I don’t know why, but 2017 was a banner year for the maple trees. Our naturalist/poli-socio-climatologist (I’m not exactly sure what he does for a living… something with acid rain in China…) neighbor later confirmed to me that something it was an environmentally extraordinary year, but I already had my suspicions. For one thing, I noticed that there were tons of maple seeds on the sidewalks, more than usual. I also noticed that they made a popping sound when you stepped on them. (“That’s weird,” I thought, “or maybe I just never noticed it before…?”)
The squirrels definitely knew something was up. There were much feistier than usual. Otis and I had a great time in the back yard catching the helicopters that the squirrels threw down. Here are a couple of them barking at each other, perhaps to stake out their territory in the tree.
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(I never noticed how urban the traffic sounds in our back yard sound.)