Looking out my back door…

John Fogarty nailed it; there’s a lot to be enjoyed in one’s backyard if you’ll take the time to observe it. One of the benefits of relocating my office to the game room in the back of the house is that I have an unobstructed view of the backyard through the glass storm door. Here’s what has caught my attention this week (yeah, it’s a slow newsday, but that’s not bad):

• Just before lunch today, a hummingbird was working over the juniper “tree” in the back corner of the yard. I’ve never before seen a hummingbird attracted to a juniper — there aren’t any flowers — but this bird spent about a minute (which is like a week in hummingbird time) going up one side of the shrub and down the other. Anyone have an explanation?
• I spent several minutes yesterday afternoon watching two squirrels groom each other in the fork of the pecan tree just off the patio. They would painstakingly go over each other’s back and sides with their sharp little front teeth. One even lifted up his (her? I wasn’t that close!) front leg for a little “armpit” grooming.
• I decided that the praying mantis egg casing on the handle of the broom that stays on the back porch is a dud. I think it should have hatched by now, if it was going to at all. On a related note, the one documented in this post fell victim to the painter’s putty knife. The urban wild kingdom can be tough.
• I figured we were past nest-building season, but a pair of finches have renewed their efforts to develop the patio speakers into a housing addition. They can pile on the grass and twigs almost faster than I can knock it down.
• And last, but certainly not least, below is a photo of the sky over our next door neighbor’s house, taken just a few minutes ago, around 1:00 p.m. local time. Those are clouds, but they bear a striking resemblance to the Northern Lights, don’t they? Or, to a scene out of Poltergeist or Ghostbusters, where the paranormal activity is reaching its climax.