This last week I’ve been sleeping upstairs while Erin recovers from hand surgery—I’m a heavy sleeper, and I don’t want to roll over onto her stitched and bandaged finger—and each night I open the window so I can feel the cool air and listen to the forest.
I’ve heard the barred owls plenty, and the other night I heard a pack of coyotes near the chicken coop.
I texted Sid, a friend who hunts deer on our land each fall and who set up a critter cam, if he’d gotten any photos of the coyote. No, but he’s seen “about 10 raccoons in there” and he’s gotten the fox a few times and also the kitten trying to get a squirrel. I’m sure he’s seen a lot of deer, too, gathering under the oak trees to eat fallen acorns and the corn he’s spread.
Right now I hear crickets and other insects. I image the bats are flying above, feasting on bugs.
© Anton Zuiker