done and I have started stitching the reindeer's antlers. I had the perfect dotty fabric for the mushrooms so I don't need to stitch any white dots.

12 comments:

  1. Love the fancy tufted hairdo on the bird. :o) We've had a lot of cardinals -- our typical visitors -- but all that red in the barren tree looked like Christmas decorations! Your block is very sweet.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's always a good thing when your fabric can do the work for you. What colour is your background? Beige, taupe or gray?
    I do love looking at your little birds. They are so cute.

    ReplyDelete
  3. So nice to see the birds in your snowy garden.
    We get a lot of different birds too but as it is so hot here they enjoy the birdbaths I fill for them.

    Your block looks great. Nice to have the dotty fabric for the mushrooms.

    ReplyDelete
  4. As soon as I saw your title for today's post I had to investigate!! haha VERY cute bird!! Love your Scandinavian Christmas...which is on my wish list!! Thanks for the inspirations!
    P

    ReplyDelete
  5. Happy happy birds !!
    You have made a wonderful start on the Scandinavian Christmas..

    ReplyDelete
  6. I simply love the blue tits, they are my favourite! So cold with you! I'm waiting for the SC patterns to arrive from Lynette.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Such a present, to have the Crested Tit and Coal Tit back! The Crested Tit is such a sweetie!
    I thought we had cold temperatures ... at night -13C, which is quite unusual for us. Because of the low temperatures, the Elfstedentocht (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elfstedentocht) might be held this year. 1997 was the last time.
    Love the progress of your blocks!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh Ulla,lovely birds!You are really an expert,how clever to keep track from year to year:-)
    Block 2 of SC will be great;nice fabric for the mushrooms.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Your post title is so funny and provocative down here, i can't even bring myself to write t*t, laughing here.
    But seriously, it was lovely to see all the little birds that gather for your care and feeding.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Lovely photos. Do you get Long tailed Tits? They have a pinky coloured breast and are very pretty.

    ReplyDelete
  11. What a wonderful day it was! I have never had the delight of seeing a tit in person! Love your Scandinavian Christmas block, too! Glad to hear them temps are above zero this week!
    Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Your visitors are so petite. I remember little visitors in the snow from my childhood.
    We had the resident peewee's joined by native minor birds, magpies and lorrikeetes. It was a noisy breakfast.
    Christmas stitcherie is so engaging.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for coming by! Kiitos käynnistä, voit kommentoida myös suomeksi