Sax-Zim Bog Winter Birding Festival

Can you believe it's only 2 weeks until December 1st? I've been ignoring all those holiday ads on TV lately, but realized this morning after my every-other-Tuesday meeting at work that our next meeting will be in December. Yikes! where does the time go?

So what that really means is that we're that much closer to 2010 and the third annual Sax-Zim Bog Winter Birding Festival.......where you'll get the chance to see really cool birds like this Great Gray Owl!

(Photo taken by my Sissy!)

If you plan on attending this year's festival, you'll almost certainly see a Northern Hawk Owl as there are quite a number of them showing up in northern Minnesota already this year. (this is another photo taken by my Sissy)

The 2010 Sax-Zim Bog Winter Birding Festival will begin on Friday, February 12th and run through Sunday, February 14th. This year's festival will be limited to 150 participants and you can find out more information about the festival by clicking on this link.

I attended the first festival 2 years ago with my dear blogging friend Lynne (of Hasty Brook). Lynne and I had a great time at that festival and that was the only year I managed to check off EVERY woodpecker species on my Minnesota checklist when I saw the Black-Backed Woodpecker and this Three-Toed Woodpecker (both lifers!)

This year's program is a veritable "who's who" of well-known Minnesota birders including my friend John Hockema. The excellent selection of stops during the field trips will guarantee that you'll have a chance to see these beautiful (and declining) Evening Grosbeaks.

Not to mention Pine Grosbeaks, Common Redpolls, and if you're really lucky, a Hoary Redpoll or two.

It looks like this year's festival is going to be the best yet. Great speakers, awesome meals, incredible birding, friends, and fun. Don't let the thought of February in Minnesota intimidate you......just dress in layers like us smart Minnesotans do (you won't be forced to stand outside all day anyway and the buses will be kept running for those folks who need a warm-up).

I'm hoping that I'll be able to attend the festival with Lynne again this year and you can help me -- just go to my Etsy shop in my sidebar link and make a purchase for yourself or a gift -- all purchases will help subsidize my trip to the 2010 Sax-Zim Bog Winter Birding Festival (hey, I'm not above a little shameless self-promotion to achieve my birding goals!)

Sunday Deer Hunting

SUNSET FROM MY DEERSTAND

Today I watched sunrise and sunset from my deerstand. If you've never done it, believe me it's something pretty special. I wasn't outside all day, but most of it. This morning I heard a pheasant cackling in the nearby corn field and a turkey gobbling from his roost in a tree directly behind me. It's pretty cool to be out in the woods and hear the bald eagles and pileated woodpeckers waking up and beginning another day. The only thing missing from this whole day was deer -- again!! I did not see a single deer from either of the stands I sat in this morning or afternoon. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that once the farmers start getting the corn picked my odds of arrowing a deer will increase dramatically.

Today also marked the final day of the first firearms deer season in Minnesota. Remember last week when I said I was going to stay out of the woods until firearms season was over? Well, I should have stuck to that promise. As we were packing up and walking out of the woods this afternoon, we heard some gunshots nearby. (Now keep in mind that it's legal to shoot 1/2 hour before sunrise and after sunset and our sunset tonight was around 4:45.) I heard the first couple shots just up the road right around 5 PM. Then around 5:10 as we were walking toward the road, we heard a shot from the road almost right in front of us. I stopped and then heard the slug breaking branches in the woods just off to our left. Stupid A-holes!! This is precisely why I hate gun season -- there was no way the guy shooting out by the road could even see what he was shooting at because of the thick woods there. It's also posted private property. When we got up to the road and almost back to the truck, we could see them parked in a field drive almost directly across from us. They decided it was time to leave as we got closer, but not before Mr. Johnson stopped them and told those 2 stupid jerks that he didn't appreciate listening to their lead flying through the woods we were walking out of. "Wasn't me man, we weren't even over there!" was the response. If there's one thing I can absolutely not tolerate, it's idiots walking around with loaded firearms!

Milestone Friday

I achieved a couple of milestones today. The 2 full birdseed bins shown below (100 lbs each) represent the first milestone: I finally broke the 1 ton barrier for birdseed purchases in 2009! My local birdseed supplier is having his annual sale, so I stopped on my way home from work and purchased 300 lbs (bringing my total birdseed purchases to a whopping 2200 lbs!)

You know how in my profile I say that I'm "forced to work to support my birdfeeding habit?" Well, this is what I'm referring to. I've saved all my receipts from the beginning of the year and recorded how many pounds I purchase at a time (never less than 50!) because I wanted to have a record of how serious this addiction really is. I probably won't total the $$$ I've spent (ignorance is bliss!), and I'm thinking there are probably other hobbies I could be spending way more money on, right?

Here's the other milestone -- my final "Pay It Forward" project (the Modern Quilt Wrap) is complete except for weaving in a few long yarn tails on the back side. I know I've been knitting on this project for at least a year and a half and I can say with genuine sincerity that I'm glad it's finally done because I was getting really tired of it! I know my recipient (Mama Pea) will be thrilled to find this package in her mailbox sometime next week!

Any milestones in your life lately that you want to report on?

More Evidence of Backyard Bambi's

Every night lately we've been seeing at least 5 deer in the backyard (a doe and 4 fawns). They've been munching apples and chowing down on corn. We can turn the backyard light on and even shine a spotlight on them and they just continue to go about their deer-y business. Last night during a Law & Order commercial break, Mr. Johnson went to the back door to see if there were any deer out there. He was gone a long time and when he finally came back, he whispered to me that there were deer laying down in the backyard. "Why is he whispering?" I wondered, and when I went with him to take a look I caught myself whispering too. Sure enough--there were at least 2 deer, just laying on the grass about 20-25 yards out the back door. We could only see the 2 with the spotlight, but when I checked the grass this morning, I found a couple more spots where the grass had been mashed down from them laying on it. Here's one of the spots.......

We've gotten used to seeing lots of hoofprints and poop - the main evidence left behind from their visits. This birdfeeder is one of their favorite snack stops. See all the hoofprints in the dirt below? This feeder tray is right at the perfect height for a deer's mouth, so they can just stand there and munch till all the seed is gone.

In my little aspen grove, the small bucks have been leaving their antler rub marks on the small trees too.

I don't get too excited about little rubs like this because little trees = little bucks. Now if I were to find a 7 or 8 inch tree that's been worked by a buck, that would be pretty exciting. Perhaps even warrant the placement of a deer stand in the backyard!

Seen any deer in your backyard lately??

Knitted Mitten Class

Yesterday (Saturday) was the first of two classes I'm teaching for learning to knit mittens using 4 double-pointed needles. The pattern we were using for this class would enable the knitter to make a mitten custom-sized for their hand and using any weight of yarn, consequently it was necessary to knit a gauge swatch before the students could even start their mitten. After asking the yarn shoppe owner to find out from the students whether they would need extra help with knitting a gauge swatch or using double-pointed needles, I volunteered to come to class an hour early to help the students who were also willing to come in early.

There was a total of 4 students and I was really pleased to see young Megan in the class (who had learned to knit from her mom). I think she was about the same age as I was when I learned to knit.

I can't remember how many years ago I learned to knit on double-pointed needles, but the ladies in this class did an excellent job learning something new. For any readers who are knitters, you may recall how awkward it was the first time you learned to handle 4 needles and knitting in a circle vs. knitting back and forth on 2 needles. It's not easy and you can probably sense that by the intense concentration my students are showing to their knitting project.

We didn't get quite as far as I'd hoped for the first class, but we'll start a half-hour early again next Saturday. My hope is that the students will be able to complete their first mitten next week and feel comfortable enough with their new knitting knowledge to go home and finish the second mitten on their own.

The View from My Deer Stand - Part 2

Spent another deerless afternoon in the woods today, but I'm not complaining because the outside temp was almost 60 degrees! Pretty unusual for early November and it got me to thinking about some previous deer hunting seasons where there was about a foot of snow on the ground and temps in the teens.

Here's the hill I walk down from the cornfield to get to today's deer stand. Pretty, isn't it? There are always lots of birds in this area because it's much more wooded than the stand I was sitting on yesterday.

This stand is a permanent stand (meaning we don't take it down every year). I built this stand myself 2 years ago. Are you impressed? I was. Mr. Johnson had chosen the tree and I was in charge of the design. I did my drawing of how I thought the stand should be built, took the measurements, and then cut all the wood at home. We carried all the pieces out to the woods and then I built the stand. Amazingly enough, all the pieces fit correctly and the stand turned out exactly as I had envisioned it. I love this stand! It's big enough to set up this little stool and today I was even able to curl up on the floor and take a little nap! (Nope, I'm definitely not a hardcore deer hunter, am I?)

The warm weather has brought out a new hatch of insects. I watched this little stink bug walking up one of the tree trunks.

Of course, there are always several of these pesty little bushy tails wreaking havoc in the woods. I'm always amazed at how much noise such a small animal can make. But on a slow deer hunting day, their antics are always amusing.

Have a good weekend everyone!

The View from My Deer Stand

Well, after a gentle nudge from my dear old Mom (who's experiencing some blog deprivation symptoms) I will be making an effort to become a little more proactive in my blog posts again.

Amazingly enough, I don't think I've even taken any photos in the last 2 weeks. I think that's the longest I've gone without taking a picture since I started this blog! Between work, deer hunting and knitting, it doesn't seem like I've had time to pay much attention to other stuff going on around here. Oh, there are plenty of birds -- flocks of cedar waxwings in the backyard -- but I've been negligent about carrying the camera along with me when I'm outside.

So this afternoon, while sitting on the deer stand, I realized here was a perfect photo opportunity right in front of me! So, here's a view from the deer stand I was sitting in this afternoon. Do you see any deer? Nope, I didn't either! That's because all you can see in almost any direction is corn, corn, and more corn, and that's where the deer are hiding out.
Minnesota's firearms deer opener is this Saturday (Nov. 7th). For as many years as we've been bowhunting, we always have at least one deer in the freezer by this time. This year has been a tough one as October brought us nearly record setting moisture in the forms of rain and snow. Needless to say, the farmers are the ones most negatively affected by this weather and the harvest has barely begun -- especially for corn.

Mr. Johnson is getting seriously frustrated by the lack of deer we've been seeing. Fortunately he has plenty of vacation time and he subscribes to the philosophy that "a bad day of hunting is better than a good day at work!" I, on the other hand, have no paid time off, so my hunting times are limited to afternoons and weekends (as long as the weather's nice).

I'll be staying out of the woods the next couple weekends because those gun hunters scare me and I'm looking forward to teaching a couple knitting classes -- mittens! Watch for a future blog post on that!

Greetings from the Neglectful Blogger

Sorry, I've been kind a neglectful blogger lately! For some strange reason, I really thought I'd have more time for blogging once the lawn mowing and garden tending chores were done for the season, but things haven't turned out that way. Deer hunting seems to be taking up quite a bit of the weekend time, and knitting to keep my Etsy store restocked is keeping me busy indoors. But, I decided to put off housework a little while longer by editing some of the photos that have been in my camera for weeks and getting this blog post ready today (actually anything that delays housework is a good thing -- at least for me!)

Our deer have been quite busy in the backyard lately. With all the rain and snow we've been having, their tracks are quite evident and also the fact that the corn trays are emptied nearly every night. I put a couple of the trail cameras in strategic locations and here's a few shots from last week. This one is my fave! I wonder what they're looking at? Could be the gray fox or maybe the possum I saw again Friday night for the first time since last spring.

I like the trail cameras because they tell us what time the deer are showing up. The other morning there was a nice big doe here at 4 AM when I took Sophie out. I always keep her on the leash now (since the skunk incident), but that doe didn't even run away when Sophie started barking at her. We walked within about 18 yards of her and she finally ran.

This little buck was a complete surprise! We're rapidly approaching the deer's first "rut" season (this year it will coincide with the full moon in the first week of November). I'll have to put the cameras on again next week to see what other interesting pictures we get.

By now, most of you have probably heard we had a little snowstorm last week. Here's what it looked like out my backdoor on Friday afternoon. This was completely unexpected!

We ended up with 4.1 inches of snow! This broke the previous record set in 1910! It was awful wet and sticky snow--great for snowmen but pretty horrible for driving in. We saw quite a few cars in the ditch on the way home from work. Thankfully it was all melted by Saturday afternoon. (I'm really glad I finally got my carrots dug up earlier this week.)

This little song sparrow was right outside my back door looking for seeds on that snowy Friday. They're usually the first migrant sparrow to show up in my backyard in the spring, but I almost never see them -- especially this close to the house. I checked my migration chart and it said they usually head south around the 3rd week of October. I bet this guy was wishing he'd left last week instead!

The end of fall also marks the time when pocket gophers are extra busy digging new holes before the ground freezes for winter. Mr. Johnson has been busy trapping them again lately and it looks like this particular pocket gopher decided to get his revenge by digging in my weedy perennial beds right next to the house! Grrrrrr! I hope it dries out in a couple days so I can get this mess cleaned up before winter.

On my way to a medical appointment a few weeks ago, I happened to spot these lovely cattle on a little farm not far from here. I didn't have the camera with me, but was on the same road a few days later and stopped the car to get out and take some pictures. In this area where Holsteins, black Angus, and red & white Herefords are the norm, these cattle are definitely a unique sight. I love that face!

They are White Park Cattle (I had to google that!) These guys were all napping in the pasture on this fine sunny afternoon, but as soon as I parked the car and started walking up to the fence, they all got up and trotted over to investigate me. I resisted putting my hand out for them to get a sniff (even though I really wanted to). I just thought they were cute and unique and wanted to share these photos with you.
Have a good week everyone!

Have you read this book yet?

Are you a Birdwatcher's Digest subscriber? If so, perhaps you read Julie Zickefoose's recent review of the book "Life List" by Olivia Gentile. After reading Julie's review, I was able to borrow this book from my local public library.

This is an amazing story about Phoebe Snetsinger, a phenomonal birder with a life list obsession. It's an extremely well-written story and captured my attention from start to finish. Without giving away any details, I believe this story may be especially appealing to any woman who is a birder, a mother, a wife, or has any particular hobby or interest that you've ever become even marginally obsessive about.

After finishing the book I couldn't decide whether I was glad that I don't have any obsessions like this (bordering on mental illness, in my opinion) or whether I am a lazy underachiever for not pursuing anything in my life with more single-mindedness!

If you get a chance to read the book, let me know what you think about it.

You Know You're From Minnesota.....

You Know You're From Minnesota When......

......Weather is 80% of your conversation
is it any wonder when we have weather like this?

......You keep snow tires on your truck all year because it ain't worth it taking them off for only 4 months!
and that's a darn good thing today!

This photo of my front yard was taken at 11 AM TODAY (October 12, 2009). I think I'll use it for my Christmas card this year!

......You have gone trick-or-treating in 3 feet of snow
only 3 more weeks till Halloween and I think it's gonna be one of those years!

......You laugh every time you hear about a blizzard shutting down the entire East Coast
I think this weather system is heading northeast and I promise not to laugh too hard


.......You know what "uff-da" means and how to use it properly
yup, that's exactly what I said when I looked at green leaves covered with snow: "uff-da!"

......You own an icehouse, a snowmobile and a 4-wheel drive vehicle
I don't even have to explain this one do I?

......You have ever worn shorts and a parka at the same time
I know if I went to the mall today, I'd see people in this attire

......You can name both of the seasons: Winter and Road Construction
Thank goodness, at least this means road construction season is finally over!!

......You actually "get" these jokes and pass them on to your other friends from Minnesota
and to all my friends not from Minnesota, hopefully this explains what makes us proud Minn-e-sodans!


Merry Christmas!

Oh No, SNOW!!

This blog post is dedicated to all my southern friends and relations--wish you were here! :-)

Here's one my frozen-solid backyard birdbaths covered with our overnight trace accumulation of snow. Poor birdies don't know what to do!

And adding insult to injury, it's COLD too!! Glad I got that last 2 buckets of apples picked yesterday afternoon when it was sunny and still in the 40's.

Hopefully October will still have a few nice days for us......

A Finished Project & Miscellaneous Photos

Here in Minnesota it's gone from being a dry and summery September to November-like weather--been rainy and chilly here for almost a week now. Somehow, autumn and October just missed us altogether and our weekend forecast is sounding like December with lows in the 20's and snow showers predicted! Oh well, I'm planning to take advantage of a couple sunny days predicted for tomorrow and Thursday and get my lawn mowed for the last time and whatever other outside chores I can accomplish during the small sunny window of opportunity.

As usual, I've been knitting like a fiend while hanging out indoors the last few days and I finally finished this Montavilla Market Tote (a free pattern from KnitPicks--click on this link and scroll down the right hand side where you'll see the title "100+ free patterns") This is a long overdue birthday present and hopefully I'll be able to get it washed and dried tomorrow, so I can ship it to the recipient before her next birthday rolls around!

I have no other blog-worthy items to report, so I'll share a few pictures with you in this post. I thought this was a cute picture of the Downy Woodpecker waiting for the Hairy Woodpecker to vacate the suet log, and it's another good size comparison for these woodies too.

I helped with birdbanding at Quarry Hill Nature Center again last Sunday. Here's the White-Throated Sparrow I was able to get out of the net. This is Glenna's hand holding the bird and after she banded it, she allowed me to release it again. They're really pretty little sparrows and I'm starting to hear quite a few of them in my backyard and out in the deer hunting woods right now too.

And speaking of deer hunting, we were out again last Sunday, but no deer seen. I'm sure the weather change this weekend will bring a change in the deer habits too. And of course, once it freezes hard, there will be a lot less vegetation to deal with in the woods which always makes hearing and seeing deer much easier.

Here are a couple pictures from one of the trail cameras we had out there. These pictures are always my favorite! The deer are so inquisitive and this camera was located on a tree right next to one of their trails. It doesn't make any noise, but there's a fabric webbing that attaches the camera to the tree and I'm sure she was checking out my scent on that webbing.

Here's a cute little guy venturing out on his own (click on the picture to enlarge it and you'll see his little antler "bumps"). Doesn't he have the sweetest face? I don't think his spots have been gone for very long. There weren't any other pictures of deer just before or after this little one, so I hope he finds some other young deer to hang around with for the winter.

Oh and before I end this post, I want to mention that last hummingbird in my post from October 2nd, really WAS the last hummingbird......I haven't seen any since, but I'm planning to leave the nectar feeders up until our predicted hard freeze on Saturday night.

Is She the Last One?

On this chilly and rainy October 2nd, I was amazed to see this lone little hummingbird still sipping nectar from my deck feeder. I wonder if she's the last one remaining from the hummers in my yard this summer? Or is she a migrant from up north, taking a little rest and sustenance in order to continue her long journey?

Safe Travels Little Hummingbird! I'll be looking forward to seeing you again next spring!

Fiber Therapy

It's been a particularly crappy week at work, so this morning I decided to stop at my local yarn shop on the way home for a little bit of much needed fiber therapy. I actually did need some yarn for this black vest I'm working on because I won't have enough yarn to do the ribbing around the arm holes and neckline, so here's my ball of yarn for that.

I've taught some classes here before, so Kristen (the store owner) asked me what classes I wanted to teach this fall and I asked her what was available. She told me I had a choice between socks on circular needles or mittens. Since I've never made socks that way, I chose mittens. We'll be using this pattern where you actually knit a mitten that's sized specifically for your hand and here's what I whipped up this afternoon so Kristen can put it on display in the store to advertise the class. I figured since I was still in "knitting teacher" mode from teaching Lynne a couple weeks ago, I thought it would be fun to teach this class too. So on the first 2 Saturdays in November, I'll be helping some knitters learn something new and probably get some Christmas presents knitted too!

And here's my "therapy" purchase -- this beautiful dark mauve-colored ball of "Sublime," a delicious blend of 80% extra fine merino and 20% angora that's unbelievably soft. I'm going to knit it into a neck warmer for myself.

Kristen brings her sweet little Japanese Chin dog (Lulu) to the store with her every day, so after about an hour sitting in the store with Lulu on my lap and also being able to see and touch all the beautiful yarn, I felt a whole lot better. Pretty cheap therapy, I'd say!

Eurasian Collared Dove!

OK, this is another pretty crappy picture (taken through the kitchen window screen), but I was thrilled to finally confirm that the big dove I had spotted when I got home from work this morning was, in fact, the Eurasian Collared Dove!
I spotted this really big, light colored dove trying to land near the ground feeder tray late this morning when I was making my sandwich at the kitchen sink, and then a noisy crow flew down and scared the dove away. Later on when I was filling the bird feeders, I saw this dove fly away with a bunch of mourning doves from one of my pine trees (where MODOs like to hang out). I knew right away it wasn't a MODO because of the squared tail with a white band across the bottom. I waited all afternoon and finally around 4:30 I happened to spot it on the ground again and that's when I got this picture. You can just barely see the black "collar" on its neck, but the dark primary wing feathers and squared tail are pretty obvious. Here's how my big Sibley's describes this bird: Much larger and heavier than Mourning Dove, with square tail; pale overall.

I had one of these show up in my backyard in March of 2006. That was a first confirmed sighting in Olmsted County in like forever, and now here's another one. For some of you folks in the southern and eastern US, I think this is probably a fairly common backyard bird, and I've heard their numbers are increasing even here in far southeast Minnesota, but they're still uncommon enough for people (like me) to get excited about.

The National Parks

Tonight is the premier of The National Parks: America's Best Idea on PBS. Finally, the night I've been waiting months for--ever since I saw the first preview of this new Ken Burns series way back in May.


We will begin the story in 1851 with tonight's episode. This series will run 6 episodes this week. Sorry Blogger and Facebook friends, but I'll be spending every night this week with Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan. Want more information? Check out this PBS link.

New Yard Birds

Yesterday was one of the birdiest days in the backyard that I've had the pleasure to enjoy in a long time. I got home from work and spent almost an hour wandering around with binoculars and camera. I even saw a couple of birds that I couldn't identify, but thanks to my good birding friend Hap in New Hope, he was able to positively ID these birds for me -- even with these fairly crappy photos I attached to his e-mail. While neither of them are lifers, both are first-time additions to my backyard list.

Hap identified this one as an Eastern Phoebe. I knew it was some sort of a flycatcher, and before it turned on the branch, I was able to note that it had a light yellow wash on its belly. It was a fairly large bird, in fact I first thought it was an Eastern Kingbird when I saw it land in the tree, but the tail was wrong. All spring and summer I hear phoebes singing in the woods up the street from our house, and they've probably been in my backyard before, but this time I was lucky enough to actually see one!

Farther out in the yard, I spotted this bird (about the size of a red-winged blackbird) in the top of an apple tree. At first the coloring reminded me of a female or juvenile Rose-Breasted Grosbeak (and they're still hanging around here). But after I looked at it closer, the beak and head were all wrong for a grosbeak. I scoured my field guides, finally decided it must be some sort of a sparrow, and included these photos in my e-mail to Hap. What do you think it is??

If you answered "Female Dickcissel," you would be correct!

Actually, I was pretty darn excited to know that I have finally had a Dickcissel visit my backyard, and here's why...... Several years ago, when I stopped mowing that 1-acre patch in the backyard, the reason I gave Mr. Johnson was that it would help save on gas and lawn mowing time, but my ulterior motive was to create a wild grassland area that might attract dickcissels and meadowlarks. To date, I have not seen either bird in the backyard, however some undeveloped industrial areas a few miles north of us have dickcissels hanging around all summer, so I guess my backyard might have been a quick stopover on fall migration.

Thanks again Hap! I'm so grateful for your help with identifying these 2 birds.

And on a totally unrelated note and for my Minnesota blog readers only, here's a link to a really cool mapping site (North Star Mapper) that I got last week from Margaret at the Minnesota DNR. She had sent me an e-mail asking for the "exact" location of where I'd seen the Loggerhead Shrike earlier this summer. I was able to use this site to give Margaret the specific X, Y, Latitude and Longitude coordinates of the bird's location for the DNR's records of this rare Minnesota bird. I was also able to use the site to get a good aerial look at my own backyard!

Window Collision

I saw this big smudge on my basement sliding glass door last week and when I looked a little bit closer I realized it was from a bird collision. I walked outside to check for a lifeless body on the patio, but could find no evidence of an injured bird, no feathers, no blood. Looks like a cardinal, don't you think? There are still quite a few juvenile cardinals hanging around the backyard and there's a feeder just above the patio where the cardinals like to eat. I'm wondering whether a surprise visit from the Cooper's hawk startled the birds at the feeder and this poor cardinal crashed into the window in its rush to escape.


On a totally unrelated note, there has been lots of migration activity here in just the last few days, in fact I just looked out the dining room window and spotted a male American Redstart in the oak tree. (Yard bird #49 for 2009 and a first for the backyard too!) Anyway, when I take Sophie out for her night-time potty breaks, I can hear hundreds of little birdies peeping in the sky overhead, no matter what time of night: 8:30, 12:30, even 4:00 when we get up. It's so amazing that they can fly at night like that. So, while I'm getting ready for work, Mr. Johnson always takes Sophie for another walk and I asked him when he got back, "did you hear all those little birds peeping?" His response? "No." Then when I got to work this morning (at 5:15) I could still hear them while I was walking in from the parking lot. I asked one of the guys who was walking in at the same time, "can you hear those little birds peeping above us?" He looked at me really strangely and also responded, "no." Then I asked my office mate when she got in (of course she already thinks I'm pretty strange) and she laughed as she also said "no." So have any of you heard the little birds peeping at night?? I hope someone says yes because people are starting to look at me like I'm some kind of kook!!