<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> The sounds of young raccoons needled me from my sleep.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> I stumbled outside and fed the birds in the fading darkness. I have a loyal following of avian gourmands. Birds are cute so they can extort food from me. My feeders are busy. Bird populations can vary greatly from place to place and time to time. One yard's feeders aren't representative of all feeders in a state.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> I checked the jelly feeder. Catbirds are still feeding sporadically. I saw my last Baltimore oriole in the yard on September 11. I miss the orioles. I played Fleetwood Mac's "Go Your Own Way" in their memory.</span></p><br><div dir="ltr" id="AppleMailSignature">Al Batt<div><br><div><h1 class="quoteText" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; font-weight: normal; padding: 0px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-size: 17.33333396911621px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“If you judge people, you don't have time to love them.”--Mother Teresa</span></h1></div></div><div><a href="http://twitter.com/batt_allen">http://twitter.com/batt_allen</a></div></div></body></html>