Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Christmas tree bird count

Birdchick wondered if anyone had any fun bird ornaments, so I thought I'd post a few pics of some of the ones that grace our tree. We used just the glass ornaments to decorate this year, so the really *fun* ones stayed tucked away in the attic. If you're a bird lover, I'm sure you have lots of *fun* bird ornaments that people have given you over the years. I'm not talking about nice ornaments; I mean the cheesy ones that people grab because they have a bird somewhere on them. I've got quite a few of those (that don't resemble any natural bird I've ever seen) - mostly given by my SIL. And Kevin, not your wife, you know which SIL I'm talking about here! The type of ornaments that make you hesitant to admit to a hobby, for fear of what you might find wrapped beneath the tree with your name written on the tag.
Junior wanna-be?
Sometime before Christmas I need to learn how to take in-focus photos of the tree and ornaments.
Had I wanted to be cruel, I'd have posted fuzzy pictures of the not-quite-accurate, but still pretty ornaments and asked you to identify them.
These may be hard enough to ID without a good imagination. In addition to birds on our tree, we have lots of butterflies, dragonflies, and many other insects and animals thanks to the NWF catalog. They make nice sets and have new designs each year. My husband is a good customer.
The last few years they've offered lots of owls and herons, but only this eagle and no other hawks. I'd like a red-tail or maybe a handsome kestral.
We have a few ducks, mostly some variety of mallard, but this wood duck is a favorite. What's on your tree?

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Wood Duck and the Hummingbird are particularly cute. I have quite a few bird ornaments, but we didn't decorate a tree this year, so they're packed away.

John B. said...

Those are some nice ornaments. I especially like the wood duck and the barn owl.

My experience with photographs trees and shrubs is that it is best to stand back a bit and use the zoom. Sometimes the macro function works well and sometimes it doesn't. The digital camera autofocus seems to have a lot of difficulty with close subjects that are not flat.

Susan Gets Native said...

Junior wanna-be? Maybe if the ornament gains about 10 pounds! My chunky baby owl...

I LOVE the wood duck. That one looks the most accurate to me.

Mary said...

They are all very pretty! I have a few birds and a Great Blue Heron ornament with a broken beak (poor thing). I want to put a tree in my sunroom, year round, and decorate with fish and birds. It'll be on my hobby list in 2007.

When we see your finished photo of your tree, it will be fantasic!

MojoMan said...

Cute title! I didn't read it carefully, so I thought this was a post about beating the bushes looking for every winter bird you could scare up. You must have a lovely tree.

silverlight said...

If it's something wings, do angels count?
All of my birds are still in storage.
That's a good collection.
I Like the Duck.

Cathy said...

Oh! Lovely. Lovely. You've got more birds (and prettier, too) than our locals got on the Christas bird count here in Ohio :0)

Lynne at Hasty Brook said...

I love the wood duck too! The flying owl is a close second though.

Patrick B. said...

Laura,

Do you have any of the hand-painted ornaments from SHBO?

The Swami said...

Swami forgot his glasses, so he is having a hard time finding the ornament of the Woodchuck that several people mentioned.

dmmgmfm said...

I love your bird ornaments. My mother was a bird lover, so she often got ornaments as gifts. I haven't had the heart to put up the tree at her house since she passed away. Maybe this year.

Randa said...

What wonderful ornaments! I love them!

Anonymous said...

Ohhhh, I love your bird ornaments! Thanks for sharing!