Sunday, January 31, 2016

Donation Quilts

January has been a busy month for me as the winter months I make quilt tops and quilt them.







Saturday, January 30, 2016

Cape May County ~ Two Mile Beach

There was a storm over the past few days that came with high tides and high winds so off we went to the beach to see what shells had been pushed onshore.  There were Whelk shells by the hundreds --some with critters living inside and some without the critters.  We also saw a Savannah Sparrow fedding along the edge of the dunes where sand has been lost from the storm.




Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Jake's Landing

Seaside Sparrow
I finally got out today to do some birding at Jake's Landing because the past few days have been great there.  With the high tides there have been lots of sparrows showing well. It was wonderful when I got there.  I had super looks at Seaside, Nelson's and Salt Marsh Sparrows which were all life birds for me.  There were Savannah and Song Sparrows also feeding among the reeds.  I thought I saw a Sedge Wren but no picture so can't be sure.  Another birder shared that there was a Sora out in the marsh and shared the location so I could see it.

Nelson's Sparrow

Sunday, January 24, 2016

Sunrise over the Bay


Today, just after I got up I noticed that the moon was still full and had not yet gone behind the horizon. The full moon along with the high tides will probably be good for birding at the marsh.

Sunday, January 17, 2016

Hand Dyed Fabrics





I had some blocks to make for an exchange for my online Dyehards group.  Here's what I made this weekend.  I really love working with my dyed fabric and really need to do more with them.

Friday, January 15, 2016

Snowflake Swap

 Art4Mail is having a postcard snowflake swap.  I had lots of fun making an embroidered snowman embellished with snowflakes.  Below is one of the postcards I received.

Sunday, January 10, 2016

Cape May Point State Park

White Pelicans
The past few days there have been 2 White Pelicans hanging around one of the ponds with a Tundra Swan so I went over for a walk. It was great to see both of them along with a variety of ducks including American Wigeon, Northern Pintail, Gadwall and of course, the ever present Mallards.
Tundra Swan


Drake Gadwall
Hen Gadwall

Hen & Drake (front) Mallards

Monday, January 4, 2016

Flowers in January

It is surely hard to believe that it is January.  There have been unseasonably warm temperatures the past few months.  For this reason we still had butterflies flying in NJ into January.  I am involved in logging butterflies I see into a South NJ butterfly log.   So far in January there have been sightings of 2 Monarchs, a number of Common Buckeyes, Orange Sulphurs and Clouded Sulphurs.  I saw my last butterfly on Dec 27th and it was a Clouded Sulphur at Cox Hall Creek WMA.  I still have some flowers booming in my yard - several species of Gaillardia planted in spring 2015, some Lantana and Petunia that didn't succumb to the heavy frost we had one night in Dec and Pansies planted in October.  Driving along the roadways I saw Iris blooming  along with early spring flowers.





Friday, January 1, 2016

Lake Champlain ~ Hooded Mergansers

Happy New Year! I am looking forward to another winter of seeing ducks and getting out and enjoying the wildlife that's around Cape May County in the winter.  Two favorite places to visit are Avalon 8th Street Jetty and Lake Champlain.  Today's visit was to Lake Champlain which is much closer to my home.  There were a group of Hooded Mergansers on the lake.  I just love how they look with the their hoods up.