There was no letter for April as there wasn’t much going on as we waited and waited for our world to turn green. One little picture stays in my mind however. A pair of sweet Mourning Doves were seated side by side on the gate that leads to the Back 40. From time to time one would lean over to the other for a little peck. Being of a romantic nature I thought these were little love pecks this being the time of year for such endearments. A less romantic friend suggested the doves were removing nits from each other.

May was a different matter as every day something new bloomed or turned green. Even the Hummers started to appear, as most of us were disappointed not to see them earlier after we had so faithfully filled their feeders in April. I put out grape jelly for the Orioles on May 1 only to find I was feeding a wretched Raccoon who not only cleaned out the feeder the first night but carried it away the second. Fortunately the mower man found it and now it hangs where W.R. (Wretched Raccoon) can’t reach it but it is harder for me to fill. This morning we had three visitors — a young deer, who stood for the longest time in the open gate, maybe the same one who coughed at me yesterday as she couldn’t quite see me through a hedge of wild roses. Well, maybe not coughed but a funny bark, or at least something to scare me. The other two were hen turkeys who were on the deck finding spilled seed from the big feeder. They were so big that my little 20-pound hunter decided to stay in the house and forego his emergency bark which he usually uses if something is on the property which shouldn’t be.

Sidney Tynan

Little Compton