Amy Joyce watches a Public Garden squirrel.

Saul Blumenthal watches a squadron of geese on the Charles.

Third Decade reports winning a battle of wills with a hawk carrying some breakfast this morning. However, he did not pick up the spoils of victory, since he didn't have much need for a freshly killed squirrel.

Channel 4 sent its news chopper out to Waltham today so we could all watch dramatic "raw footage" of a deer foundering on an ice-covered reservoir.

Oh, speaking of ice: Will you people stop going on it? You're starting to annoy the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Jef Taylor reads mastadons once lived on Manhattan (in cute little rent-controlled studios in the Village?) and speculates that would explain the thorns on honey-locust trees up here.

OK, maybe not a pear tree, but a turkey. In a tree. In Boston.

The Bulletin reports a growing number of coyote sightings - including at least one of a pack apparently feasting on a small deer in somebody's back yard. No reports of exploded rockets or 16-ton weights at the bottom of the hill, however.

I saw the coyote in Aboretum in March 2008. His name is Arnold. The Aboretum is obviously named after Arnold the coyote. It took me one year to find Arnold so do not expect to see him every day. I have the only PHOTO of Arnold! I will someday hang the photo of Arnold up on the gate to Peter's Hill next to the sign warning people to beware of Arnold. Almost NOBODY goes where Arnold was seen and I keep that place a secret where he probably hunts rabbits. A red fox lives there also. Arnold is not anywhere near where the people go. Arnold hunts at dusk.

State wildlife biologist considers video taken by Steve Garfield of the squirrel near Jamaica Pond, says it looks like a true albino squirrel, as opposed to being a squirrel with white fur (albinos have pink eyes; white-furred squirrels have dark eyes).

George photographs a hawk at Belle Isle Marsh in East Boston.