Autumn wildlife

Are you up for yet another bluebird story? The old bluebird house was getting so rundown and rickety, Roy built a new one, preparing for spring nesting season. He went ahead and put it up yesterday afternoon to see how it would look in the yard. He did do a nice job on it and it looked fine. Wouldn't you know we had a passing thunder storm last night, so he looked out this morning to see how it had weathered the storm. To our complete surprise the bluebird pair who had checked the old house a month or so ago, were there to check out the new "digs"! I thought they had long gone to more southerly climates since we hadn't seen them at all for at least a month, maybe more. But apparently they've been checking the yard frequently, and wasted no time in declaring this new house theirs! We were both delighted to see them, and of course the house will remain up all winter for them in case they need it for shelter.
We've had very little activity in the backyard this fall. There has been a roving bear in the area who has taken a liking to our local scene and we've been advised to take down our bird feeders and make sure garbage cans are tightly covered. My poor yard looks very sad not to have anything moving about except for the silly little squirrels who bury all manner of walnuts...then forget where they planted them. So to see the bluebirds was a special treat!