I really do love the Internet and Google. Last night, the peepers and other night critters were being especially vocal. I could hear them quite clearly through the open window upstairs while I was downstairs watching television and playing on the computer with all the downstairs windows closed. One sound – a repeated trilling – caught my attention, so I went upstairs to listen at the open window. Apparently, there’s a small army of this particular critter out there, calling back and forth in my backyard and down to the street below.

What was it making all that delightful racket? Mr. Google told me it’s a gray treefrog. I don’t often see frogs or toads when I’m in the garden (they’re very good at camouflage), but they sure are here, just out of sight.

Last summer I kept hearing a truly creepy, gaspy, whistling sound that seemed to be coming from near the back of the house. Of course, I couldn’t see a thing looking out in the dark, so I went online and did a search, and to my amazement I found a recording – of a young barred owl. It matched the sound I kept hearing perfectly! Identifying the sound put my (sometimes) overactive imagination to rest.

Most nights, the cacophony outside my window simply makes me smile. Other nights, the sounds change. There’s a new voice, a mysterious call. Or perhaps a thump or bump coming from the inky darkness. And I want to know what’s out there, who’s visiting my garden.

I satisfy my curiosity on the Internet, and more often than not find answers. But I also have a game cam, my eyes at night in the garden – or anytime I’m not there. It’s captured a variety of passersby: neighborhood cats on rodent patrol, deer (alone or with companions), an occasional fox or raccoon, and bears, who I do my best to discourage.

The garden and the nearby woods are full of life, large and small, some welcome, some not so much. And with few exceptions, they’re all fascinating.