Wow, I woke up this morning and saw a Ground Squirrel in our backyard for the first time ever. But he was in a garden bed "checking the digs out". He must have just been out exploring for new territory, or he could be living in our firewood pile too. We can share the garden with it for awhile, but if he starts digging tunnels and holes and burrows, then I will have to trap it, and release it somewhere else away from the houses.
Several trees have one cone of flowers already open and the rest still closed up. Maybe for cross-pollination?