Now that it's spring, and more animals are coming to the backyard once again, it's time to start keeping track on a weekly basis instead of the monthly basis as I did for March.

Box Elder Bugs--they are once again alive and active as evidenced by Goblin crying incessently on Friday night as one had made its way into the house and he couldn't get to it.  I saw six more of them outside on Saturday.

One of our resident feral cats that we caught last November to have spayed and then re-released prowled through the backyard again.

Eastern cottontail rabbits: 2 ran through the yard on Wednesday night as I was getting home from a meeting.

• House Finch: 11


• Mourning doves: 8


• Dark-eyed Junco: 7


• Canadian Geese: 7


• Killdeer: 4


• Grackles: 3


• Robins: 3


• Brown-headed Cowbird: 1


• Crow: 1

There was also some sort of hawk or other bird of prey that swooped right in front of the window we were looking out at the time, going after some of the juncos in the yard, but unfortunately we were unable to make an accurate identification of it.  Based on it's size--smaller than a crow--the top three contenders are: American kestral, sharp-shinned hawk, or a merlin.