The Smell of the South

It smells like the South on my walk to/from campus.  Magnolias and gardenias are blooming and their very sweet smell is absolutely the smell of the South.  Mimosas are also blooming everywhere, but they are considered invasive non-native trees so I don't count them even though they are pretty and smell nice.

I've seen a gray catbird several times this week.  Usually we hear them before we see them--they are named catbird because they sound like a cat's mew.  They're in the same family as the mockingbird and in some ways resemble them.

WHOA!  A raccoon just dumped out my bird feeder!  I saw the feeder being held from below and knew that a squirrel couldn't be reaching that high.  When I stood up there was a raccoon reaching up from the ground and dumping out the feeder.  He ran away when he saw me at the window.