Update from our nature preserve

I chased a snake out of my yard this morning with my fertilizer spreader. It's my third snake sighting of the season. I'm proud to say I didn't scream this time, just a surprised ahh, and yuck.

Yesterday I peaked out and watched a skunk waddle across the street and into my flower beds. He turned around when he hit the fence and headed back and disappeared into the field behind.

Several weeks ago I noticed birds building a nest on our house in the crook of a rain gutter. We had some territorial swallows build a home in our carport in Bountiful. They were really cute until they started "swooping" at our heads to scare us away. Our neighbor, Tally, a retired school teacher, went on daily walks past our house. First she crossed the street to pass, then resorted to bringing an umbrella to protect herself from our dive bomb birds. I called animal control, they didn't want to get involved. Swallows are not a protected bird and we could do whatever we wanted with them. My friend Liz was a cub leader. She said she could bring the scouts by with beebee guns after their next pack meeting.
That just didn't feel right.
We endured.
One afternoon I was covering my head and rushing for the car. Next door neighbor Al called out,"Did you see the birds go?"
We had missed it.
Mom and Dad bird had taken their babies out for their big flight, not to return.
Well not until the next year, but we kept hosing the nest down until they gave up on our location.
So,
the prospect of another nesting situation weighed heavily on my mind. I assessed it. It was really close to the balcony (a negative). It wasn't a swallow's nest (a positive). There was a guilty looking robin on a nearby fencepost with building material hanging from its beak. I postponed a decision. When I woke up the next morning Tricia was standing at the bay window watching the birds. From the comfort of our kitchen window we were going to have a perfect view. The educational value outweighed all else.
We are accommodating hosts. We apologize for scaring Mother Robin when we go out on the balcony or need to mow. We water the flower pots on the balcony at times when she is taking a well deserved break from the nest. We make sure all the balcony lights are off at night so we don't disturb their sleep and I didn't spray the worms on the red-twigged dogwood for fear I'd poison the birds. Last week I was concerned when I noticed she was in a contorted position on the nest. Worried that something was wrong I checked on her several times. I am happy to report, she was sitting funny so as not to squash her new baby birds! I feel so proud almost like I helped. There are two babies, maybe three. They have little furry gray faces and huge hungry mouths--not huge, huge... just bird-size, but they open surprisingly far. Cute, cute....and so far no regrets about sharing our space with them.
I can't say the same thing about the snake.
Or the skunk.