Before I tell you about our "big" project we accomplished in May, I want to briefly get back to my last post about the nesting Mourning Doves. Someone asked what happened to the babies after one of the parents was caught by the hawk. Thankfully, the little doves had already left the nest when this happened. The other parent is still on his or her own (I really can't tell whether it's female or male) and sometimes hanging around our backyard.
Now let's get to our May project. We need to go way back more than 25 years when we were still living in Germany and bought a sun umbrella by Ombrelloni di creco, a German company who manufactured their beautiful sun umbrellas in the village near Tübingen where we were living. These umbrellas are of very high quality and the frame is made of wood.
Fast forward more than 20 years and the fabric of this heavily used sun umbrella started to deteriorate. Because of its rectangular shape we weren't able to find a replacement, so the wooden frame went into the shed. And finally we had a brilliant idea - turn it into a bird feeding station.
The Geek started the process by sanding the whole thing down.
After he had completely disassembled it, we varnished it on a warm Sunday - four coats with two hours each of drying time in between. Of course it took the entire day to do this. Kibeau was our supervisor.
After a couple days of drying out, the Geek re-assembled the frame, again under the supervision of Kibeau.
24 comments:
...that's quite a smorgasbord and I see that the squirrels have made themselves right at home.
I forsee many, many happy hours watching 'your' birds.
Admiring anyone who can do DIY. The birds are lovely to view
Your umbrella seems to be a perfect birdfeeder. It's a very good idea! Beautiful photos.
It is nothing short of fantastic, Carola. What a great new idea for this old parasol, and there’s a lesson in recycling there for all of us. Such a great variety of birds too. I think we just have to accept that the squirrels will get their share! Hugs - David
Das ist ein supertolles zweites Leben für den Schirm!!!
Und für die Vögel und für euch - tolle Idee!
I love watching birds. Using the umbrella frame as a giant feeder stand is brilliant.
I see why birds love you!
Lovely birds :D
Such a creative 'bird feeder) so talented ~ great bird photos too
~ Kudos to the man ~
Wishing you good health, laughter and love in your days,
A ShutterBug Explores,
aka (A Creative Harbor)
Impressive collection of faces photos.
Wow! That is a great project. Well done too. Thank you for sharing with FFO and have a nice weekend.
That's a huge project and how beautifully done it is! I thought you might say you recovered it (which would be nice, too) but I love the look of it as a frame and how you put it to use with your feeder. Squirrels will have trouble with that one! And your bird visitors are simply fantastic. Well done on all counts!
Que interesante y que bien os ha quedado, los pájaros estarán muy felices. Besos.
Hallo Carola, du hast bei mir das "+" überlesen.
Vordiplom: 4 Semester, Bachelor: 6 Semester und damit darf man sich Ingenieur nennen.
Warum der Dipl.-Ing weg ist, weiß ich nicht, ist mir auch egal, ich hab ihn ja noch :-)
Squirrels, whatcha gonna do. Nice try, though. We get house finches here and mourning doves and the very occasional titmouse, but those others... You get a great variety :)
(I'm here from Nicole's Friday Face Off.)
I just love watching birds at the feeder, and squirrels too!
Lovely to see your photographs.
All the best Jan
Liebe Carola,
das war wirklich eine geniale Idee und tolle Ausführung. Wäre doch wirklich zu schade gewesen, dieses wertige Gestell nicht mehr zu verwenden - und so haben nun viele, viele Lebewesen etwas davon, vor allem die gefiederten, aber offenbar auch die Eichhörnchen. Und für den Geek und dich und wohl auch den eifrigen Supervisor Kibeau gibt es jetzt immer etwas Spannendes zu beobachten :-D
Alles Liebe, Traude
https://rostrose.blogspot.com/2024/07/weltreise-2024-neuseeland-von-nord-nach.html
Your birds are fantastic. I love seeing all those Western species that have come to your birdie buffet.
best… mae at maefood.blogspot.com
Welch tolle Idee diesen kleinen Schatz wiederverwendbar zu machen.
Eine Freude für euch und die Vögel.
Es ist schön die Vielfalt in eurem Garten zu sehen.
Fröhliche Grüsse kommen zu euch von Viola
p.s. Sommerwetter ist wieder hier... ich liebe es.
What a brilliant idea to turn your old sun umbrella into a bird feeding station!
The variety of birds you attract is amazing.
Kudos to you, the Geek, and Kibeau for this wonderful project!
Carola, add my kudos to the Geek and yourself for doing all the work on this new fantastic bird feeder, Like Jeanie, I also thought you would consider getting a new top for it, but that most likely be nearly impossible and then costly if it could be done. Instead, this recycled project is not only providing a variety of birds with seed, but also giving you the ability to get some wonderful photos to share here. Well done !
I guess I am really behind on posts. :) This is such a cool bird feeder pole. The wood looks great, and ha ha to those squirrels. They are smart little buggers for certain. Hope July is treating you well. hugs-Erika
Your umbrella project turned out nice. Have never heard of a sun umbrella before. You get lots of birds around your area, and I especially love the hummingbirds. They seem to enjoy all the feeders you put out for them. I love to see the hummers flutter about my white flowering bush when I'm out there watering in the mornings. They love to hear the water trickling. Love that first pictures of the precious yellow ones. It's wonderful.
Enjoy the summer days.
~Sheri
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