And also, two pregnant ones. I am talking about our wild squirrels.
Grabbing a nut and backing up under a bush to stay out of sight.
Over time we learned a lot about the squirrel habits, and the experiences with them now stand us in good stead to know what they want and need. A couple of years ago at our old house, we had a tame one that we nicknamed "Squirry", and I did some posts about her tricks with my wife. We had a family of squirrels that lived in a tree in our old garden, and squirry came to introduce every new little one to us.
But that's history stashed forever here on the blockchain, and now in the new house where we live, the experiences, and fun with a different family of squirrels continue. Nope! We don't tame any of them, but instead they trust us, to such an extent that the females also bring their little new births to introduce them to us. They know that the little ones can get food here, and that they will be safe.
Unfortunately, I only managed to get 3 shots of them, but we know that they will be back.
This was the only shot of them together that I could get.
Now let me show you the two adult females.
Just have a look at those teats, and you can see that she is pregnant.
Here's a closer look.
This is a frontal look at the little lady.
And here's the other one. She is smaller and we call her the acrobatic squirrel, as she jumps up to my window in the study when she arrives wanting food.
Here's the two of them together. We have to put the nuts separately, otherwise they chase each other.
Look at that lovely curl in the tail.
And finally, they have a drink before they leave.
The squirrels come to eat at 7:30 every morning and at 5 in the afternoon. We don't give them a lot of food, and we had to cut the avocados as it became too expensive. Now it is just the peanuts, and the acorns that we collect. Another reason for cutting the food, is that they must learn to live and eat in the wild and let me tell you that they do that very well. The aim is to stop feeding the adults and only to feed the new babies, until they have enough strength to also feed in the wild.
We don't have a high tree here in our garden, and they don't stay on the premises, as we have a river with many high trees close by, and that is where they live. Some of them also have nests in the high palm trees and they are quite safe up there. A problem for the little ones is the house cats, and of course also the birds of prey. Then they also run over the roads, and many of them get killed by cars. People's dogs are also a problem, but thankfully the squirrels are very fast when the dogs chase them.
Such is squirrel life.
I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the story.
Photos by Zac Smith. All-Rights-Reserved.
Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.
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