I am sitting at my window, well before 7 a.m., watching for a snapping turtle that I'd seen earlier crossing the brook in my back yard.

   At one of my feeders, a female ruby-throated hummingbird slurps down the nectar.

    My eyes, however, are on the nesting boxes just beyond my backyard.

   I have checked the screech cam, and the owlets are fast asleep, but I wonder if I might glimpse their mom.

   The owlets are getting so big that they seem to have an organized way of sleeping even as they lay flat in the box. (see image above.)

    Last night the owlets dined on frog and (I think) gosling, among other creatures. Their appetite is huge these days.

   To the left in my morning view is the wood duck box. It has now been more than six weeks since April nor'easter that flooded our back yard and allowed the wood ducks to swim by and discover the box.

   Wood duck babies should be jumping out of the box any morning now, and I spend my early mornings waiting for the female to arrive and call to her fresh-hatched young that it's time to meet the world.

   For now, I wait and watch, and take it all in.