CMO to the rescue

Got a call about a grounded Eared Grebe at a friend's (Bonnie Wunderlich's) place about 40 minutes from here so I dropped everything and rushed to pick up the bird. Promptly released it in my biggest tank. I had an Eared Grebe here for a week in 1998. It was here from Nov 19 - 27. This one will probably stay a week also. Here are videos of its first few minutes of release. It seemed slightly confused but acted normal in my opinion. Not that I know how a released grebe normally acts.




When I put up this snag I never envisioned it this loaded with doves.


Just before dark I checked on the grebe and it was feeding on gambusias like crazy!


Sneak Peak...

 Yes, The decorating has begun!!

If you missed a Sneak Peak that I posted on my regular blog, Debbie-Dabble, please click HERE...









And to see more, please click HERE



Please come back on Friday, November 23rd when I post Part One of my Annual Blog Home Tour of our home all decked out for the Holidays starting with the outside of our house......

I hope to see you all then.....

Wishing everyone a Happy and Healthy Thanksgiving!!

Hugs,
Deb


Early morning

My cold camera (45°) in overcast early morning light was no match for the speed of the thrush. I got this blurry shot and even on continuous shoot mode the bird was absent from the next frame.


Late afternoon: Well, had fun with today's birders but did not get a photo of a wren that Tripp Davenport discovered. It seems to be a Pacific Wren (recently split from Winter Wren). Tomorrow getting a photo of it will be priority.

All birders got plenty of Varied Thrush and Costa's Hummingbird views, as well as photos. Sometimes the photography was a bit challenging.

Michael Gray



November Color Honors

It's been wonderful looking at all of the wonderful non-traditionally colored projects you all linked up this past week!  Now's the fun part--we've got winners to announce!

Honorable Mentions
(in numerical order)



DSC03308



And Top Honor

for her fabulous
CAS design
and glittery snowflake
goes to...

 

Congrats to everyone!  Don't forget to check out our FB page for this week's Facebook Fave!  Grab your badges and display them proudly!  Can't wait to see your amazing creations this week!  Merry stamping! :)

November Theme Challenge

Ready for another challenge here at 52CCT?  Good, we've got one for you!!!  It's theme week, and Mynnette has chosen the theme of...


Scripture verse~

DT Inspirational Pieces~







Please link up your projects below, and follow these rules:

*Please link back to our blog in your post so that others can join in the fun.
*We would love it if you added our button to the side of your blog
*Please make sure to link to your POST, not your blog.
*Please make sure NOT to back link.
*In order to be considered for Top Honor or Honorable Mention, you must link up by Friday at 6:00pm GMT.
*You are free to enter this challenge and 10 others only.
*We'd really appreciate it if you'd turn off word verification so that we can comment more easily! We know a lot of you do this for safety, but it takes a very long time to comment when verification is activated, and you may lose your comments from us...just sayin'. ;)
 

Thrush in training

The Varied Thrush comes readily to the ground grape feeder, but isn't coming to the hanging feeder. So I thought I'd try hanging a log beneath it for stability, and more perching.


Since putting up the log, I witnessed the thrush making two failed attempts at nabbing a grape from it. Back to the drawing board. Meanwhile, I thought I'd vacate the area and see if, left alone, the bird can come up with a workable grape-plucking system. The problem probably lies in removing them from the toothpicks. But if I just hang clusters it's so hard to keep track of usage. And a partially eaten cluster could fall into the water below.


It doesn't look to me like the Costa's Hummingbird is making much progress in growing a gorgeous gorget. By the looks of all those white pin feathers he's still got a ways to go.


UPDATE: This afternoon I tweaked the hanging grape feeder. Hopefully, it'll be more user friendly now. I turned the toothpick holders horizontal for easier grape removal, and I offset and turned the log beneath for more perching space.



New revised grape feeder

Critters, as well as ants, have discovered the feeder, so it was time to do something else. I made a hanging branch feeder. Now the trick will be to get the thrush to find and use it.

The new feeder is suspended from ant guards and should be critter-proof.


. When I got down to the oasis (from the house a block away) shortly after daylight today the ground feeder had been emptied (I suspect coons or ringtails) and I heard the distraught thrush scolding back in the arroyo. I hurriedly put a few grapes in the old feeder. It wasted no time gobbling them up. My hope is that when that feeder gets empty, he'll look around and find the hanging feeder. But I've learned not to make assumptions, so I'll probably put out grapes in the ground feeder until I'm sure he's discovered the other one. I almost got a decent photo of him grabbing a grape this morning. 


Unfortunately, very unfortunately, I had to come to town today to take care of some business for my husband, who is on a fishing excursion. It'll be dark before I get back down there and check the grape status. Also saw 3 hummingbird species this morning; Costa's, Rufous, and Anna's.

UPDATE: Arrived back at the oasis shortly before dark. One grape was missing from the ground feeder and one from the hanging feeder. Not sure what that means yet. Will continue monitoring this weekend. Curiously, where the hanging feeder grape had been was a fresh green leaf. All I could think of was the bird  went for its first hanging feeder grape a bit awkwardly and took a leaf down with it. It'll get more proficient at it, I presume.


Routine day? Not so much....


We were excited to do our scheduled banding in south Brewster Co because a recent cold front may have brought in some interesting hummers. The six species we ended up seeing, and/or capturing, far exceeded our expectations. We were determined not to recapture the Costa's Hummingbird we banded a week ago. But that little ball of energy was a force to be reckoned with.

After the day we banded him a week ago (see post of Nov 7), I didn't see him again, and was sure he was gone. But when we arrived today he was lord of the realm. Kelly placed the trap where we had it last week, but this dominant Costa's wouldn't let any other hummer near the trap.

Fat and sassy
In desperation we set up another trap at the other side of the oasis. He'd already been inside a trap twice the week before so we weren't worried that he'd go in again. And we hadn't arrived at the oasis until peak feeding time was pretty much over. Nevertheless, before long he headed for the feeder inside the newly placed trap. Kelly thought to let him feed, then leave, none the wiser. But the slow-to-learn demon soared straight up into the top of the trap, totally forgetting the huge door he had come in a moment before. So Kelly had no choice but to assist him out of the trap. The bird took off, and we don't know if he'll return or not. I sure hope so. His gorget is filling in nicely. I'd love to see him in a few weeks with a brilliant new gorget. We shall see.


Meanwhile, I'll have to content myself with his partial gorget.


Cold front

Well, our first freeze of this fall occurred last night. Now I won't have to water as much. It brought a few new hummingbirds to our feeders in Alpine. Here's a male Anna's that was at my son's place...
































Tomorrow I'll be going to the oasis. I think the Varied Thrush is still there, but feeding along the arroyo on native berries. When they're gone it'll probably be easier to locate near the grapes I put out. I left the grape feeder uncaged Friday (for a photographer) when I came to town, and the javelina ravaged it. So with no grapes there, I couldn't tell if the thrush was still around, or not.  I refilled and caged the feeder so tomorrow I'll know.

The Williamson's Sapsucker didn't hang around at all. Lucky I even got photos of it.


November Sketch Honors

Thank you to all who participated in our sketch challenge the past week!  We had some wonderful entries and it was very hard to choose our winners.  BUT, it has happened!

Honorable Mentions
(in numerical order)






Top Honor

for her absolutely
gorgeously gold
and pearl accented card is


Congrats to all--grab your badges and don't forget to check our Facebook Page for this week's FB Fave!  Can't wait to see your creations for this week's challenge! Merry stamping! :)

November Color Challenge

Welcome to the second week of fabulous November challenges her at 52CCT! :)  We've got a fabulous non-traditional color scheme for you to work with!

Here it is~

Some DT inspiration~


Please link up your projects below, and follow these rules:

*Please link back to our blog in your post so that others can join in the fun.
*We would love it if you added our button to the side of your blog
*Please make sure to link to your POST, not your blog.
*Please make sure NOT to back link.
*In order to be considered for Top Honor or Honorable Mention, you must link up by Friday at 6:00pm GMT.
*You are free to enter this challenge and 10 others only.
*We'd really appreciate it if you'd turn off word verification so that we can comment more easily! We know a lot of you do this for safety, but it takes a very long time to comment when verification is activated, and you may lose your comments from us...just sayin'. ;)

Williamson's Sapsucker visit

I hope it'll stay longer than the Costa's Hummingbird did. The sapsucker is a new yard bird for the oasis. Normally, I don't like sapsuckers damaging my trees, but I'm going to make an exception for this one, and do my best to like this handsome devil.


































































I saw the Varied Thrush at 4 PM, but it's so secretive that it may as well not be here. I hope people coming to see it this weekend don't go away disappointed.

Costa's Hummingbird visit

Kelly Bryan came this morning to do his regular banding session, and soon called to me that there was a Costa's here. What a fun surprise!



I assumed it was a juvenile male, but apparently it's a molting adult male. If you click on the next photo you may be able to make out his new band. Hope he sticks around awhile....
















Christmas Items at the Craft Fair....

  I am so sorry that I have neglected my Christmas Blog here. I missed Rudolph Days and all.

But I am finally starting to decorate for Christmas!!!

Even though I promised myself that I would be more organized this year, Crafting for upcoming Craft Fairs that I am involved with threw me off big time so I am very behind as last year at this time, I had the entire upstairs done already!!

So I will be posting here mainly starting in a week or so and not on my regular blog.

I wanted to share with you some of the Christmas items I made for the Craft Fairs. The first Craft Fair was last Saturday....

Angels and Christmas Tussie Mussies.....
 Some Music Sheet Plaques......
 Music sheet ornaments.....
 And Wreaths , of course.....


 I apologize for the pictures as I forgot to take pictures of each thing after I made them like I usually do....

And now I want to just share with you some other Christmas things at the Craft fair....

These are runners made by my friend and fellow member of our church, Rose Mary.  They are reversible and have Autumn and Halloween fabric on the other side so you get 2 for the price of one!!
 Judy, who also works for the same Health Care System that I work for and who is in charge of this Craft Fair ,makes these incredible Deco Mesh Wreaths....
 And decorates sleds and ski's. Again, I apologize for not having better pictures.....
If you would like to see more pictures of the Craft Fair, please visit Debbie-Dabble by clicking HERE

We have been having snow flurries today so I am getting in the spirit of Christmas!!

I have removed the Christmas in July party that I hosted this past Summer from my Side Bar and moved it on to a separate page that you will find up at the top of this blog . All the links to all the participants , you will now find there.

Soon I will be back to start to share my home all decked out for Christmas so please check back in about a week....

Hugs,
Deb