Spring Peepers and Spring Screechers

Hello friends and doggies. This is The Daily Bone and I’m your humble doggie host Chester L. W. Spaniel, chairman of the Squeaky Party.

We had some warm weather last weekend. It was almost 80 degrees! At night we heard spring peepers for the first time this year. These are tiny frogs that have spent the winter buried in mud. As soon as it warms up, they come out and start singing. (If you have never heard them before, below is a link to a video that features them.) I am well acquainted with mud. I run around in it every day and then jump into the bathtub to wash it off. And I’m talking about good honest mud that you find in your yard and around ponds where the spring peepers live, not the kind politicians throw at each other.  Frankly, we are all tired of that kind of mud.

Oh, and our favorite miniature human came to visit too. He can walk now! He sits in a high chair during meals and feeds himself. Even better, he drops food down for us doggies to eat. My associate Joseph (Joey dog) Spaniel and I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. We can’t wait until he can come out in the back yard and play with us. The first thing we’ll show him is the compost pile that’s chock full of full of big fat wiggly worms! I’m pretty sure I smelled a mousie in there today too! But I digress. 

During the day, there’s a constant cacophony of screeching grackles. I’m sure they’re busy contemplating building nests in the bushes by our house. I’ve spotted them picking up pieces of grass, sticks, weeds, and mud for their projects. Last year it was my job to prevent any grackles from nesting in the bushes in front of the windows. Why? For one thing, they’re noisy! I was successful with this task last year. I barked out the window every time a grackle flew near, and they all reconsidered their real estate choices. The year before, though, we didn’t know the consequences of living near a family of grackles, besides the noise. We soon discovered that grackles keep their nests clean by picking up their baby birdie poop and dropping it about ten yards away. Our cars got showered with grackle doody-bombs every day until the babies left the nest. Here is a picture of little Crappy Poopenflinger right after he left the nest. Hooray and good riddance! And may you never come again! 

Unfortunately, after the weekend, it got cold and snowed again. The peepers went back into their muddy hiding places for now. The screechers were unaffected by the cold weather, so I had to maintain my vigilance. I’ve had some busy days! There was a big full moon out the past few nights and it was perfect for sleeping. Good night.