birds and a butterfly (card)

Just a few random photos from the last couple days- first, a card I made last night using scraps of paper leftover from the Quilt Show scrapbook layout I re-worked a few days ago. I've heard people say before that they use their scraps to make cards, but I never really got the concept, for some reason. I had these leftover pennant pieces, the twine, and the butterfly punches in a little bowl sitting on my desk, and that's all I needed- plus a bit more of patterned paper and a manila tag. Voila! I may actually do this more often!

a close-up of the card... (I love having a huge roll of 3-D foam tape at my disposal to use whenever I want to add some dimension to a project!)

This afternoon as I drove into our neighborhood, I actually turned around and drove back to the entry pond common area... because I caught a glimpse of this guy, doing a little fishing- a great blue heron. (he didn't stay very long, so this is the only photo I got- thankfully, it turned out okay.)

I looked around a bit, and saw that he had a dinner companion! This cattle egret was hanging out close by, but he was a bit more shy and took off before I could get a decently clear photo of him. Plus, with all the sun shining on him, I didn't have a very good chance of getting much detail out of the photo, anyway.

The usual selection of ducks was hanging out in the pond- mostly mallards, but there were also some more exotic waterfowl, as well- this group of ring necked ducks meets the definition of 'snow birds'  (haha! just a bit of birding humor, there) since the southern US is their winter habitat. I'm pretty sure they were being so friendly because they thought I'd feed them, but once they figured out I didn't have anything for them, they headed off. (they look sort of ominous, actually, all eyeing me like that!) 

and lastly, a view of the entire pond-- after a few days of higher than normal springish temps around here, it's been cold, windy, and rainy again the past couple days (there was actually a report this afternoon of snow falling in north Phoenix!!) so unfortunately, spring isn't here quite yet!