Now that I am home from a week in a Massachusetts (and a quick but successful trip to see the Tundra Bean-Goose on the coast), I am ready to catch up on some blogging. I spent most of my MA trip on Cape Cod visiting my parents...
All the loveliness of New England fall was making me woozy and I briefly thought New England might be able to beat the Pacific Northwest in a cage match. Then I woke up with four deer ticks half-embedded in me and I remembered that northwest is in fact best. Sorry not sorry.
That little dock by my parents' backyard proved to be a fine spot to view birds from, including my first surprising lifer of the trip: Blue-headed Vireo!
Solitary Vireos, complete! Some more of my parents' yard birds:
Northern Cardinal
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Carolina Wren
Gray Catbird
Wild Turkey
Blue Jay
Tufted Titmouse
The real birds were great, but the fake birds were pretty great too!
The above birds were carved by my dad, using old wooden golf clubs for their bases. So cool! He even let me take the Ruddy Duck home with me.
Wednesday morning I got to go with him to his carving class at the local senior center where I saw a great variety of carved birds, in various stages of carving. One fellow was painting his Bufflehead while another was still carving out the tail of his mockingbird. One guy let me photograph his finished flicker and shorebird (dowitcher?):
My dad's friend Joe showed me his beautiful and amazing kestrel:
Later in the week Joe dropped by my parents' house and gave me a gorgeous Green-winged Teal feather he had carved:
I am quite the lucky girl! In the carving class I was able to try my hand at it for the first time and here is where I'm at:
At least I left class with all my fingers. More to come from my trip soon. Good times!!!
All the loveliness of New England fall was making me woozy and I briefly thought New England might be able to beat the Pacific Northwest in a cage match. Then I woke up with four deer ticks half-embedded in me and I remembered that northwest is in fact best. Sorry not sorry.
That little dock by my parents' backyard proved to be a fine spot to view birds from, including my first surprising lifer of the trip: Blue-headed Vireo!
Solitary Vireos, complete! Some more of my parents' yard birds:
The real birds were great, but the fake birds were pretty great too!
The above birds were carved by my dad, using old wooden golf clubs for their bases. So cool! He even let me take the Ruddy Duck home with me.
Wednesday morning I got to go with him to his carving class at the local senior center where I saw a great variety of carved birds, in various stages of carving. One fellow was painting his Bufflehead while another was still carving out the tail of his mockingbird. One guy let me photograph his finished flicker and shorebird (dowitcher?):
My dad's friend Joe showed me his beautiful and amazing kestrel:
Later in the week Joe dropped by my parents' house and gave me a gorgeous Green-winged Teal feather he had carved:
I am quite the lucky girl! In the carving class I was able to try my hand at it for the first time and here is where I'm at:
At least I left class with all my fingers. More to come from my trip soon. Good times!!!
Shoot, your folks looking to adopt?
ReplyDeleteSure thing, baby bro.
DeleteJust in time for the holidays.
DeleteI'd like one Cape Cod, please.
Wow, Cape Cod really is gorgeous but no thanks deer ticks. Ugh. Your dad's birds are so beautiful! I thought 'golf club' right away - perfect use for those old drivers. His classmates' works are just lovely, too. So cool you got a teal feather from an admirer.
ReplyDeletePerfect use indeed! Far better than using them for boring things like golf.
DeleteAwesome on the new lifer!! My bird book is so old it shows only Solitary....Ticks are sneaky little devils you don't have them in Oregon? The carvings are awesome, wish I had that kind of talent.
ReplyDeleteWe do have ticks, but they don't seem like as much of a problem here as they are back east- and way fewer cases of Lyme disease.
Delete