Your Backyard Is Wild

by Jeff Corwin

  Lucy turned the key in the lock and pushed open the door to the yard. It squeaked on its hinges, like it hadn’t been used in a while. The cousins climbed up three steps and blinked in the afternoon light.

  “Oh, man,” said Gabe. “Look at the grass!” It was at least knee-high and looked like it hadn’t been mowed in a couple of months. There was a brick path to the fence at the back of the property and a raised flower bed that needed weeding. There were old flow erpots scattered around the yard, too.

  “It’s perfect!” Lucy exclaimed. “The wilder, the better.”

  “So, what now?” Gabe asked.

  “Our parents have one rule,” Benjamin said. “We’re supposed to keep quiet. It’s so we can hear any animals coming toward us—and not scare them away if they are.”

  Gabe nodded. “I can do that,” he said.

  Benjamin sat on the steps and listened. The city was so much noisier than the swamp back home. He could hear all the sounds that had surprised him before, plus even more. There was the blast of a ferry whistle out on the water, and the chopping of a helicopter. Benjamin wondered if that noise alone would scare away any animals. Then, suddenly, he heard something else. A rustling in the leaves above him. He looked up and saw a New York squirrel! He didn’t know exactly what kind it was, but it was medium size and gray, and it was watching him with its shiny black eyes.

  The squirrel hopped down off a low tree branch and perched on the side of a large flowerpot. With its front feet, it dug in the dirt until it found what it wanted: some seeds.

  Slowly, Benjamin handed Gabe the binoculars so he could watch the squirrel eating the seeds one by one in the grass. When the squirrel was through, it hopped a few feet away and dug another small hole in the ground. There was an acorn buried there! The boys observed as the squirrel gnawed on it, then bounded away.

  “All right . . . I’ve never done that before,” Gabe practically whispered. He seemed in awe of what had just happened. “I’ve seen thousands of squirrels before, but I never really watched one.”

  “Did you see how it knew where the acorn was?” Benjamin asked. “Squirrels have a very accurate memory for where they’ve hidden their food. They bury nuts and seeds in thousands of places every year, and they can always find them!”

  “I guess I’ve never really thought about it before . . . ,” Gabe said, trailing off.

  “When you’re a backyard explorer, you see things a little differently!” Benjamin announced. He dug through the flowerpot for the seeds the squirrel had left behind. Then he popped them into one of his plastic collecting jars. Later, he’d ask his parents what they were.

  Benjamin wandered over to the flower bed next. If he was an explorer, that seemed like exciting new territory. He could see where daffodils had bloomed in the spring—their stalks were still there—and where someone had even tried to plant a few vegetables. Some tomato stalks were climbing up a pole, but there were just nubs where there should have been hard, green tomatoes ready to ripen. Benjamin was sure another animal had stolen them.

  He stood by the flower bed for several minutes, waiting and watching. Just when he was ready to move to another part of the yard, a delicate snake crossed in front of him and went to bask on a low stone wall! “Look, a garter snake,” Benjamin hissed to his sister and his cousin.

  He wanted to pick it up—he was pretty sure that the worst a garter snake could do was give off a bad smell—but he didn’t want to take any chances. Instead, he motioned Gabe and Lucy over to take a look. The garter snake had a striped pattern on its skin, and between the stripes were rows of dots.

  “Garter snakes live all over the place,” Lucy told Gabe. “They’re one of the most common snakes around.”

  As they watched, the snake slithered to the end of the wall. In a moist, shady spot, it found a couple of slugs. Then, with one gulp, the snake swallowed one of them!

  “I can’t believe it,” Gabe said, shaking his head. “The food chain . . . right here in the yard.”

  It was funny to see Gabe so surprised, Benjamin thought. The look on Gabe’s face was probably like the look he’d had when they were in the subway station. They watched the snake slide through a fence to the next yard.

  Now Benjamin brought out a small shovel and handed it to Gabe. Benjamin was glad he’d managed to fit so many supplies in his backpack! “Let’s see what we can dig up next,” he joked. The boys took turns digging in a pile of old leaves. The ones on top were dry and crunchy, but the ones underneath were moist and decomposing.

  Soon Benjamin found yet another creature. It was small, and had rolled into a ball when he picked it up. “Look, a pill bug,” he said, handing it to Lucy.

  “Also known as a roly-poly,” she confirmed. “Look at this one, Gabe!”

  She held it out for him to see. Gabe gasped as the ball unrolled in her palm, revealing an oval body with seven pairs of legs. Its back was a hard shell made of several different pieces.

  “You’ll never guess who his cousins are!” said Benjamin.

  “Armadillos?” Gabe replied.

  “Crabs and lobsters,” Benjamin said, chuckling. “Crustaceans. It looks like an insect, but the pill bug is actually the only crustacean that lives entirely on land. It doesn’t need to be in water; but it likes dark, wet places, like the leaf pile.”

  “Unbelievable!” Gabe said.

  For a moment, Benjamin thought he saw Gabe’s attention wander, and suddenly he wondered if his cousin was overwhelmed. He knew what it felt like when his parents tried to show him everything at once. When they did that, he always wished they could take a break. And that was when he hadn’t had a bad accident on a playground!

  “I think we’ve explored enough for now,” Benjamin said to Gabe and Lucy. “Let’s go inside for a snack!”

  Chapter Five

  The minute they got inside, Gabe wanted to go back out again! Benjamin realized he was all wrong about his cousin needing a break. In fact, Gabe couldn’t get enough of exploring the yard! “It’s like they’re showing me around,” he heard him say to Aunt Lily. “It’s a part of New York I never even knew was there!”

  They couldn’t go back out yet, though, because Uncle Peter had made dinner. “My famous lasagna,” he said, putting a piece on every plate.

  As they ate, Gabe asked the Baxters about the exploring trips they’d taken. Benjamin’s parents didn’t even know where to start. “Well, we went to Yellowstone last summer,” said Mrs. Baxter. “At home, we’d been studying the endangered species of the Everglades. Out west, though, different species are threatened. We did some research on wolves while we were there.”

  “For a long time there were almost no wolves left,” Benjamin added. “But now scientists and conservationists are working to bring them back.”

  “I think that was my favorite trip ever,” Lucy said. “I mean, besides this one. We got to see the wolves up close—they acted just like dogs! Plus we spent a whole week camping!”

  “I’ve never been camping,” Gabe said.

  “We’ll have to take you sometime,” replied Benjamin. “Maybe when you come to Florida.” It was another thing he could show his cousin!

  But Gabe had another idea. “How about we camp out in the backyard tonight?” he asked.

  His mother frowned. “I don’t think so, Gabe,” she said. “It’s not safe. . . . And we don’t even have a tent.”

  “But could we go out there after dark?” Benjamin asked. “Just for a little while? If a grown-up is watching us? We can see all kinds of other animals then.”

  Gabe’s mom hesitated for a minute. Then Benjamin’s dad said, “I’ll go with them, Lily. I’ll make sure they’re all right.”

  Aunt Lily smiled. “It’s fine by me, then.”

  “Hooray!” shouted Gabe. He sounded as excited as Benjamin had felt the morning they left home.

  The summer was almost over, and the days were getting shorter. Still, it was after 9:00 before the sky was completely dark. The kids follow
ed Mr. Baxter out the basement door. They still had Benjamin’s backpack with them, full of collecting jars and tools for digging. And this time each kid had a flashlight, too.

  The yard looked different in the dark, Benjamin thought. It was full of mysterious shadows and patterns now. Even the sounds were different.

  Benjamin walked down the brick path and knocked over a flowerpot by mistake. His dad put his finger to his lips, reminding him to be quiet. Benjamin put up his hands—his way of saying, It was an accident!

  He swept his flashlight over a small patch of ground in front of him. There was some movement between the bricks—it was hard to see, but he was pretty sure there was a beetle down there. And what was that, hidden in the tall grass? Benjamin bent to pick it up, then brought it to his cousin so they could examine it together.

  “What is it? It looks like a bunch of sticks,” Gabe whispered. It had a rounded shape, and it was just the right size to carry something small and delicate.

  “It’s a bird’s nest,” Benjamin replied. “It probably blew out of a tree!” It was amazing to think of the tiny eggs that had been in there once—or of the baby birds that had since flown away.

  “Wait a minute!” Gabe said. “There’s something else in the grass, too.” He took a few steps and shone his flashlight near where Benjamin had found the nest. He picked up something and stared at it, mystified. It was a small fleck of something, like a seashell or a thin piece of soap.

  This time Gabe was the one who realized what they were looking at. “That’s a shell from a hatched egg!” he cried. His voice was low, but Benjamin could tell Gabe was excited and proud.

  “Nice going, Gabe!” he said. Then he called his dad over, softly. “Dad, look at this eggshell we found. Any idea what kind of bird laid the egg?” he asked.

  Mr. Baxter shone his flashlight on it and examined it carefully. “See that pale blue color that’s almost faded away?” he said. “That’s the trademark color of a robin’s egg.”

  A little while later, a shadow slinked into the yard from around the neighbor’s fence. At first Benjamin thought it was a black-and-white cat . . . until he realized it was a skunk!

  “Don’t worry,” he told Gabe, who was looking worried enough for both of them. “Skunks don’t like to use their spray—it’s sort of a last resort for them. They don’t want to use it all up, since they only carry enough for five or six sprays and it takes a while for their bodies to build it up again. If we don’t bother him, he won’t bother us.”

  Benjamin knew that what he said was true, but he was still glad when the skunk slipped under the same fence as the garter snake. There was no telling what other animals might do to rile the skunk, and he didn’t want to be anywhere near it if it sprayed!

  “Hey, where’s Lucy?” he asked all of a sudden. The yard wasn’t very big. So where could she be?

  A soft whisper came from around the corner of the house. “Over here!”

  “I’ll be right back,” Benjamin said to Gabe and his father. He followed the sound to a small wooden enclosure where there were several trash cans. It looked like there were enough for Gabe’s whole building there.

  “What are you doing?” Benjamin asked his sister. It was just like her to leave the main action and focus in on some sideshow.

  “Waiting,” she said.

  “For what?”

  “Just watch,” Lucy replied. “You’ll see.”

  Benjamin sat quietly for a few moments. He looked up at the sky, but he could see only a handful of stars—even on a clear night, the bright lights of the city blocked them out. Then he heard some rustling and saw a couple of bushy tails. More squirrels, he thought. Or skunks.

  But as he kept watching, he realized it was a pair of raccoons! Their eyes shone brightly through the dark masks on their faces. They looked like a couple of bandits from the Wild West, but Benjamin knew that scientists thought the dark fur served a real purpose, such as blocking glare and enhancing the raccoons’ night vision.

  The raccoons hopped into the trash enclosure and onto the rows of cans. Then, one by one, they tried to take off the tops. Most of the tops were securely fastened . . . but one of them was not.

  The larger raccoon pried it off with its nose and tossed it aside. Then it began to rip into a trash bag with its paws! Soon somebody’s leftovers were all over the ground, and the raccoons were having a feast.

  Benjamin went back to get their dad, who walked over in the dark with Gabe.

  “I thought they ate, you know, fish,” Gabe said. “So why do they bother with people’s garbage?”

  “Raccoons are extremely clever animals,” said Mr. Baxter. “More than most mammals, they have totally adapted to life in the city. They eat fish—or crawfish, really—when they can. But they are just as happy with somebody’s leftover fish dinner! They will eat frogs or insects, too—raccoons change to fit whatever environment they’re in. It’s not good for them to eat humans’ trash, though,” he added. “It’s dangerous for them to become too domesticated and lose their wild instincts.”

  “What if that’s our trash?” Gabe said. “My mom won’t be too happy if she knows I watched this happen!”

  His words startled the raccoons, and they were gone as quickly as they’d come.

  “Let’s clean it up,” said Mr. Baxter in his normal voice. “I think it’s about time we went in anyway. Just put everything back in the cans—I’ll come out and rebag it all later. It’s the first rule of being outdoors: leave everything just as you found it.”

  Gabe nodded, taking it all in.

  But Lucy joked, “Why don’t you tell that to the raccoons?”

  Chapter Six

  Two days later, Aunt Lily and Uncle Peter decided they could stop worrying about Gabe. He had followed doctor’s orders and stayed close to home, exploring the backyard and playing games and watching movies inside. But now they thought it was safe for him to get back to showing his cousins around town.

  Benjamin was ready to get back to it, too. He and the other kids had collected plants and rocks. They had observed countless creatures in Gabe’s backyard. But there was still a big city out there that he wanted to see!

  Today they were going to visit the American Museum of Natural History. The two families crammed into Aunt Lily’s minivan—this time they were driving instead of taking the subway. Once they crossed the bridge again, Uncle Peter said, “How about we take a detour through Times Square?”

  Benjamin had seen Times Square once on TV, when his parents let him stay up late on New Year’s Eve. He remembered its dizzying bright lights, its happy crowds, and the clouds of confetti they tossed into the air at midnight. When they drove through Times Square, Benjamin couldn’t believe this was a “normal” day! The lights and the crowds were still there—all that was missing was the confetti. It was like every day was a celebration in New York.

  Uncle Peter drove up the west side of Central Park, past a majestic building with tall columns and another crowd out front. “That’s the museum! There are dinosaur bones and models of huge ocean creatures and a planetarium in there. You guys will love it!” Gabe told Benjamin and Lucy as Uncle Peter parked the car.

  But Benjamin was already having some doubts. The line to get in was long. And it was a beautiful day—the kind of day when his family would usually be outdoors. He didn’t want to be rude, but he just had to ask . . . “Could we go to Central Park instead?” he suggested. “It’s so nice out, and I’d rather see nature alive than nature in a museum!”

  His mom winked at him, and he wondered if she’d been thinking the same thing. She added, “I’ve been dying to visit the park since we saw it from the top of the Empire State Building.”

  That quickly, it was decided.

  The families entered Central Park just as a pair of horses trotted by, pulling an old-fashioned carriage behind them. There were pathways full of runners and bikers. And between them all were patches of grass, some small and some massive, with people reading books
or playing ball. It was the busiest park Benjamin had ever seen.

  As usual, the kids ran ahead while the parents strolled slowly behind. And soon they were standing in front of the last thing Benjamin ever expected to see in the middle of the city: a lake! People were paddling around on rowboats, taking pictures of the famous buildings that were reflected in the water.

  “Oh, we have to rent a boat!” Gabe said. “It’s the only way we’ll be able to see what this lake is really like.” It was as if, after a few days with his cousins, he was starting to think like them.

  Each family went rowing in one boat. Across the water, Benjamin could hear his uncle telling Gabe about the history of the park. But Benjamin’s parents, as usual, were focused on the wildlife.

  “Benjamin—look,” his mom said. She pointed to a pile of rocks near shore. Benjamin couldn’t see what made them special until they rowed a little closer. That’s when he realized they weren’t rocks at all but a bunch of turtles basking in the sun! “Eastern painted turtles,” his mom said before he had a chance to ask. She knew by the pattern on their shells. “They’re sitting in the sun because they’re cold-blooded and can’t regulate their own body temperature. A good sunbath will keep them warm for a while, though.”

  The Baxters rowed up to Gabe’s boat, then pointed their oars so his family could see the turtles. “I just read online that a thirty-pound snapping turtle lives in this lake, too!” Aunt Lily said cheerfully. “He was discovered when some workers had to drain a portion of the lake.”

  Benjamin was curious about that one! Snapping turtles were a little more ferocious than other turtles, and thirty pounds was pretty big! He looked for it as he paddled, but there was no sign of it. He did notice a group of mallard ducks and a flock of Canada geese, though. He also saw frogs leaping through in the greenery around the shoreline, though they moved too quickly for him to tell what kind they were. He knew they were frogs, not toads, since they had long legs for hopping and smooth, greenish skin. The skin of toads tended to be browner and drier, and their legs were short and stubby.