I looked up from my writing desk to see an empty tree branch. Then I looked down. The entire huge construction is lying in a pile on my neighbor's patio. We've had a lot of rain lately, and it must have gotten soggy and slipped out of the tree. Of course, I got out the binocs right away and hung out my window. The good news I can report is, no one was home at the time of the fall, or at least, if they were, they made it out.

These things do happen, and the further good news is, it's way too early to need a big winter nest like that yet. Squirrely has plenty of time to rebuild, and he and the family have plenty of tree hollows and branches to sleep in or on in the meantime. The really important question is, will he put the new nest where I can see it?