More Birds and a Little Quilting

The weather down here has been pretty dreadful the last couple of days but the rain stopped long enough for me to head down to the pier in Ft. Fisher and catch this beautiful Red-breasted Merganser diving for lunch.

There was a feeding frenzy that I could see from my porch this same morning.  They must have known the rain was coming.  There were lots of pelicans, gulls, and Northern Gannets.  They were diving like crazy.

This is one of the Gannets taken from way far away!!  They are a very striking bird and very visible even from great distances because they are so white with those black wing tips.  You can just barely see the tan colored head.

And finally the Coots have come to Carolina Beach Lake!!  This is the first I have seen them this year.  Everything seems to be a month later than usual.  Our trees are just changing color!!  I think this is all because of Hurricane Florence which ripped all the leaves off the trees before they were ready.  It was very odd to see all the new green leaves on trees in mid-October!!

First time I have seen a Little Blue Heron down at Carolina Beach Lake.  There have been a flock of Ibis hanging out there as well.

Although the light wasn't too great, I did spot a couple of Pied-billed Grebes down at the Lake as well.  There was an abundance of Canada Geese and Mallards one day too.  I think the Geese were the migrating kind as they don't stick around like so many do up north.

I have finally finished the binding on the other stack and whack as well as "quilt from hell".  I have been having a few issues with my sewing machine but did manage to get the machine quilting done on this one.  I had intended to do much more dense quilting in the light areas but the machine was not cooperating.  It looks better than this picture suggests.  Now to get the binding sewn down and I will have all the basted quilts done!  Now to just get the mystery quilt basted and quilted.  It may not get done depending on how well my machine behaves.