Sunday, July 13, 2008

Bluebird Sympathy Card

Rachel asked me to make her a sympathy card for someone she works with and I thought this would be apropo. I'll bring you up-to-date about our bluebirds. They had their third nest all set and then the wrens showed up. It was a battle last weekend - us removing sticks from the nest, the wrens bringing more. The bluebirds were there watching. I could hear them in the trees. I'm assuming they were unsure what was going on, but once they saw the twigs, they stopped coming to the box. Eventually, I had to remove the bluebird nest because the wrens had made such a mess of it. And I kept removing the sticks. I thought that they would give up. But, no, the hen was ready to lay, so with only 2 or three sticks in the box she did. They have built their nest up around the eggs (3 now).
As they are a protected species, I didn't think it was right to destroy the eggs. But, that doesn't mean that I have to make it peaceful for them. So, whether you see them or not, I will be taking pictures, and generally keeping them in a tizzy.

Then on Friday, as I was leaving the garden after taking the picture of the wren's eggs I heard a lot of peeping in the spirea bush and saw a pair of cardinals and a nest. So I moseyed over there and got a picture of the new cardinal babies. The second pic was taken today (Sunday).
I've never seen a cardinal nest or babies before and since they are in an open nest I don't know how long I'll be able to take pictures because I don't want any of them jumping out unless they're ready to, but I'll try to keep you up-to-date.

Here's the recipe for the card:

Stamps: Avian Toile, Warmest Regards (Both Retired)
Paper: Confetti White, Regal Rose, Old Olive
Ink: Basic Gray Ink, Ballet Blue, Brilliant Blue, Really Rust, Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Regal Rose, Rose Red, Summer Sunshine, Pumpkin Pie, Bravo Burgundy
Accessories: Corner Punch, Aqua Painter, Crop-a-dile, Pink Taffeta, Sponge Dauber

I had seen the Avian Toile background stamp in the Splitcoast Gallery and really wanted it but it's been retired for some time. I got lucky and found someone selling it on Craig's List a few months ago for a reasonable fee. It was pretty stained but I was able to clean it up and have been waiting to use it. You haven't seen the last of it.

2 comments:

  1. Lorraine, that's a very beautiful card. Interesting to hear about the bird wars that you've got going over there. Wrens sound like aggresive and persistent little creatures (we don't have them in Hawaii). Thank you for the pictures. I love seeing newborn birds in their nests.
    Aloha!

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  2. I love the card and the pictures! I might just love the pictures more! I've NEVER seen baby birds in person, they must be so cute!

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