Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Chickadee Counted Cross Stitch


I made this chickadee counted cross stitch several years ago from a pattern that I no longer have, I'm sorry to say.  The background is linen.  It hangs in our dining room, so we can enjoy these birds inside our home as well as outside.   

This Black-Capped Chickadee and its cousin the Mountain Chickadee provide much joy to us throughout the year.  They do not head south to warmer climes in the fall but remain year-round to enjoy all of the seasons with us.  Their cheerful chick-a-dee-dee-dee call brightens our day anytime of the year.  Both chickadees are 5-1/4 " long, but the Mountain Chickadee has a little white stripe above the eye, making his black eye patch look a little like Zorro's!

Nuthatches are also faithful, year-round birds.  The Red-Breasted Nuthatch is 4-1/4" long so a little smaller than the chickadees.  But they are easy to identify because they travel headfirst down the trunks of trees and even eat headfirst!  They are such fun to watch.   
 
We had to take in a bird feeder last night because raccoons like to climb onto our front porch in the night and gorge on sunflower seeds.  They are clever and can twist the cupholder screw so that the entire feeder falls to the ground.  This morning when I replaced the feeder, a chickadee immediately flew onto it.  I felt a little guilty that I had yearned for our hummingbirds when we have such faithful birds that bring such cheer to us throughout the year.

You might also enjoy my previous blog post:
http://www.starwoodquilter.blogspot.com/2013/02/events-in-persian-pickle-club.html

8 comments:

  1. Love to watch the Chickadees. We get a few in our feeders. Squirrels love the feeders also. Nice needle point.

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    1. Thank you, Nancy. Aren't those Chickadees fun to watch! We don't have problems with squirrels for some reason - just raccoons and bears!

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  2. We have tits here that are very similar in looks, belonging to the same family. I have a feeder that sticks to my living room window with suction cups so those birds come right to my window for the sunflower seeds. Since I had had that feeder a long time, the suction cups were not working well and when I went to the states, I bought a new window feeder at the Audubon Society shop. When I took it out to set it up, I found they had a web-site and wrote sell new suction cups. I sent an e-mail off to order two more for the first feeder and they sent me those parts all the way to Japan for free! Now I have that feeder up outside my bedroom window. You might want to check out the window cafe, as the coons wouldn't be able to mess with something stuck to a window.
    I have put up nesting boxes for those tits and it is such fun to watch them raise a family. Their call is so close to the chickadee that you wouldn't notice the difference. We also have "Coal Tits" and Long-tail Tits" and one multicolored "Varied Tit".
    I love your cross stitch piece.

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    1. I think I would love window feeders. I'm going to check those out. We've had several house finches build nests on our front porch and have gotten to watch baby birds hatch. One time a mama built a nest on a basket on our front door so that every time we opened the front door, the nest was inside our house. One time the mama flew into the house, and it was an interesting experience getting her out. She and I were both pretty frantic!

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  3. I love your chickadee cross stitch picture!
    We have the chickadees, and those unstoppable , piggy squirrels! The chickadees are so pretty and lively, aren't they?

    Susie

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    1. Thank you! We have unstoppable, piggy raccoons and bears!

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  4. Beautiful work and I always enjoy watching Chickadees! Thanks for sharing.
    Freemotion by the River Linky Party Tuesday

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    1. Thank you, Connie. Chickadees and nuthatches are my very favorite winter birds.

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