A Backyard of Baby Animals

Originally published June 12, 2009 at Suite101.com

I’m sitting at the dining room table, writing, or pretending to write because a gray squirrel has perched on the railing surrounding the deck behind my apartment. After a moment of vigorous grooming, it sprawls over the railing, four feet dangling. Flattened on this branch-substitute, a second gray squirrel meanders across the deck and down the stairs. Neither squirrel seems aware of the other.

Unlike the third squirrel to appear, this one walks along the railing until it notices squirrel number one (that also notices this railing invader) and with distinct “hey, I’m not here to cause any trouble,” body language, squirrel three backs up.

Only it doesn’t get far because a slightly larger gray squirrel is right behind it. It presses the smaller squirrel to the railing and immediately begins grooming it (with much enthusiastic chewing of fleas, lice, and whatever else). At this point, I want my camera, which I usually keep downstairs, but it’s upstairs charging for a weekend event. I risk crossing the room and getting the camera (the back door is wide open and I’m convinced the squirrels will hear the floorboards creak and head up the nearest tree). The squirrels are still grooming.

Squirrels two, three, and four bound off for a vigorous wrestling match in the poison ivy (their fur protects their skin from getting a rash). Squirrel number one is still draped over the railing, watching.

Three house sparrows drop onto the deck, all with the dull coloring of the female. One sparrow hunches into a ball and cheeps until another sparrow feeds it. A male house sparrow, with his brighter chestnut feathers, drops nearby into the grass. I realize that I’m looking at parents feeding their fledglings – juveniles old enough to fly short distances but still looking for a handout from mom and dad.

The gray squirrel, tired of perching on the rectangular branch that is my railing, jumps to the ground, causing the birds to take wing. Even in the small, shared backyard of an apartment, the spring’s bounty of baby animals is evident.