Come and watch the actions of this little gymnast up in a high tree.
Thin branches at the top of the tree, and the squirrel just took it in his stride.
I haven't done a Squirrel Friday post in a long time, and it is almost as if this little guy was waiting for me to remind me of it. We are heartsore, as our squirrel family at home is no more. We don't know if they were poisoned, or if for some other reason they left. We hope that it is the latter, and that they just decided to go elsewhere. Occasionally one little squirrel passes through our garden, and once or twice my wife gave it some nuts to eat, but he doesn't stay.
So, let me show you this guy's show at another venue.
At first, he sat to plan his route, and as he looked at me, it was almost as if he was saying to me; Come and watch how daring I am :)
Like a flash he scuttled up to inspect the buds on the new leaves.
Clambered up to get at the top.
Whipped around to inspect the buds on another branch.
Again, he peeped at me to see if I was watching him.
Then it was back again to the other branch.
Moved across to inspect a lower branch.
And then he was done, and sadly he found nothing ripe enough to eat yet.
Finally, he disappeared into a dense tree next to the tree that he was on.
Our habit is to only feed the wildlife when they have babies to feed, and when the babies are gone, then we stop feeding, as they have to learn how to find food in nature. Fortunately, there is an abundance of food in nature for all of them. But in saying this, we have a pair of laughing doves, and a pair of cape robin-chats that live here in our garden, and they are fed every day.
It is so sad to see the doves and robins chasing the babies away once they can fly, but that is one of nature's rules, as the babies must go to live their own lives. We battled to understand it when we saw it at first, and I even got angry for the animals chasing the little ones away, but over time we learned what it was all about and it works perfectly in nature. Occasionally, the one little dove also pitches up here to eat, and it makes sure that the parents are not around. Lol.
Such is life.
I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the story.
Photos and words by Zac Smith. No AI and no Photoshop. All-Rights-Reserved.
Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.
Until the next time, shalom!