This years fledgling towhees are out and about in my yard. Three of them
converged in a small grassy patch and all were staring at something I could
not see from my window vantage. They closed ranks, getting very close and
acting kind agitated and I wondered if it was a cat or some other predator.
Then suddenly, like an actor entering a stage, a young chipmunk appeared and
stopped an posed, standing tall on its hind legs, one tiny paw over its
chest as if delivering a monologue. The towhees stood spellbound by this
new creature in their realm and then they were all in a panic, wings
colliding and askew as the impertinent little chipster ran right up to them.
The little chap stood forlornly looking around for his audience, clearly
wondering, where did everybody go? I about fell off my chair laughing. It
was a good day for laughing, as the young squirrels were also full of antics
this morning trying to figure out how to access the bird feeder.

And if anybody is still wondering about Pine siskins, I had an even dozen
yesterday at my feeder, greedy little buggers. And on the insect front, 2
hours of bug collecting in my neighborhood yeilded 12 spp. of beetles, 2
kinds of Robber flies, 6 spp of flies, 3 butterflies, 3 dragonflies, a
stinkbug and 6 kinds of bees. So I would guess the insect diversity here in
the woods of South Snohomish County is still pretty good. It was cool
watching a Robber fly nab a damsel fly.

Rob Sandelin
Naturalist, Writer
The Environmental Science School
HYPERLINK
"http://www.nonprofitpages.com/nica/SVE.htm"http://www.nonprofitpages.com/ni
ca/SVE.htm
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