Today we went for a walk along the nearby river and saw lots of bird activity. Where we live, there are lots of birds--I am no birder, but I have seen finches, red-winged blackbirds, robins, starlings, geese, crows, ducks, chickadees, sparrows, cardinals and grackles in large numbers over the past couple of days. With the unseasonable warm weather lately, the gnats and other insects are out now, so the bird activity has increased accordingly. As usual, I forgot to bring along my camera.
We've also been watching Molly the barn owl live streaming (link in "wildlife links" post). Four of her brood have hatched and the last egg was expected to hatch a couple of days ago, so the kids are especially interested in watching.
Did you know that only fertilized eggs can grow to become baby birds? The chicken eggs we eat are not fertilized. When birds hatch, they first make an air hole in the shell called a "pip hole".
We have dyed our eggs with natural dyes this year. The blueberry, onion and beet ones turned out especially well. Our blender is out of commission at the moment, so I wasn't able to puree the spinach enough for the colour to transfer. The carrots were more subtle than in the past.
If you want your eggs to be shiny, let the dyes dry then rub a little vegetable oil over the shell.
For the dye recipes as well as ways to marbleize and tie-dye eggs, see my spring crafts page here: http://greensim.com/lemonade/spring#egg
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