Saturday, February 21, 2015

For The Birds

I finally rooted around in some boxes in the shed and found some of my old bird feeders.  These are all quite early and are seconds for one reason or another.  

'Bird and Catbird' is thrown in one piece with the bottom cut out for filling.  To fit in properly it has to be cut at an angle, which I did not do.  There are small holes in the bottom and the top.  A string runs through and is tied in a loop for hanging. 



The blue and white is thrown is two pieces.  The lid has a flange on it that fits inside the feeder tube.   This is way too squat so of course i had to keep it!   Again, a string runs through to keep it together for hanging.  I usually make some sort of a flat bead to act as a stop on the bottom.

These two are my usual low fire majolica.  The blue is so old that I was still experimenting with white earth for my clay body.  They have survived the elements because I always make two or three drain hole in the feeding tray.  


I made  Greenie in my first pottery class; so it is very old indeed!  It's one of the first, if not the first, things I ever handbuilt out of pads or wads.  I liked, and still do, being able to make something large using small amounts of clay.  This has survived everything, including the squirrels destroying my improvised hanger so they could get all the seeds out.  I kept this out of sentiment.    


My little majolica bird is what got me looking for the feeders.  Tim See  inthe  Facebook Clay Buddies group asked us to post our birds.  There are a  lot of birds there.  Does that make us a bunch of birdbrains?


Last I have to post Winter in winter.   Here she is swimming in fresh snow which she loves.  It's funny because she is such a timid pup that water terrifies her!  Far be it from me to understand the workings of a dog's mind!


The sun is out with thin, high, cold clouds.  It was -2 at 6:30 this morning.   I understand that it's going to warm up enough so that the coming storm will turn to rain by tomorrow.  It will probably get cold again which will make the world into a skating rink!  My that should be interesting!

Enjoy your week end and the weather, such as it is, and know that it will get warmer, colder, wetter, dryer at some point, because Mother Nature is a fickle lady.

As always, thanks for stopping by............*s*

12 comments:

  1. amazing the feeders make it in the snow and cold, very cool, love the waded feeder,

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    1. Hi Linda....Thanks. It's the drain holes that keep them from breaking.

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  2. Those feeders are gorgeous! I wish we could have a bird feeder here, but we have had such squirrel problems I don't want to attract them too.
    Winter looks like she is having so much fun. At least someone is enjoying the snow.

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    1. Hi Michele....Thanks. I may even make a few more. When we had a squirrel problem we used to put out goat feed. Whatever was in it, they loved and stayed away from the feeders.

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  3. Such fine birds...and oh, the small dogs in snow are so cute!

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    1. Hi Gary....Winter is the first really small (25 lbs) we have had and boy is she cute; she likes leaf piles in the fall too!

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  4. Dearest Suzi,
    What an interesting feeders you show here. The blue one looks like a mushroom, sheltering the birds nicely with a roof over their heads while feasting on their seeds! They sure do appreciate such design.
    And your green one, having survived the pesky squirrels is remarkable!
    Hope you stay warm and above all, safe. We too will have rain coming our way but it was so much milder today at around 68°F.
    Hugs,
    Mariette

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  5. Hi Mariette....Thanks. It was warm enough yesterday to actually melt some of the snow. It's getting cold again but I think we are getting past the worst of winter!

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  6. We’ve had this tremendous gathering of birds at the house recently. We counted 12 red winged black birds on the front lawn yesterday and we hadn’t put food out there. They would have loved to have your feeders there.

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    1. Hi Lori...We have flocks of birds show up at times, especially since we put in the fish pond. She bathe in the shallow parts. Mostly we have small birds here in the snow!

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  7. Lucky birds! These sure put my old rickety wooden ones to shame. Ugh, this weather, looking forward to complaining about the heat in August about now!!

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  8. Hi Tracey....You and me both. We are supposed to begetting more snow tonight! UGH!

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