riffed on nature in our yard

I can't help it-once anyone's alarm goes off within my hearing, I'm awake. If it is one of the kids having to be somewhere,I'm awake and out of bed. Gotta make sure they have something to eat before they go, after all. But four mornings in a row before 6 a.m. is a killer.
If I could go back to sleep, it wouldn't be so bad-but I can't.
Oh well, there's always tea. And a nap later. Possibly during the sermon, depending on who's preaching. (I'm not sleeping, I'm concentrating!)

Our neighbors are cutting down another tree-a perfectly healthy tree. I hurts me to watch them do it, because they do it with such ripping and chopping. They complained last year about raking leaves-but seriously-we have many more trees than they do, and it wasn't that bad-took maybe 10-15 hours total over the whole autumn-and they have three teen aged children! Meanwhile, we planted six more shrubs and one more tree, and our yard was nominated for an urban habitat designation. Better keep an eye on them, though-after they took the axe to what they thought was their side of our hedge-not realizing that the hedge is 6 ft. in past the property line on our side. Hence the need for the new shrubs-to fill in the holes they left.

I filled the bird feeders yesterday-so it is very busy under our big maple this morning. Opened the french doors for a bit for some new air and so the cats can have a little pretend outside time. Chased Louie G cat from next door home yesterday-Momma and Poppa Cardinal were having 24 snits in the Bradford pear-to the Butterfly bush-back to the pear-up into the maple-back to the Butterfly bush-very unlike their usual behavior-and then I saw Louie G's plumy tail under the pear, just taking it all in-as if the attempt to draw him away from the nest was just a little lunchtime entertainment. Cute as he is, I had to lend a hand and tell him to go home. Underfed he is not.
I can hear chickadees and finch, and occasionally the soft "chock' of one of the cardinals. They take turns feeding now, so the babies in the burning bush must be requiring attention. I have no way of knowing if it is the same pair every year, (no crooked tail or limp like Lovey) but if it isn't, I have to think it is one of the children-they build in the same bush on the same side at the same height every year.
Up high I can hear the teenage squirrels sassing-but lately I have only seen three of the four that were born in the nest in the blue spruce-and no sign of their mother, limping Lovey with the crooked tail. Lovey has been around for several years, so her time may have come-but I wonder if baby #4 is up in his room having a snit, or was he lunch for one of the hawks? Or was he the one who got himself trapped inside the "squirrel-proof" feeder twice (doesn't squirrel-proof mean keeping them away from the food, not shutting them in with it?) and did he leave town due to the endless teasing of his siblings? Anything is possible. Well, except the invention of a truly squirrel-proof bird feeder, I guess.