Nancy Sherer

Lately a lot of people, and by a 'lot' I mean the seven people who read my blogs, have asked me why I haven't written anything about my struggle with Nature recently. Which leaves me wondering how many demon lawn mowers, mole armies, and racoons in chimneys do they think one person (me) should have to deal with in their life? Do they think I make this stuff up?

Unfortunately, they are right. Things do continue to happen to me that no one will believe, and I will continue to write them down anyway. So here is what went on in my yard so far this year or at least since the lower floor of the house flooded.

The early, sunny spring brought lots of flowers, and thousands of bees. You might remember news reports from last year about how all the bees had disappeared. Well, they showed up this spring in my rhododendrons. You could hear them humming from down the street. My neighbors would have complained, but they were afraid to come in my yard. I was afraid they were building a hive in my roof.

Then about the end of May they vanished. I don't know why. I didn't even notice they were gone until mosquitoes showed up. I used to be able to brag that there weren't any mosquitoes in Bellingham, but that changed this year. Not that they were the kind of mosquitoes like they have in Montana, the kind that you think are house flies until they land on your arm. Not the swarms of mosquitoes like they have in Minnesota where a black buzzing fog of them chase you down and suck you dry.

But lots of mosquitoes anyway. Enough to keep me out of the back yard except during the heat of the day. And ants and rolly poley bugs and and flies and spiders, but none of them worth their own paragraph.

So it has been a buggy summer.

It's also been a squirrely summer. For the past few years large gray squirrels, which travel in packs, have been crowding out smaller, red squirrels- which Jerry insists on calling Doug fir squirrels even though they could just as easily be cedar or pine squirrels. Something changed this year. But I better fill in some details first.

Red squirrels are solitary animals that don't tolerate each others' company any longer than it takes to get the young out of the nest. They are fast and wild, quite able to handle a gray squirrel or two. Gray squirrels are more than twice as big, slower, and relentless, and they like each others' company which makes it easy for them to do tag teams against the red squirrels. While one draws fire, the others filch the stash of food in the red squirrels nests.. Because the gray squirrel gangs share territory, smaller squirrels are driven into the forest to starve because there aren't any bird feeders to raid.

But not this year. This year an aggressive red squirrel showed up that doesn't fall for the teasing chase games that gray squirrels win. I've seen her make a couple of mistakes when she was trying to get rid of the father of her pup, chasing him instead of the gray giants, but for the most part she rules the bird feeder. Last week she chased off her latest offspring, and is obviously ready to have more. She might be raising a breed of warrior reds.

Then there's the chickadees and nuthatches that have learned how to drink out of the hummingbird feeders. Big fat neighborhood cats still prowl around, biting the heads off the tiny songbirds I lure to my yard with feeders. Adult humans walk their dogs by my lawn pretending that the ten pound dog at the end of the leash is strong enough to pull itself into my yard - in spite of the human's best effort to stop it - and leave... well, you know what they leave.

Now, if you are thinking I made it through the season with just small annoyances instead of one big eye-popping attack from the wild kingdom, I'd like to remind you - summer isn't over yet. Remember those spiders I mentioned earlier? Well, I've seen them get big enough to take on a mouse. No, I'm not exaggerating. Okay, maybe just a little.