Nocturnal, Diurnal

Yes, we are pleased to make a
closer acquaintance with our
small guest, heretofore mysteriously
phantomlike, leaving ghostly imprints 
and droppings from night-time raids
nibbling backyard shrubs, but here, 
now, present and accounted for. 
Though in fact, it might be we who 
are the guests within the creature's 
natural environment, co-opted, converted,
denuded of nature's careful screen
for her vulnerable creatures. We
may, in our innocent arrogance
be doing the little fellow and all
those others who drop by daily for
nourishment during these frigidly
snowy winter months, a decidedly
ill-thought disservice. For in their
own innocent and growing
dependence on the offerings of
seeds and nuts they become, perhaps,
less given to caution when caution
is always prudent. Even while we
intend them aid from forage scarcity
we become responsible for possible
threats to their longevity in the
ferociously lingering presence of
stealthily malicious predators.