Tuesday’s Thoughts…A Squirrel’s Tale/Tail!
Or How Do You Gather Your Nuts?
You can learn a lot from observing people and animals. In addition to monitoring the bluebird boxes, Larry and I love observing nature. If you feed enough squirrels (unsalted roasted peanuts), you see some human traits in them…or vice versa.
Squirrel A
When we feed squirrels on our walks, I’ve noticed that the red squirrels often take one peanut, then look up at you with the “How about another one?” look. Some manage to grab two, then off they go. Others take one, leave the second peanut, but give it a quick sniff.
They don’t take more than they can handle!
Squirrel B
A squirrel at one of our homes had a very methodical routine. It would gather three peanuts, one at a time, running off to bury each one. Then it would return, take a fourth peanut, and sit down to eat it. After finishing that one, it started the process all over again. I watched it repeat this routine three or four times.
It was disciplined and knew when to rest and enjoy the fruits of its labor.
Squirrel C
I’ve seen some squirrels stop by for the peanut, take a sniff, drop it, then return to eating a preferred acorn.
They’ve been around long enough to know they can be picky. They don’t have to take what they don’t enjoy.
Squirrel D
Then there was the squirrel who followed us around the whole track. It came up, took a peanut, and raced off to quickly bury it, then rushed to catch up to us for another peanut! I lost count because I lost count after 12. Even though squirrels have a remarkable ability to find about 80-95% of the things they bury, I would have loved to have had a camera on it to see just how many it found.
This squirrel was all about “making hay while the sun shines.” As long as it could see the peanuts were available, it was going after them.
So…how do you gather your nuts/leads?
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