Phenology: Mockingbirds and Social Kittens

Today's phenology has been like yesterday's, and like the day before, and the weekend: 

Weather: mostly cloudy with occasional bursts of sunshine and occasional rain "showers." Warm, but not as hot as early July often is--lows in the sixties, highs in the low eighties.

Flowers: masses of chicory, lots of clover, Queen Anne's Lace, thistles, vetch, brassicas. My privet hedge still has a lot of unopened buds.

Birds: becoming less active, although at Grandma Bonnie Peters' house in Kingsport, Tennessee, at least one of the mockingbirds is still singing. Oh how he's singing! Since his "song" consists mostly of imitating other male birds' versions of "This land is my land...it is not your land," he's still raising a call-and-response chorus, too. Last night, around sundown, the mockingbird was leading a chorus of neighborhood cardinals, wrens, song sparrows, finches, and warblers. 

Animals: Rackety Coon is no longer with us. Neither are the two babies, and their father, who probably motivated Rackety to attack the kittens. The remaining kittens are inseparable. Any one of them would rather be locked in "Cat Jail" with the others than be petted and spoiled by humans while the others are in Cat Jail, or even outside. So, if you want a Patchnose kitten, I can only recommend adopting an ordinary cat for now and waiting for a future Patchnose kitten to "socialize" it later. 

(People ask...sometimes the Cat Sanctuary physically harbors random stray cats who are available for adoption, and sometimes not. When we have kittens we're less likely to have alley cats. We still have connections, though, and can still help those who want to rescue abandoned or neglected former pets from actual alleys near food stores and restaurants.)