Applique Practice and Cross Stitch: Needles Busy

My cardinal visits again

I know this is an awful photo but I was taking it from inside.  I think it is my cardinal back again yesterday for a quick visit.

                                          A welcome splash of colour in the winter landscape.

                                He ventured closer appearing in the birch right in front of the house.
                                 On the left is a  bird deflector I have hanging in the window
                                    (not lovely looking, but they work).

                                  And very briefly went to the ground looking for seeds.

                                               
                                A second later he took off again, flying up sort of backwards.

                    Later in the day I spied him again and he seemed to be accompanied by a female...

I know you have to look closely to spy her; there is a chickadee just above her.  Mr. Cardinal stayed on the ground and like always, this visit too was fleeting.
 They were near the farthest bird feeders; why they don't come more often to get a few seeds I don't know.  With deep snow cover and frigid temperatures, it must be a challenge for them to find food.
Speaking of which, we have added a third feeder to the front lawn group to help the birds and my black squirrel trio through this continuing winter freeze.

Meanwhile, cozy inside and stitching away. 

 I have a fabric project on the go.  I'm keen to improve my applique stitch so I had this idea to use something with a lot of curves and small turns to make me practice.  I thought of various birds but I'd worked on a lot of birds during my felt ornament phase so I wanted something different. Not sure how I came up with the idea of a moose motif.  But I found out drawing moose is a lot of fun; they are rather comical looking creatures with too tall legs on a smallish body and a too long nose/snout? so I drew many forms before settling on one, which, by the way, is not exactly true to the real moose proportions.

Still needs lots of work; I'm trying to figure out the embroidered bits.  I'm thinking of bullrushes and reeds.  I know that is the kind of vegetation moose enjoy.

And my cross stitched wren project is inching forward.  I can't tell you how many hours of stitching this bit represents but those of you who cross stitch will know.

The nest just starting to take shape...actually I think this is upside down; never mind, you get the idea.

Hope your needle is busy too.