[Diana in Wisconsin]

For some reason, Blue Jays have kind of taken over the feeding station and I think they’re scaring away the smaller birds I normally have, though the Juncos and Nuthatches ignore them, LOL! Plenty of Cardinals, so that’s good.

I have had ONE Goldfinch the entire winter, which is very odd. My cats don’t go out in the daytime this time of year - or ever, really, so they’re not on the hunt.

I saw a Grackle the other day which is WAY ahead of schedule. They usually show up with the Red Winged Blackbirds in April at the earliest.

[MomwithHope]

Well thanks in advance for indulging this slide. But I am enjoying them as it is winter and can't do much in the garden yet. This has been my winter project. Started in 2007 and completed to a point in 2012, 1881 yoyos that started as a coverlet. YoYo coverlets are beautiful and this was made in honor of my Mom who loved yoyos and I inherited that and have made many other things with them. The coverlet pretty much sat in a plastic bin for 9 years. It was just too fragile for every day wear. I did enter it in a quilt show in the nearest big city one year. And it went on display at a heritage village festival in one of the old houses two years ago. That's when I decided it needed a backing. Over the next year or so I found a backing sheet and then a few months later a bottom sheet at our local thrift store. They were 2.00 and 3.00 each. I got a package of thin quilt batting and there it sat until this late fall. Through a lot of work and encouragement froj our Diana I finished it yesterday. All the yoyos were anchored to the light colored sheet with army thread, row by tedious row. After that I laid everything out, bottom sheet, batting and top sheet. Wrapped and pinned the bottom sheet around to make a binding. Now I can move on to a bunch of smaller projects I hope to finish by spring.

[FamiliarFace]

I haven’t seen any Grackles yet. We have too many Starlings, but it’s not as bad as previous years. I’m going to have to keep my eye out for how many goldfinches I see. I think you’re right, that it is less than usual. We only have a few Blue Jays and they aren’t hogging the feeders, so the little ones are plenty happy. The bluebirds have been coming to the mealworm feeders off our deck, and I always love seeing them. They cheer me up, but mealworms have gotten pretty expensive. I added red pepper flakes to them to deter the squirrels, raccoons, and possums from raiding those ones.