Signs of the times

I'm sitting here looking at a little tree frog sitting, nose upward, on the window beside the computer. Been seeing them lately and occasionally hearing them. I'm fond of the little rascals; the tiniest of them look like active little emeralds. Also, I just experienced a sharp and sudden little stab on the first knuckle, middle finger, right hand and mashed a mosquito. Guess that means there's something for the frogs to eat. I've been noticing the odd out-of-town bird lately ... yesterday, I saw one Mississippi kite circling around with three or four plebeian laughing gulls, like a Lamborghini driving amid a pack of Ford Focuses. The kite is a most elegant bird. Actually, gulls aren't bad one at a time, but one seems always to see them in quantity. Gulls squawking in an H-E-B parking lot is a defining experience of life on the coast.