Today I continue my quest in creating and posting one block a day of the fabulous That Town And Country Quilt by the lovely Susan-Claire Mayfield. This is day two hundred and twenty-one of that project.

This quilt block shows a barrel made from brown boards with a dense topiary coming out of it. The topiary has been fashioned into two separate layers, with the lower layer being much larger. In this topiary are two bird heads poking out and looking around, one in the lower bush, and one in the upper bush. There is a small gray-white bird below the large layer on the barrel and a similar bird (a Junco bird) on the top topiary perching. The topiary is made of a green fabric. This is all against a blue background. — Click To Enlarge

This topiary in a barrel is home to two Junco couples.

Juncos will nest in a bush of dense foliage. Belonging to a branch of the sparrow family, Junco means rush in Spanish, and that’s where they get their name.

They have white outer feathers on their tails, both male and female. They lay 3-6 eggs which hatch in 12-13 days.

Juncos are actually ground foragers and scrounge for insects and weed seeds. They will come to a feeder, but you need to tell them where to look for it by sprinkling a few seeds on the ground.

They really love bark butter—a concoction made from peanut butter, lard, small seeds, and cornmeal.

You spread it right on the tree trunk or branch. Juncos like to look for food. This stuff can attract some insects, and that’s even better for the Junco.