Wild Wing Creations

Last week I had a message from my weather app that they call a ‘winter cast’. The message was that we would get 3-6 inches of snow starting Monday night and going until Wednesday morning.

A couple days later the amount changed to 6-10″. Hmmm. OK, get a supply of groceries and plan to stay home for the duration. Saturday night the amounts changed again, this time to 10-15″!! WHAT?? AND, 40 mph winds!

Well! I will be snowed in for sure if that happens, as I live in the country and it is FLAT. The roads drift closed pretty easily with that much snow. Of course, they could miss it, and it’ll never happen. Oh, to be a meteorologist. Cushy job…you can be wrong more often than not and still keep your job!

I stopped typing for a moment to take this shot of my back yard viewed from the bathroom window. As you can see, it is a very snowy day. However, the wind is only 23 mph, according to my weather app, and it is 32 degrees. Not a bad winter day if you don’t have to be on the road. This is a VERY wet, heavy snow. I scooped a couple yards off my sidewalk to have a place to scatter birdseed. Those feathered friends work pretty hard to find food when it is like this. For that matter, as does all of the wildlife. Winter can be devastating to some populations of wildlife, so it has its downside. But, I digress.

Below, from the front step looking across the road. What road? Well, it is between the flagpole and the utility pole behind it. There is also a house beyond the utility pole, which is less than a tenth of a mile away. The house, not the pole. (528 feet or 125 yards for those of you who know that a football field is 100 yards, just to put it in perspective) Visibility is obviously poor, and there has not been one single vehicle drive by my house today.

As you can see, it isn’t too windy…yet anyway. I just checked the weather app and they are still saying 10-15″ and blowing and drifting through tonight.

One of my friends said yesterday she hopes to get snowed in so she and her next door neighbor can get together and play cribbage. She lives in town, so navigating a few feet is no problem.

So, for those of you NOT in the northern hemisphere who have no idea of which I speak (write), do not feel sorry for us. We enjoy the occasional day of no work, no school, just hangin’ out. Unless, of course, you are the ones who run the snow plows, fix the broken power lines, or are medical or fire personnel. Those people are saints in my book, because they keep the world spinning while the rest of us sit and…..read, play cribbage, make cards, sew, cook, watch the birds, etc.

SO! A HUGE thank you to them!

Here is a card made this morning for my adult granddaughter’s birthday next week. I hope the mail can get through to deliver it to her. I was inspired by a card made by team mate Akiko Sudano, whose blog you can see here.

Next on my agenda today is making a pot of corn chowder, and finishing the piecing of a quilt top. Here is a section of it. The sections are done, now I just have to put them all together.

So, you see, a snowy day can be a great day. It is just one that allows us some time to perhaps reflect, spend time with God, and/or your family, or accomplish some tasks you have put off because you are ‘too busy’. A snow day lets us be un-busy for a few hours, and this is a good thing in my book. I pity those of you who do not live where you can have a snow day once in awhile.

Until next time, my friends…..stay warm, stay safe.

Good day to all my friends and blog followers. It has been quite some time since I have posted, and have nearly forgotten what I need to do to post! I don’t know where the time has gone….spring, summer and fall have simply flown by, and here we are on the cusp of winter. Are you ready??

Perhaps to help you along with the year ahead, you might like to purchase my new calendar. I am holding the price at $20, even though production costs have risen. Perhaps this will be the last year for the calendar in this format. I will either have to raise the price significantly, which I don’t want to do, or make the calendar smaller. I might even have to go to a desk calendar to keep them affordable.

Above is the cover of the new 12″ x 12″ calendar, with twelve images of birds inside, one for each month, none of which have been previously published. Those of you who know me, know I am continually adding to my stock of images, many of which are birds. I can’t seem to resist grabbing the camera when I see a bird, especially if it is a new one to me. Sometimes they are too far away to get a really good image, but I can usually identify it with even a poor photo. As always, even if I have a great one, there is the hope that one can capture an even better image. So, I keep shooting.

The back page of the calendar shows all the images for each month, as well as my contact information. I will have to add a shipping cost for any that I have to send to you.

Thank you for following my blog, even though I have not posted for quite awhile. I don’t make resolutions for the new year, but I have two of them for 2023, beyond trying to be a better person. They are to post on my blog more regularly, and make and send more cards.

Let me know in the comments, or by email, if you would like a calendar.

Well, Followers, I suppose you expected to see perhaps a new card, or maybe some canning, or perhaps even something to do with birds. Nope. Not today. Sorry to disappoint, but, dear Followers, read on. You might be surprised.

I think my headline, or whatever it is called, says, ‘ creative endeavors’. That was intentional to include all the creative things I like to do. Since Covid 19 and all its variants arrived, I have done a lot of reading and not much creating. Why? I really can’t say, but I have read MANY books.

Yesterday we had snow all day and overnight as well, so this morning I had lovely drifts everywhere. Reports are that we received 10″ of snow. Great day to stay in and put together a quilt and read another chapter or two.

Now, I am back to cleaning my house and making things. Late last summer, or early fall perhaps, I was in a little quilt shop in a tiny town in South Central Iowa. The town is Lucas, and the shop is Quilt With Us. There was a notice of an upcoming quilt retreat featuring a Block of the Month quilt called ‘Fair Isle’.

This is a design I really liked, so I signed up for the retreat which is held over 2 weekends, one in January and one in February. We worked on the first 6 months (this is really a Block a Month pattern) the first weekend, and in February will finish (?) the quilt. I am loving the techniques used and the pattern as well. I love traditional star quilt patterns, however, I am not a fan of square quilts, so will add a border at top and bottom so it will better fit a bed. Maybe a row of stars, or extra flying geese?

The pattern calls for 17 different fabrics, which for the first quilt I chose 17 Batiks in Navy and rust colors, with a neutral off white background. I am already thinking ahead to making one from scraps in greens and purples. We’ll see how THAT goes. I am not sure whether the pattern will lend itself to scraps. Gotta finish this one first. Here are some of the components for the Fair Isle.

I am simply amazed at how well the points of the various parts came out. This is probably the first quilt I have ever done so precisely.

I also started piecing (from scraps) a Bonnie Hunter design called Rhododendron Trail. It is a mystery quilt with only one or two components featured on her blog each week for 8 weeks. Here are some (90) of the 2 1/2″ hourglass blocks for that quilt.

I will keep you informed of the progress on these quilts. I am still making cards, though I haven’t done as many as I need to do. Next week I will get back to doing more of them. Last week I was chosen as secretary for a group to which I belong. That means I have to keep track of everyone’s birthdays and anniversaries and send cards. Great excuse to make more cards! Now, will someone please add more hours to a day??

It is hard to believe that 20 years have passed since that fateful day of September 11, 2001, a day those of us old enough to remember will never forget.

I am sure if you are reading this you remember exactly what you were doing and where you were when you heard of the attack on the first tower in New York City. I certainly do.

I have heard it said it is our generation’s Pearl Harbor. While there is no comparison between the two, other than both were horrific attacks on the United States, they are certainly both dates in our history we should NEVER forget.

History? What is history?

I did an internet search for the definition of history. History defined for kids says, “History is the human story of the past.” History defined by historians says, “History is a study of changes over time, covering all aspects of human society. A dictionary definition says, “History is a record, or account, of past events, developments, etc. that purports to be true…”.

It seems that recently there has been a huge effort in this country to change history to suit various agendas. It would seem to my uneducated mind that if there was a civil war here in this country, regardless of the reasons for it, or the outcome, that destroying statues, flags, books or accounts of that war is simply wrong. It will not change what happened, it will only change the current thinking of millions who have not been given the HISTORY, or the purported truth, which in most cases, IS the truth, or at least a variation of it. Just because you don’t agree with what took place a couple decades, or a couple centuries ago, does not mean that it didn’t occur. So, please, let’s not try to CHANGE history!!

I could go on, and on, I suppose, but I won’t. I just want everyone to remember the sacrifices of many, for the good of the rest of us, and to keep things in perspective. Forget your own agenda, be kind, and be thankful to God above that you have the life that you have. So very many have it SO much worse.

I am now off my soapbox.

A considerable time has passed since I last posted here, but henceforth I will be more consistent. I may post about something that pleases, or displeases, me. Or, I may post about something that has happened in my life, be it major or a minor occurrence. My post may just be my thoughts on something, and you don’t have to like it. I do ask that you be respectful and nice. Another possibility is that I will post about my latest birding adventures, card making, jewelry, quilting, or some other endeavor as it pleases me. There seem to be few rules in blogging, and it is my blog, so it will be my ramblings and no one else’s.

It has been a strange, busy, not-so-busy, boring, fulfilling, and unreal couple of years.

In 2019, I was appointed to a state office in the lowa Grand Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star for the year 2020.

This involved being very active in the affairs of the Grand Chapter, along with my Grand Family of Mom, Dad and 15 siblings. I call it my grand family because, over the time we have served the order, we have grown to become as a family. I have enjoyed the journey with them, and have mixed feelings about the end of our terms of office. At the same time I will be relieved to have finished the responsibilities of office, I will be saddened to be unable to get together regularly (sometimes every weekend) with my Grand Family. That said, we will still see one another, just less frequently. The bonds that have formed since our elections/appointments will remain. I am thankful to have had the opportunity to serve and be a part of the Kruzer (our family name) family. We were to have served for a year, but with the pandemic and the cancellation of much that was to have happened in ‘our year’, our year became two. For most of a year of that time we did nothing beyond Zoom meetings to stay informed of what was happening, or not happening.

I read a lot….sometimes 5 books a week. Most of my reading was not educational, uplifting, spiritual or anything other than pure entertainment. Reading replaced television for entertainment. I have learned a few things through my perusal of fictional accounts of various situations. Most of it simply added to my store of trivia. That’s OK. I survived the pandemic by maintaining my sanity and did not get physically ill. There were adjustments to most aspects of life, and I did lose a family member to Covid cardiac complications, my brother-in-law, who died last December. Life the past couple of years was no bed of roses. I suspect it wasn’t for most of you reading this, either. It could have been worse.

I despaired of what was on television, so stopped watching it. I should have cancelled my DISH account, but didn’t. Now it is FOOTBALL season again, so I will tune in to games I wish to see. Today I will watch with interest as the University of Iowa and Iowa State University take the field in an in-state rivalry we call the CY-HAWK series. It will be televised on ABC as both teams are ranked in the top ten collegiate teams in the country. While there are avid, or rabid, fans on both sides, I am simply an Iowan who would like to see both schools do well and maintain their rankings, in a clean, well-played game. ‘Nuff said. I truly hope the fans on both sides will be respectful toward those on the opposite side of the field.

Lastly for this post, I have continued to travel in a limited fashion and photograph whatever strikes my fancy. Most often, it is birds that strike my fancy. The past few weeks I have been going through my archives to find images for the 2022 calendar. One of my supportive birdy friends suggested I used bird’s nests as the theme for 2022. I considered her suggestion and acted upon it when I realized I had more than enough images to do a complete calendar of bird nests. This is the result.

If you would be interested in purchasing a calendar, please leave a comment or send an email (click on the ‘contact me’ button at right)

That’s all for today. Just remember.

I left you last to anticipate the final leg of our journey. On Friday we left our cozy hotel in Natchez and began the trek northward and home.

Our first stop was to be at the Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge, one of the largest tracts of bottomland hardwood forests in the Mississippi Delta, and the area where the Ivory-billed Woodpecker was last seen for certain. Might we perchance be fortunate enough to see one? Unlikely, but……you never know! We will definitely be looking, and listening.

On the way there we were moving along and saw a man fishing off to the right of the highway. Upon looking closer through the trees we could see hundreds of Great White Egrets. There was a wide shoulder where the fisherman had parked, so we, too, pulled over.

The Egrets were the population of a rookery! (or colony, if you prefer). We saw several on nests, some building nests, some doing their mating dance, some flying around. Wow! What a treat.

In scanning the area, Therese spotted another bird, black and down low in the trees bordering the road. We all had our binoculars and tried to spot it, finally being successful. It turned out to be a Common Gallinule, a rather secretive bird I have only seen a couple of times.

Knowing we had a good trip ahead, we finally left this spot behind.

We took a winding road that, according to GPS would take us ultimately to the visitor center, instead of going the long way around on the highway. Well, as we all know, sometimes the GPS isn’t to be trusted. The turnoff that we were to take was a MUD road, so we kept to the one we were on, knowing it would eventually get us to the visitor center. It was, as you will see, a good thing we were on this road.

There were a couple of turnoffs that we did take, mostly out of curiosity to what we might see. You know, maybe an Ivory-billed Woodpecker. Now THAT would be a find! We did see several Little Blue Herons and other assorted birds, but nothing earth shaking.

As we were nearing the final two or three miles before the visitor center, we saw a man walking, and a parked pickup ahead. Seeing that he was wearing camouflage and carrying a camera, binoculars and more, we stopped. Gay asked the fellow what he was seeing. His response, ” Ivory-billed Woodpecker.” Quickly followed by, “I’m kidding.”

We knew he was kidding, because if he had actually seen one he wouldn’t be nearly as calm as he was. Anyway, a conversation ensued. Turns out he lives an hour or so from there and was a fount of information of the area. Then, he said, “I called a Prothonotary Warbler earlier.”

I could barely contain my excitement at these words because I have never seen a Prothonotary Warbler. He told us if we would wait for him to get to his pickup, drive down and turn around, he would take us to where he saw it. Of course, we waited! I think Therese was the only one of us who had ever seen one.

Well, he did, we did, and he pulled over and stopped about 3/4 mile from where we had been. He pulled out his speaker and played the call. Immediately a bird popped out and flew across the road in front of us. It was a Prothonotary! I took a couple of really lousy shots, because a really lousy shot is better than no shot. Then, as the bird seemed to cooperate and sit rather still, I took the time to get my tripod set up and try for some better images.

Folks, this is what those of us who look for birds call a ‘Life Bird’. That simply means it is a bird you have never before seen in your life. It is always a pleasure to see a life bird, and even better to be able to photograph it.

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Well, we spent so much time there that we never did make it to the visitor center, or the rest of the 80,000 acres we did not see. One could spend several days in this area and not see everything. We did also see a Loggerhead Shrike, which, on any other day would be quite a find. After the Prothonotary Warbler though, the Shrike took a back seat.

We crossed back over the Mississippi River and spent the night at the Clarksdale, Mississippi Hampton Inn. We couldn’t stop talking about our good fortune in meeting Stephan Pagans who found the Prothonotary Warbler for us.

Saturday we planned to cross over the Mississippi River into Arkansas and spend some time in the St. Francis National Forest and Mississippi River State Park. Highlights here were some Savannah Sparrows and a pair of Carolina Chickadees cleaning house preparatory to nesting.

After a couple of hours meandering back roads and seeing several birds of note, we hustled northward, planning to stop at “Lamberts’-Home of Throwed Rolls” in Sikeston, Missouri around 3 p.m. for late lunch/early supper. HA!

We were left wanting, for when we arrived the parking lot was full and people standing around everywhere. I went to the front to ask what the wait time would be, and was told “2 hours.” FORGET IT! There isn’t a meal I would wait 2 hours for, especially since we had only snacked on chips, candy and beef sticks since breakfast. So, on down the road we went, planning to stop south of St. Louis somewhere for the night.

Best laid plans you know. It was Saturday. It was Spring Break. It was post government incentive checks. Whatever it was, there were no rooms where we stopped. Finally, in St. Charles, north side of St. Louis, (third try) we found a hotel with 3 rooms available. We took 2 of them and were glad they were next to an I-Hop where we could get dinner without fighting traffic. We were all tired, especially Gay, who did all the driving. (Birding is hard work!) Note to self-book the room ahead, or don’t try to find a room on a Saturday night during spring break!

Sunday morning. Last day on the road. We planned to stop again at Ted Shanks Conservation area south of Hannibal to see what changes there would be in bird population since the week before. What a surprise! While the week before there were numerous ducks, there were not nearly as many this day. We did check out the north end of the area which we hadn’t taken the time to do the week prior.

Lo and behold, a large bird we thought at first to be a Turkey Vulture, as it got closer to us, was determined to be a Golden Eagle! Now, this is not a bird one sees frequently here as it is only found during migration, and not very often. It was soaring in front of, to the side and above us for quite awhile, giving us good looks. It was a juvenile, with white underwing patches and tail feathers, which the adult does not have. Still, it was quite the find and made our day.

The other item of note, birdwise, was a Great-horned Owl nest in a tree. It was probably a hawk’s nest that the owl took over. We did turn around to get a better look at it to be sure it was what we thought.

It was later in the day than we had planned when we arrived home, but it was still afternoon and not evening, and we were home, safe and sound, with some great experiences to talk about. And, I was happy to see the birds at home had been cared for by my 2 neighbor children who rode their bikes down every day to fill my feeders.

Really, who could beat a Golden Eagle and a Prothonotary Warbler as well as several sightings of Pileated Woodpeckers and Owls among the 100+ bird species we saw on this trip? I am certainly not complaining. Throw in a bit of history, good food, add in the fun of being with like-minded friends and you have the makings of a great road trip, storms notwithstanding.

We did joke about taking too much luggage and decided we should do a repeat of the 1 day road trip of the year before ( the 1 day that turned into 6!) to minimize the stuff we lugged with us.

I hope you have enjoyed our wanderings. Maybe someday we will get clear to the coast to see what birds we can find there.