Firsts and Lasts

Our friend Stumpy has not been seen for some months (May 7, 2013, to be exact), and I fear that we have seen the last of our neighborhood's nearly-tailless squirrel. Several hawks have taken up residence in the area.

Our favorite distinctive rodent will be missed (and if Stumpy should reappear, we will be most glad.).

 But many good things have been sighted over the last few days. A stroll along the edge of  Johnson T. Janes Park revealed a Stumpy-like specimen of the Black Squirrels of North Parkersburg, so survivors still walk among us. The park also held the first two butterflies of the year: an azure (and those tiny fluttering bits of blue always seem magical) and what may have been an Eastern comma--something orange and highly marked, but not a monarch. Then a meander up to our favorite Mexican restaurant took us past a creek where something tiny and yellow was flitting about the brushy growth--possibly some sort of warbler as it looked like a slightly-brighter female goldfinch, only about two-thirds the size. Whatever it was (and there is never a camera when it's needed), it was a life bird.

Sometimes Parkersburg is almost too exciting.