Dear Fed Ex

As a knitter of over 50 years your commercial offends me. You should fire your advertising staff. Knitting is no longer done by little old ladies such as the nana in your commercial. Knitting is done by all ages, both men and women and is growing as more than just little old gray haired ladies making crap out of that old Red Heart yarn. I understand the concept behind your commercial but... how about nana make some aran sweaters that her family might actually use. Those things are a work of art and are very heavy. I bet nana could pack quite a few sweaters in a box and get them to her family pretty cheap and they would actually wear them. Seriously you need to fire your advertising staff and find one that actually understands the times have changed.

My Bird Count This Week

This is the first week for the bird counting. I usually have more birds than the count but they are still a little late getting to the feeders, there is still a lot of natural seed out there to be had. They built a very pretty trail not too far from my house and walking it the other day there were a lot of bird, lots of natural habitat and seeds from flowers dying. Yesterday I had: 3 cardinals, 3 Juncos, 3 house finches, 12 house sparrows, 4 doves, 4 gold finches, 1 downy woodpecker, and 1 starling. Today I had: 1 dove, 28 starling, 1 robin, 2 juncos, 1 blue jay, 2 house finches, 3 gold finches, 8 house sparrows. The starling are a mess but I put out bowls of cheap cat food and they leave the feeders alone. I count them because in all reality I do feed them just not bird food. The blue jays also like the cheap cat food and I have seen a sparrow snatch a piece as well. Stay tuned to next week to see what visits and eats.

Feeder Watch

Since I feed and watch the birds I have decided to join in this year and record my findings. If it helps I am all for it. I received my kit from Project Feeder Watch from The Cornell Lab of Ornithology. They have a cam in Canada where you can watch the birds they get. The watch goes from Nov 9 to April 4. I have chose Tuesday and Wednesday as my two days to count and report my data. I made myself a cover for a spiral notebook to record my data in. I only had butterfly fabric in my stash, and no bird fabric so it will have to do. I feed the birds all year long but I change up my feed a bit in the winter, I put suet out and a peanut butter/cracker/cereal mix in 2 feeders. In the Spring and summer I have my hummer feeders out, a butterfly feeder and an oriole feeder. Besides watching the Decorah Eagles I will be watching what visits my yard as well. I know the Turkey Vultures fly over head a lot but have never seen them come down to eat the small roadkill that is close to my house. Stay tuned and see what visits my yard and maybe we will have some new birds this year. Last year I had a ton of Pine Siskins, such cute little birds.