Each night I awake about 1:00 a.m. In my easy chair, I observe flashes of white on the front deck. These are two or more flying squirrels at play. If I turn on the light, they do not move much and I interrupt their game. A friend asked me if I take Radium 223, will I glow in the dark? I said maybe. I will then be a flash of white in the night. Ralph Ingleton, Stoney Lake
Some late May bird photos that I took along the Trans-Canada (Lang-Hastings) Trail near Keene. Trudy Gibson
Chestnut-sided Warbler 
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (May 8) 
Hairy Woodpecker 
Philadelphia Vireo 
Eastern Bluebirds 
female American Redstart on nest 
male American Redstart
Our neighbour, Will Ramsay, took these photos on May 19 of the largest group of Trumpeter Swans we have ever seen on Rice Lake (off of Elmhirst Resort). Usually we see a four or two for a couple of days and then they are gone. This larger group, too, seems to have gone after just a day or so here with us. Ron Mackay
On May 18 at around 5 pm, a Red-headed Woodpecker came several times to our feeder in Millbrook! Sylvia Arsenault
For the first time ever, we had a Virginia Opossum at our place at 1120 Rock Road, Douro-Dummer. I have posted our trail camera capture on Facebook. Jan Myland
In early May, I picked up nine empty eggshells in the grounds of Canterbury Gardens in Peterborough. They seemed paler blue than American Robin’s eggs commonly are; in fact two of them were really white, but of similar size and shape. I’m wondering if they are all from the same species and (b) might some difference in weather, diet or something affect the colour? Bob Stairs, Peterborough (Note: I think they’re all robin eggs but that they vary in the concentration of the pigment that colours them (biliverdin). Robin eggs can be an intense, full blue; blue-green (most common in my experience), or even a bluish-white. I’ve always heard that the first eggs laid are a deeper blue than subsequent eggs. I suspect that diet and overall fitness of the bird probably play a role, too. D.M.)
On May 10, the first Baltimore Oriole of the spring turned up in our back yard. He was more interested in the apple blossoms than the oranges I put out! Trudy Gibson, Peterborough
Today, May 4, at Lock 25 on the bike trail, I saw a pair of Ruby-crowned Kinglets. Carl Welbourn
Here are some photos from May 3 at Meadowvale Park at the bottom of Frances Stewart Drive in Peterborough. The White-breasted Nuthatches were at a nesting hollow and Yellow-rumped Warblers were everywhere. Carl Welbourn
White-breasted Nuthatch 
Yellow-rumped Warbler (male)
This morning, May 2, a Brown Thrasher was at our kitchen window for over an hour, gazing at its reflection. It was not bothered at all by us coming right up to the window. We’ve had a lot of birds sparring at our windows this year. Staking out territory? Laura Summerfeldt, Otonabee-South Monaghan
