Little Felted Chickadee & the Great Backyard Bird Count

You have to believe in happiness,
Or happiness never comes ...
Ah, that's the reason a bird can sing -
On his darkest day he believes in Spring.
-Douglas Malloch
You Have To Believe


I have always enjoyed birds - big and little, loud and quiet. I could watch barn swallows swoop and soar and listen to song birds for hours.

During the winter we fill our birdfeeder and throw birdseed on our back deck. Mr. & Mrs. House Finch visit us each morning for breakfast, along with the occasional Mourning Dove and Blacked-Capped Chickadee.


We have images of birds throughout our house.


And the boys often play with their singing Audubon plush birds.

This year we are going to participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count held from February 18-21. It is a wonderful way to encourage my sons' love for nature. Want to join us?

To start us off on two weeks of learning about birds, I needle felted a tiny mountain chickadee for our nature table. (It is my first effort at needle felting, and it shows.)

I made two balls - one for the head and one for the body - by taking a small piece of fiber and soaking it in the soapy water and gently rolling it in a ball. After about 30 seconds of rolling the ball, the fibers began to interlock. About a minute later the balls were hard and I rinsed out the soapy water and let them dry overnight.


The next day, I felted on his tail, wings and eyes and placed him in a nest made of dry moss.

Welcome to our nature table little bird. The boys will have alot of fun learning about you.