All hanging out together, spiraling around the big tree, jumping on and off the branches of a little tree and the fence. Two and maybe three of these guys are smaller than the other two -- who I'm pretty sure, based on his thick tail and her white ears, are Squirrely and Squeeze -- and seem a touch tentative. Is it possible we had a late fall litter after all? The timing's about right, if they were born toward the end of November, early December. Now that they've moved house -- original house having fallen spectacularly to the ground -- I can't keep as close an eye on them, but I'm advancing that theory.

Meanwhile, down on the river, the loon's still here, and the American black ducks; the buffleheads are back, and I saw something else this morning that I think was a ruddy duck. And, of course, seagulls -- herring, blackback, and ring-billed -- abound. Take stale bread down there, you get a real Hitchcock experience.