Backyard Stuff

Friday night, spring finally came home. I was on my back deck shortly after dusk, enjoying the first rain-free evening in a week. The spring peepers were calling up a storm from down the road. Next door, the grey tree frogs were in fine voice, building to a crescendo in the unused swimming pool with the flooded liner. The perfume of lilacs and a half-dozen other flowers spiced the evening air. I watched a big brown bat hawking for insects over the roof line. The bat had just finished a wing-over Immelman turn to grab a particularly tasty morsel when movement caught my eye on the silver maple in the corner of the yard. Glancing over, I saw a quick shadow flit from the maple to the old tulip poplar at the other end of the yard and heard the scrabble of tiny claws on bark. A small silhouette scampered up the trunk and launched into the air, for the next tree down the block. A flying squirrel; I always knew they were here but that was my first yard sighting. All we need now are a few exotic migrants from the Amazon and spring will be official.