A Card? Did I Make a Card?

Yes, I did.  It was overdue for a friend's birthday, but I just got a chance to meet with her earlier this week and didn't want to post it before she got it.  Can you tell that her favorite color is purple?  The stamp set used was Summer Silhouettes and I purposely added those punched flowers off-center in the dots.  We had a nice, but quick lunch together as we both had to get back to work.  We don't make a habit of it, but since we can't get out during the school year to meet up with friends, the summer is a little easier.  

HWNSNBP brought me this feather that he found outside the back door one night earlier this week.  We were trying to guess what bird it could have come from.  Given the color, brown and tan with a yellow shaft, we were kind of thinking it might be a hawk.  Boy were we wrong!

I used that feature - the yellow shaft - to google it and we were surprised to find out that it was a wing feather from a Northern Flicker.  Click on the link and you will see a beautiful photograph of a flicker in flight by Kevin T. Karlson.  Having never been that close to one in flight I never would have guessed that the wing feathers were so detailed.  This bird appears to have polka-dots on it's chest when you see it.  

The other surprise of the week, though I was thinking that this would be what we would find because of the activity that I noticed from my work station, was four bluebird eggs in the nesting box at school.  Since this was taken on Monday there might even be another one in there.  I haven't wanted to open the box again this week because it's been so hot (feels like over 100º everyday for the last four days). I didn't want to add to the jeopardy the eggs already face in light of the heat.  Let's just say, that mama blue has not had to spend much time in there during the day.  

Hopefully these babies will hatch next week when the temps are supposed to come back down to nearer normal for this time of year.

Keep your fingers crossed!