The summer days are coming to a close and the scurrying of wildlife making the most of the autumn days is very noticeable when you take a stroll along a country lane.

Sundays are relaxed days in our household and it is not uncommon to be outside and working on some kind of activity, especially if the weather cooperates. This past weekend found me in one of those lull times when the Steelers were off the schedule, storms kept me off the water and no hunting season had started.

My wife encouraged me to take a walk about and to see what we could see in the outdoors. We patrol our roadway for cans and bottles as slob drivers toss litter in all seasons … once we even had a television bounced out on our road!

Boo and hiss to the litterbugs as we walked along and gathered up a bag full of recyclables thoughtlessly tossed out among the wild flowers and clovers.

While on our jaunt, a portly woodchuck stood up from the clover grass that he was munching and gave us a once over. He didn’t wait around to see what our intentions were going to be and he made a dash for his den hole.

He was safe — all we had was a trash bag and a walking stick for poking around the roadside for cans and such. It was recycling week and I appreciated the service that Marion Township negotiated for its residents.

We can fill a receptacle with metals, plastics and glass every two weeks all year long and keep it off the roadways and fields as our small part for the environment. I really worry about our planet and the results of many careless acts by humans. A recent survey I read on MSN indicated that a majority of people polled are also very concerned about our planet’s future.

The next wildlife we walked up on was a pair of sandhill cranes who were searching a cut hay field for grasshoppers. They walked along with us until they became a little anxious with our proximity to them and with a raucous squawk, they took flight and circled away from us as we watched them take flight and soon were putting miles between us and them.

We have had cranes in our area fairly frequently for the past three years or more and they usually are transients at best.

The trash bag was starting to fill up and we crested a rise in the roadway when I noticed a hawk on a round bale of hay off in the distance. He was hunting and on the lookout for some vole or sparrow that wasn’t paying attention on the last rays of daylight.

We were checking out the bluebird boxes along the route for needed repairs and replacements. My father-in-law had maintained them for years, but now as he reached his 90th birthday, he could use a helping hand. His daughter was the heir apparent for the job and of course she invited me to accompany her on this quest.

A swoosh of wings brought our attention back to the hike as a bald eagle left his perch and glided down the roadway before us. We never saw eagles back in the day but their recovery is a remarkable feat.

When our sportsmen’s club stocks trout in the spring, you can count on an eagle or osprey visiting the fishing pond for a daily trout dinner. No one seems to mind much and it is fascinating to see them swoop down and snatch up a fish without much trouble.

We will have to order a few extra dozen trout to take care of our fish raptors’ appetite! The eagle had his eye on some kind of road kill and we just turned around on our walk, lest we disturb him.

The walk continued and we turned our attention to a patch of milk weeds … the primary food for the Monarch butterfly. We did see one flitting about and it reminded me of the loss of habitat and butterflies that is well-documented.

We have a large swath of flowers, shrubs and plants for the butterflies and birds. We are blessed to see many kinds of both, but we know that it is a small piece of the plan for their survival. If everyone put forth a small part, we might have something, but most people don’t even recognize many of the species at all.

The walk is about over and we are putting a bin out with all the recyclables. The roadway is cleaner and we are better for our effort and walk about in nature. My mind feels refreshed and I am going to try to think of some new projects for wildlife by planting a few more flowers, repairing and replacing nesting boxes and having food and cover patches prepared for the spring.

Until we meet again, take the time to visit with your neighborhood wildlife and make it a better place for all of us!

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle.