 Hi, Catherine. How are you? Hi, Molly. I'm great. How are you? I'm good too. I'm glad to see you because when we're at work, we always get to kind of sit right next to each other and talk about all the cool things that we're noticing around gills and farm. And now that we're at home, we really can't do that. So I thought it'd be cool if we found some time to talk about what we're noticing from where we are right now in nature. So where are you? Yeah, I'm right now in my apartment in Portland. I'm sitting at my dining room table, which is in front of three big windows here on my street. So it's a really urban and residential area in my neighborhood. There's a lot of old apartment buildings, some trees, not tons of grass, but it's a really nice sunny slot here that I can see a lot happen outside. How about you? Cool. I'm also at my dining room table. I live in Westbrook in my house. And one of the reasons we bought this house is because it has these big windows that look right out over the table. And they have these big windows that look right out over the Stradwater River. So our yard is really tiny, but we get to see a lot of nature from where we are. And we put up a bird feeder. So I've been watching birds coming in and out. And you never know what we're going to see. So while you're at your table, do you have any tools or rituals that you like to kind of keep in mind when you're nature watching at home? I do. Yeah. I think kind of the idea or ritual of having a sit spot, a place that you spend a lot of time at and observe change over time is a ritual that kind of this area has become for me. I spent a lot of time in the same spot looking out and noticing things that change, how the light changes, whether that comes through, things like that. I also use field guides sometimes here. I have several field guides on my bookshelf behind me that I sometimes grab. And I would say a nature journal and another tool that I try to use to record things. What about you? Any tools or rituals you use? Yeah. This is kind of my sit spot too, I guess. Whenever we're eating, I make sure that I'm keeping an eye on what's happening out here. Sometimes I play this game where I can manage to sit down for a full cup of coffee with breakfast. I try to see how many bird species I can count before I'm done. And I usually have my binoculars close by. Sometimes Callum, my three year old walks away with them, but they're usually handy. I think that's a good idea. I think that's a good idea. I think that's a good idea. We keep some field guides too. And then we have used the naturalist notebook, that five year calendar journal from that bill. Right. So we always kind of try to keep that filled in too. So as you've been watching, have you noticed any changes or signs of spring lately? You know, I've been looking for changes on our trees on my street and in my neighborhood on these blocks that I go on every day. So I haven't seen any changes to Bud's much in town here yet. But I've noticed that the ground is still really muddy. So not quite grass growing in between early spring stage, but I will say I noticed two Cardinals yesterday singing really loudly to each other on a walk. And that was nice springtime reminder. Nice. How about you? What kind of changes have you noticed out your windows lately? Yeah. I've heard Cardinals too. They've been waking me up sometimes in the mornings. Definitely with the bird feeder. We've been seeing a lot more activity hearing some new birds. We've been seeing a lot more birds. We've been seeing a lot more birds this morning and coming to the feeder, the gold finches this morning. We noticed we're getting really yellow, which is always a sign of spring that I look for. The chipmunks are back. We saw woodchuck last week. The first time I'd seen it this spring. Lives under my neighbor's shed. And yeah, also not much growing. We've got a lot of mud. And when I walk around the neighborhood, I've seen some buds and some crocuses, but my side of the street is the colder side. So I've been seeing a lot more birds this morning. What about, has anything surprised you lately? Earlier this week, we had a big spring thunderstorm. And it was kind of the first thunderstorm we've had since probably. The beginning of last fall, it feels like a long time ago, because it's not such a winter thing. So that was kind of surprising to me. I really liked seeing the lightning. Any surprises for you? Yeah, I had a new mammal, which I feel like doesn't happen that often. So last week I looked out under the feeder and the ground was really cool. And I watched a little mole poke its nose out and grab the seed and ran back and it did it a couple of times too. So I grabbed the binoculars and watched it. So yeah, that was new. That's really cool. Not what you expect under your bird feeder. Oh, not at all. Well, it's great hearing what you've been seeing at home. And I hope you get to check in again, like this. We're folks who might have been watching along. I hope other people have ways to share things that they've been seeing either in the comments here or to somebody else that they're catching up with on screen. Thanks everyone. Bye.