For some odd reason, probably my biology background, I have a life full of bird people. I have always enjoyed birds and bird watching myself, and am not unusual among my friends. I have several city friends with backyard chickens, another with ducks, and friends with parrots. Bird watching out the windows at work is common thing, everyone knows where the kestrals nest and we’re always on the lookout for the Coopers Hawk that roosts in a nearby tree. So birds and bird people are near and dear to my heart.
My good friend April’s teenage daughter is very into birds, and many years ago they started volunteering at a bird rehabilitaion center where they care for injured birds, from tiny motherless hummingbird babies, to injured golden eagles.
Like most animal rescues, they are always underfunded and in need of donations. In the past I’ve have let April and Haley raid my wonky bowl for beads, which they wired onto cool bookmarks to sell as a fund raiser. Maybe I shouldn’t say wonky bowl, as I never let her take anything very wonky, and instead of just giving her my extra beads I kind of got in the habit of extra beads for them to use.
Because they are bird rehab, I’ve always liked the idea of making some bird themed beads for them to use. Once again this sends me in to the world of making spulptural beads, something I don’t do often or consider myself good at, so it poses a bit of a challenge for me. These are some of the bird beads I’ve come up with thus far. as I don’t feel I have the skills to anything terribly realistic, I decided I try for a bright and cheerfull look.
This has been a significant year for the bird rehab. They were forced to sever ties with their parent facility, and have started a new independent non profit organization; The Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah. They’ve been really busy moving to a new facility, and getting their nonprofit status approved, while all the time caring for orphaned and injured birds, ranging from tiny baby hummingbirds to magestic golden eagles. If you are bird or wildlife lover you might enjoy checking out their webpage!
Linda beads and blogs from her home in Salt Lake City, Utah!