Birds and Quilts

Surprisingly, with all the Ruddy Ducks I have seen over the years down here, I had never seen a male until this last week when several males showed up at Carolina Beach Lake.  For some reason I hadn 't even realized it and was puzzling over what this duck was when I first saw it.  They do dive very frequently and move away quickly when they see you but I managed to get this decent picture anyway!  They have a bill almost like the Shovelers.

I also spotted this lone gull out on the lake and knew it looked a little different even at a distance.  It wasn't hanging out with the other gulls at all.  It is a Bonapartes Gull which I have seen before but not at the lake.

The Coots have been acting quite strangely lately.  They are not hanging out together and large groups are up on the land and very close to human traffic.  Don't know whether this has anything to do with the fact that they have put some chemicals in the lake lately (after they filled it up again).  One day the water in the fountains was bright blue!

On the nice warm days, the Yellow Bellied Sliders pile up on the side of one of the side swampy areas.  You can see from where they get their names!

Last but not least a Song Sparrow sitting on one of the reeds in the lake.  I didn't realize they liked to be near water.

Another of the Serendipity quilts is finished!  I will have a blog of the whole series for the next blog as I am finishing up the binding on the last one I have machine quilted down here.  Of course I have fabric to make more!!  This one is the one I made from  taking apart a top I had finished.  I had liked the fabric but didn't like the top as it was just too boring.  

The weather is again gorgeous down here so little work gets done except for sitting on the porch reading and watching the pelicans fly by!  I continue to quilt on the Baltimore Album and finally feel like I am making some progress.  It is a quilt that will be best viewed from a horse riding by though!   I did the applique close to 30 years ago and I can't take out any mistakes in the quilting because the stitches are too small so there are quite a few very wonky areas!