I have not seen very many hoppers here but I am sure they are coming. Watched a couple of small birds drive a large hawk to the ground and away from thier nest. Very impressive. " the meek shall inherit the earth".

Small birds can be so fearless that it is amazing. I think they don't really understand how small they are. So can some big ones too. The Mississippi Kites here are relentless when they see a snake. They scream and carry on and dive bomb at it. I like that. If a snake is in the pasture across the street and is headed my way, it likely won't have a chance to sneak up on me in the garden because the kites will have been having a fit from the moment they see it. I do stand and watch so I can see it cross the road. Once it crosses the road the blue jays who next in some trees just north of the garden pick up the battle cry, and that's probably most likely because their nest is right there. I'd like to think it is because I feed them peanuts ever morning and they're just being loyal to the peanut lady, but deep down I know they're just being proactive to protect their nest.

Our chickens free-range into the woods, though the ones we have in our coop are more likely to stay right on the edge of the woods, while our son's younger chickens go way down deep into the woodland (where something is eating them and their numbers shrink daily, because you can't fix stupid). Today about 30 of his chickens came running out of the woodland making all kinds of noise and carrying on and I feared something was chasing them. I would have bet on it. They were acting like Godzilla himself was pursuing them. They ran past their chicken run and coop, past our son's house, up the hill to our yard and all the way to the dog yard's fence. Then they still there panting and breathing hard and acting spooked while I spoke soothingly trying to calm them down. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw what had terrified them----a yearling deer that was moseying along on the edge of the woods looking for good stuff to eat. It saw me and turned and ran back into the woods. So, I guess they saw the deer coming and fled. As soon as it went back into the woods, they followed right behind it. Why is is scarier for a chicken to be followed by a deer than for the chickens to turn around and follow the deer? Sometimes I wonder what they are thinking, of if they are thinking at all.

I hope what they all are thinking is this: "I hope she lets us go into the garden tomorrow to eat more grasshoppers." Of course, I will. If I could think of a way to send them into the neighbor's pasture to eat all those grasshopper nymphs I would, but bobcats frequent the woodland in the middle of that pasture, so I try to make sure the chickens stay home. One thing about guineas when we had them was they would go onto the neighbors' property and eat grasshoppers, which the neighbors didn't mind at all. They would come home at night though. I'm not sure the chickens could find their way back.

Bluejays are the neighborhood watch of the bird world. Sometimes you can hear them screaming cat or owl or maybe snake. One night, I looked out my kitchen window to see a Red tailed hawk sitting on the phone wire. There was a bluejay on either side, as if to say "We don't want any trouble here, just move along".