Friday 26 June 2020

Smalls SAL - June 2020

Hello all!

It's the last Friday of the month so time for the Smalls SAL. Thank you, Mary, for continuing to host this fun little SAL. Pop over to Mary's Blog to see what other participants have been stitching in the way of Smalls this month.



Each month I stitch a small project specifically for this SAL which doesn't appear elsewhere on my blog.

For June I decided to return to Rachel James' Little Birds series, and stitch the kakapo. As you'll find out below though, these are native to New Zealand, not Australia as I said last month, so apologies for the error.

Cute Kakapo by FuzzyFoxDesigns
Stitch Count 41 wide by 31 high
Stitched on 16ct Kelp over-dyed aida by sewitall.com
Started - 3rd June 2020
Finished - 5th June 2020
Total stitching time - 6 hours 5 minutes


I'd never heard of the kakapo so did a bit of research. This is from, or has been paraphrased from, good old wikipeadia:


The kakapo, also called owl parrot, is a species of large, flightless, nocturnal, ground-dwelling parrot endemic to New Zealand. It has finely blotched yellow-green plumage, a distinct facial disc, a large grey beak, short legs, large feet, and relatively short wings and tail, There are only about 210 remaining, up from around just 50-60 in the 1980s and 1990s, all of which have been tagged and live on four islands cleared of predators. They weigh about 2-4kg and can live up to 95 yeas.

Here's one with Davic Attenborough during his filming of the 'Life of Birds' series:

The Life of Birds | Songs


And if you want to see a real male in its habitat and getting amorous with a human, here's a YouTube clip from Stephen Fry's 'Last Chance To See' series. It's really sweet and good for a giggle!


In this Smalls SAL I'm also re-showing other qualifying small projects I've stitched during the month. This month it's just my Monarch, the never-crowned Edward V:



Next month I will be stitching another little Mouseloft kit. But which one?

Take care,
Rachel x

10 comments:

Clare-Aimetu said...

I hadn't heard of a kakapo either, thank you for the information. Another good looking monarch on your history project

Mary's Thread said...

He is a cute kakapo! We saw them in person in New Zealand on a trip 10 years ago! How fun! Thanks for joining the SAL!

Cathy said...

Cute small!

Faith... said...

I do think those kakapos are pretty cute; wherever they are from.

Bethan said...

Oh the Kakapo is gorgeous! Thank you for the information about it too!

Katie said...

How cute and something I had never heard of too. So thanks for sharing. I love learning new things like this.

Tiffstitch said...

This one is the cutest!! And I have seen that clip, that is a very patient human.

Jo who can't think of a clever nickname said...

He's adorable! Englsih History and now Natural History, your blog is so educational!

Leonore Winterer said...

I never heard of the kakapo (which is a bit of an unfortunate name in German btw, as it means 'poo-butt'), but they are adorable (both the real ones and your stitched version!). Even if there population is just 210, that number being up from much less is promising at least. Hopefully they'll be around for a while longer!

Astrids dragon said...

Awe, what a sweet little thing, especially stitched! So sad that there are only 210 left, hopefully they'll multiply since they're safer.