Cinnamon is recovering nicely. She has decided to take this time off to catch up on some reading and study up on these things called raptors. Fore warned is fore armed. Can't blame her for her choice of authors, Brian K. Wheeler is one of the best.
I have brought home a live trap from the store and will try to get one of the squirrels making its way into the bedroom. I have decided on the option of relocating the squirrel to a mammal friendly area and will supply it with an ample scoop of Squirrel Munchies when I make the deposit.
The landscape guys mowed the marsh behind the mall where the bird store is located. At first I was a little ticked but when I saw the finished result I wondered if this new maintenance plan could increase my chances of getting eastern bluebirds to nest next year. He was kind enough to mow carefully around all of our bird houses that we had set up behind the store, which I though was really nice of him. I was also grateful that the mowing took place late enough in the season to avoid destroying any of our blue-winged teal nests. I took a walk around the perimeter and noticed there was a rough patch that looked half mowed. A trail jutted off to the right and I followed it. At the very end was some type of hornet/wasp nest on the ground. It was one of those large papery looking gray things that are about the size of a bowling ball. Hornets/wasps were still all about it and I realized that was probably the reason for the uneven mowing. Poor guy, hope he didn't get hurt.
On a more upbeat note, I did have a slight increase in bird activity at the store feeders. Some juvenile red-winged blackbirds were about as well as a song sparrow (pictured, right). I was crouched in some vegetation today and tried practicing my injured rabbit call again--this time as soon as I did it, I heard a cloud of bird burst in the air, seconds later the immature Cooper's hawk flew right over my head and into the brush, causing another cloud of birds to burst up. It was so cool! I can't wait for hawk trapping this fall.