A pygmy owl.

Dave and I both heard the thud, when a bird hit our front window this morning. I ran out front to see what it was and if it was ok.
This little feathered hunter was spread out on the concrete and not moving, so we feared the worst. Dave knew right away it was an owl, I wasn't so sure, since it was so small! I didn't want to frighten or hurt him by picking him up... but he wasn't moving and the grounds' so cold now.






 So I waited a bit, then picked him up and examined him as best I could. He was cool and so stiff  with his foot curled up by his eyes... yet I could see he was breathing so I held him close to my chest and covered him with my hands, breathing warm air on his little body, hoping a little warmth and the safety of darkness would help him to recover.

I peaked at him a few times but he still wasn't moving and his eye was 1/2 open. Thinking he was a goner, we didn't take any pictures... and I cursed our big window...but after about 5-10 minutes he opened his eye and next thing he flew out of my hand- chattering as he disappeared in the neighbours trees!

  I was thrilled that he'd survived and wished him the best, regretting that we hadn't taken any photos!




A little while later Dave commented that there's a bird chattering in the trees, and maybe it's the owl, so I grabbed my camera, shoes, a sweater and went to investigate.

 I could hear and see a little bird chattering and hopping excitedly in the trees, so I looked around and found that he was upset by the presence of our little pygmy owl, who looked quite annoyed as he recovered on a branch.
Here's a link to the video.

I took a bunch of pictures using my zoom and then left him alone...

 a couple hours later he was gone. 

In the meantime I've made a couple of silhouette cut-outs and taped them to our front window, in the hopes that no more birds will hit that darned window!

Photos of Wedding bouquets with my charms.

I'm hoping to see a beautiful array of wedding bouquets and my finished wedding bouquet charms on this page.
It would be awesome for my customers to comment and post your photos here :)
 
Here's a start:

Thank you Rebekah for sharing your beautiful
bouquet photo with the lockets :)

Thank you Amber!

Thank You Amber for letting me share your bouquet & charm photos!

"Thank YOU!" to Sarah-Jane for her photos.
She made this awesome bouquet and finished it up with my charms!

          

Thankyou Tressa for sharing your photo!

Photo by Hannah Grace- http://www.hannahgracephoto.com

Thank you Brittany

photo by Ildiko Gagyor Photography

photo by Ildiko Gagyor Photography

 

It might take a while to get a nice collection of photos- so in the meantime stop by:
 My Etsy Shop,  
- Wedding bouquet and Memorial charms
- Handmade jewelry
- My paintings

Visit my lovely teammates  Etsy Potti Team friends
Wonderful Etsy admirers or to see What my customers say (reviews)  

Leave a comment, 
I'd love to know you were here... :)

An assortment of bird photos.

            I love birds & have some lovely photos of them I'd like to share with you:

Osprey on the nest - Kootenay Lake, BC, Canada

Close up of an osprey in a tree in our yard.

Young ducks & their mom sunning on a log... usually there's turtles here, but not today.

A young flicker that was sleeping under our gas meter... when he realized I was there, he flew away :)

We saw so many blue herons at the seashore... lots of food for them :)

Three young blue herons waiting for dinner, close up.

We found an amazing heron rookery near the ocean, these young ones were patiently waiting for their dinner.

It's always a special day when I see a bald eagle.
There's many in our area, but it's still a treat to get a close up.

A duck of some sort on Kootenay Lake, BC, Canada

A close up of a stellar's jay

A stellar's jay posing for me.

The elusive blue jay. I didn't even know we had them in this part of Canada :)

The blue jay posing in our patio.

Backside view of this beautiful blue jay.

A little dipper

A little chickadee

A little nuthatch eating sunflower seeds.

Pileated woodpecker - they're so big!

A big crow 

A raven posing for a photo.

Let me Do the photo for your charm.

Photo by Ildiko Gagyor Photography 

You're just about to order one of my wedding bouquet charms and are thinking to let me do the photo for you, but it costs $5 more.
Here's what my customers say.

 I increased the price of my add-on "Photo service"-  from $3 to $5.
Yes that's a big increase and here's why:
   It's really EASY to do the photos yourself... (IF you have access to a printer, can resize a photo and have a little patience... ) or you may know someone that could easily do it for you.
My customers agree that it's rewarding and intimate to add your own photo to one of my charms, that's why they are offered as a DIY (do it yourself) ....  but the reality is, not everyone can or wants to do it.  So I started offering to do the photos (a couple of years ago) on my Etsy shop. It was so seldom requested and I enjoyed making them, so $3 was a good price.

It's not hard to add your own photo

   I enjoy making them, although I often get teary or sad knowing that this person's image I am editing, is no longer with their loved ones and sometimes this is the only picture they have. So I do my best to fix what I can.
I rarely know anything about these fine folks, but just looking at their faces & what they are doing gives me a tiny connection as to who they were, and I want this photo & charm to be perfect to honour their memory for years to come!

It often takes a lot of my time to edit photos. The best ones have been scanned, but some  are thumbnails or smartphone photos of photos... (sometimes the original pictures are so old they are yellowed, cracked,  orfuzzy to begin with. )

Not all shoppers are techies, so I try to be as helpful as I can. One lovely mom actually mailed her only treasured pictures to me, so I could scan them, make the charms with the photos, and send her pictures back- with the charms :)  Luckily we had lots of time to do it that way.

I use a clear plastic dome "sticker" to enhance and protect each photo then cut each one to fit snuggly into it's frame.
Anyhow if I want to keep offering the service I should pay myself a bit for doing so.
I think you'll find that for $5 it's still a great deal!

I'd love to add the photo for you.