The perkiest bird in the yard HAS to be the Carolina wren. With his racing-striped eyes and his repertoire of loud calls, he's all over yard. You can hear him coming from across the creek. He's on the branch, then he's on the fence, then he's on the porch, then he's on the woodpile and every time he lands he yells either "Judy, Judy, Judy" or "Boogity, boogity, boogity, shoot" or he's scolding something with his loud raspy voice. He's one beezy bird.

The robins continue to put on an entertaining show. A second set of baby robins has touched the ground. Actually, I think there is only one in this set so I guess I shouldn't call it a set. I can tell them apart because this newest one has a tail that is only one inch long and he stumbles around the yard like he doesn't know what to do next. The only thing he can do is sit there and and give a loud chirp hoping his parents haven't abandoned him. And they haven't. Baby Bird 2 was tripping around the ground cover up here by the fence and two squirrels decided to have their morning breakfast stroll in the same place. This was the first time I had ever seen a bird go after a squirrel. Daddy Robin kept up a low-flying graze across the squirrel's back trying to guide the squirrel away from his baby. The squirrel didn't have baby robin in mind for his breakfast so he was a bit confused about why this robin kept bugging him. To make matters worse, every time Daddy lighted on the ground, Baby Robin 2 would run over hoping there was a meal for him. This put more fear into Daddy so he attacked the squirrel even more voraciously.

Eventually, the squirrels wandered down further into the yard and the baby bird sat on a box by the pool and tried to hop up on the rubber rim. One try convinced Junior that he couldn't do it. He hopped down from the box when he spied Daddy nearby again. The poor baby doesn't have his tree wings yet so Daddy has a hard job at hand keeping baby protected till he grows up a bit more.

The titmice finally made an appearance in our yard. It's funny how the chickadees, the titmice, the nuthatches and the downy woodpeckers all seem to hang around each other. It makes sense, though. All of them are tree bug eaters so they are keeping an eye on where to find the food. If a nuthatch finds a feast, then the woodpecker will, too. I love to listen to the nuthatches. They have this funny, low "Yonk, yonk" sound.

The most wildlife I see in the backyard are the birds. Lots of them. There are mainly robins, cardinals, mourning doves, grackles and house sparrows. The birds are a constant fixture in the yard. Then occasionally, we get ot see the furry bits of wildlife, too. There are two rabbits that hide along the fence and that come out in the morning and evening to munch on the dandelions and other fresh greenery. There are groundhogs but I haven't seen them as much lately. I saw a chipmunk last week. Oh, and, of course, there are the multitudes of squirrels. Mainly the gray variety but we also have two tiny red squirrels living in the mulberry tree's trunk. They are so small and cute. The make the tiniest squeaking noise.

Speaking of red squirrels. A gray squirrel managed to tick one off this morning and I saw the red squirrel chasing the gray one away on the telephone wires. We're not sure if he's guarding his food source--the huge red mulberry tree that he lives in--or just being territorial; probably both. The red mulberry tree is a hive of bird and squirrel activity. That tree is 30 feet tall and laden with mulberries in various stages of ripeness. While the cicadas were here, the tree was practically ignored and thousands of plump, dark purple berries lay on the ground rotting. Now that the glut of cicadas is gone, the mulberries have become the main focus of breakfast, lunch and dinner for the critters. The tree used to sport dark purple berries, reddish-colored berries and white berries--all indicative of their varying stages of ripeness. Now all we can see on the tree are the white berries and pale pink ones. The birds can hardly wait for them to turn the slightest bit of color before they gobble them down.

Then we finally had confirmation that there are raccoons around. It was after dark and Bill and I were sitting on the deck watching the fireflies. And speaking of fireflies, there are so many in this yard that it lights up like Christmas. I heard a rustling in the mulberry tree but didn't think much of it. I kept hearing it so I bent over and triggered the sensor on the floodlights. After a few moments of not seeing anything out there, I went into the house. Bill went down under the deck to do whatever it is he does under there. Sitting at my computer, I looked outside again. The light was still on. And suddenly, I saw two somethings sliding slowly down the tree trunk. Then a third one followed them. Then it hit me. RACCOONS! Yay! I called to Bill to have a look so I could confirm it really was raccoons and he said yes, they were. Then another one came down. Then two more. Each of them stopped for a few seconds to peer up at the patio, then they lumbered off. And just when we thought they were all gone, a seventh one came out of the tree.

So, we're not sure if it was a mamma--that we didn't see--with seven babies or just a whole crew of raccoons feasting on the berries. Raccoons are usually solitary creatures once they've grown up. I don't know if they have been back since or not. Hope so. I really miss my coonie girls that I had last summer. I think of them a lot and wonder how they fared through the winter. If only we had lived in this house when I had them, I would have been able to open the cage door when they were three months old and let them wander in and out so they could have foraged on their own. The transition to being a wild coon would have been easier on them. I also could have provided nesting boxes for them for the winter and kept feeding them dog food so they would have had a lot better start that first year. But, oh, well. We didn't live here and I did the best for them that I could for where we did live.

But I do miss them and would have loved seeing them come around again.