Last year, as some of my friends can attest, a beach ball appeared in my front yard around November. We watched it for many weeks and wondered how well it would survive the coming winter. Before winter came however, the ball vanished. I figured at the time the wind must have blown it away. We never learned how that ball fared during the winter or where the winds took it.

This morning, when I let Tanner out, I made a discovery that has radically changed my understanding of beach balls. There, in the back yard, hiding near a fallen tree, the beach ball had returned! I now believe that beach balls are migratory. Last years ball must have found our front yard a comfortable and pleasing place to nest for a few weeks. But as a result of the new landscaping this summer, the front yard probably wasn’t as appealing to the returning beach ball and so it has chosen the back yard as it’s refuge.

I approached the ball slowly so as not to spook it and took this picture.

Then I zoomed in to get a better shot. You can see how it probably feels protected behind the fallen tree.

As I turned to go back in the answer to another question was answered. When I was out with Tanner earlier I noticed a flattened circle of grass and wondered what had slept there during the night. I now believe that this is where the beach ball slept and that it probably moved into the woods early this morning when Traci let Tanner out.