There’s been a lot of activity in my neighborhood with new homes popping up everywhere, and some actually appearing overnight! I first noticed this uptick in new homes with the arrival of Mr. Hawk. He took up residence in the penthouse nest on top of one of our tallest pine trees with sweeping views of the field, forest, and pond. Although as we mentioned earlier he’s a bit of a messy neighbor, and occasionally drops his dinner. I may have to remind him of the Home Owners Association agreement to keep things neat and tidy.

In addition to Mr. Hawk, we have several Owls who have taken up residence in the neighbor’s yard. I hear them gossiping at night, always asking “who?” But I guess I should be thankful they are keeping an eye on things while I try to sleep. Woody Woodpecker has moved into an old fixer upper by our garden. It’s nice to see some life in that dead tree as he goes about hammering away making home improvements. Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal continue to call our yard home, but have relocated from the birch tree into the oak tree closer to the coveted wild blueberry bushes. Mr. and Mrs. Blue Jay are back for another summer as well. However, I couldn’t help but overhear they are having a bit of a squabble with the Robins who live nearby. I do hope they can learn to get along for the baby birds’ sake!

Someone I don’t miss seeing around my yard is Mr. Skunk. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate that he was a quiet fellow who mainly kept to himself. However his insistence on wearing so much cologne was a bit overpowering at times. Since his favorite Bee Buffet is now closed, he has moved closer to the brook for a waterfront view. I do miss seeing Mamma Turkey and all her little ones though. But alas our wild blackberry and strawberry patches haven’t been producing as much fruit these past few years, and she needed to find food for her growing family. We often see her enjoying the neighbor’s garden in the wee hours of our morning walk.

A family of Chipmunks has moved into our flower garden. Asa would love to welcome these new neighbors, but they always seem to be in a rush with no time to chat as they pop in and out of their holes amongst the flowers. Nonetheless each time Asa sees them, he puffs his chest out and flashes them his biggest smile, but they just run away. It’s as if they find his toothy grin a bit off-putting? If they think that’s bad, wait until they hear Asa’s jokes!

I’m really not sure who gave permission for our closest new neighbor to build right at our doorstep! This door appeared overnight, but we’ve yet to see who lives there. I’m guessing it’s a relative of the Chipmunk family who moved into the garden. Perhaps a bachelor uncle who wants to be close to his nieces and nephews? Or it could be the offspring of one of our longtime neighbors the Voles, setting up housekeeping.

However, Asa is convinced Doozers are responsible for this hole, and even goes as far as to claim they built all these new homes. But that’s just silly. Although admired for their building skills, everyone knows where there are Doozers, there are Fraggles, and I haven’t seen any of them singing and dancing around my yard…yet!