April 18, 2007

A noisy night! I woke up around 2 am to the sound of the Barred Owl. Very close. I get up, not turning on any lights. Looking out the window I can see its’ silhouette in the tree against the sky. It flies off. I go back to bed but not back to sleep. Thump!... thump, thump, on the outside back of the house. Flying Squirrels! Things that go bump in the night. Then the sound of a feeder tilting closed. My it is a quiet night. I get up, again not turning on any lights. On a feeder, 2 Southern Flying Squirrels. They are quite small, just bigger than a Chipmunk. I can see their large dark eyes. Their combined weight enough to tilt the mechanism. One drops off and the other is able to get at the seed. Given the number of thumps there must be 4 or 5 individuals. These are seldom seen very nocturnal little critters. Kent and I were just talking about them Sunday after the bird walk. He did a survey of them in Lake County and found them to be surprisingly abundant. Back to sleep.