As I was walking through the wooded section of the trail this morning, I heard a noise, and looked to find the source of the sound. It was then I saw a squirrel at the base of a small tree carrying a big black something. It climbed the tree, trying to hold on to its burden, and I snapped this shot quickly before it disappeared into the trees. I still can't figure out what it was carrying, but I certainly have never seen anything like that before. Any guesses??
When I checked one of the spots at the marsh where the owls have been roosting, I found no owls, but instead this young red squirrel munching on a new spruce cone. It's the same spruce tree where the owls were perched on the 12th. I haven't seen or heard as many squirrels around the marsh this year as I usually do. Is that because of the presence of the owls, I wonder??
After snapping a shot of a turtle in the pond alongside the railway bed this morning, I turned to the other side of the trail and saw this shape, which I first took to be a large bird, sitting in a bush staring at me. I then realized it was this red squirrel. It wasn't a place where I expected to see a squirrel.
A couple of days ago, I spied this fellow in a hawthorn tree, chewing on an old haw. After it finished, it began to scratch itself, really going at it. I assume the warmer weather has brought out fleas and other pests that animals who live in the wild are constantly battling. This fellow had me laughing as he(she?) lifted first one front paw and then the other while it scratched itself with its hind feet.
Spring is approaching fast at the marsh. The ice is retreating from the shore, and several open spots were visible this morning on my walk. As I neared the entrance to the marsh, I heard a Song Sparrow and a Red-winged Blackbird sounding off - a sure sign spring is just around the corner.
I spied my little friend among the rocks again this morning. He was scrounging in the leaf litter for edibles, and the photo at top shows him ready to eat a nut of some sort. Right after I took the shot, he was startled by something in the woods below, and ran off into one of his holes among the rocks. I climbed down to see if I could find what had scared him, and heard this red squirrel scolding from a tree branch. Probably their territories overlap, and red squirrels are very defensive of their territories during breeding season. While I was below the tumbled rocks, I thought I'd see if I could find the chipmunk's holes, and while searching, this little face popped up. . .
I almost stepped on this fellow as I started to walk around the tree to check one of the squirrel middens for signs of use. I lifted my camera to get a shot, and he (she?) disappeared. I didn't notice it climb the tree or scamper away. The only thing I could figure is that it had popped down a hole among the tree roots. After I moved off for a few minutes I returned to the spot, and sure enough, there it was chewing away on a pine cone.
This morning I spied the Red Squirrel above running down a pine tree in the wooded area, so I moved closer in the hopes of getting in a shot or two. I stood and watched that squirrel for at least 10 minutes run up one tree and down another, under piles of brush and out the other side, through thickets of multiflora rose bushes, never more than 15 feet away from me, until he/she finally picked up a pine cone and sat and gnawed away on it. I figured there had to be a reason for the behaviour he was exhibiting, but the reason escaped me until he ran off and I took a closer look at the top of the brush pile where he had been eating. On it was a big patch of discarded cone scales, whole cones and cone 'cobs'. After a bit of searching on the internet, I found I had discovered a squirrel 'midden', or "central storage depot" as one article described it. Every squirrel has one, and they are vigorously defended. Some of them can be enormous. I had been standing close to the midden - I was encroaching on his territory but a little too big to chase off, so perhaps he was trying to divert me. This could have been a juvenile squirrel, and according to Wikipedia: "Juvenile American Red Squirrels must acquire a territory and midden prior to their first winter. Juveniles without a midden don't survive their first winter."
The next thing I spotted eating up a storm was a couple of Red Squirrels. I hadn't seen any for several days, but yesterday they were out chowing down on pine cones. I watched this fellow very deftly clean every scale off that cone, for all the world like someone eating corn on the cob. He would chew from one side to the other, then turn the cone a bit and repeat the process, occasionally turning it on end to chew there.
The red squirrels were busy and vocal at the marsh this morning. I first noticed the three shallow holes at the base of a pine tree, shown in the top photo. The hole in front has two pine cones in it, obviously the work of a squirrel. When I started to take a picture of the holes, the squirrel appeared on the tree trunk - with a sprig of rose hips in its mouth. Now, I'm standing no more than six feet from the tree at this point. Poor Reddy, he didn't quite know what to do. First he dropped the rose hips on the ground near the holes, and then ran back up the tree. I thought perhaps he intended to bury the rose hips as well, but didn't because of my presence. But then he came back down the trunk, picked up the rose hips (bottom photo above), went back up the tree to a branch, and proceeded to eat the rose hips. When he finished the last one, he wiped his mouth on the branch, and moved off in the tree canopy.
Yesterday I spied another red squirrel collecting his winter's supply of food, this time a Scots pine cone. When he noticed me watching him, he quickly moved to the base of the tree to bury the cone, then raced back up the tree and over into one just beside me, where he proceeded to let me know my presence wasn't welcome. (I used the poster edges filter for the burying shot, as he was moving so quickly he was nothing but a blur.)
Here's our friend from yesterday, up to the same business. At least I'm pretty sure it's the same fellow, as I found him only about 20 feet from where I saw him yesterday. Each squirrel has its own territory, which is smaller than when they are in nesting mode. There are quite a few English oaks around the marsh, and they seem to be loaded with acorns, so the pickings are good.
It's been a while since I've gotten a close look at a red squirrel. I've seen them moving about in the tree canopies, and heard their chattering, but nothing close. This morning I saw one run down a big Scots pine tree in the wooden section, and start to move across the ground in my direction. Then he disappeared down a hole! I waited a few seconds, and he came back up and peeked out at me, then moved back into the tree and sat on a low branch watching me. It wasn't until I got the photos into my editing program that I noticed he had an acorn in his mouth, and what he was doing was adding it to his winter's store. (In the top photo, the hole is seen in the lower right corner of the picture. The bottom photo has been put through the 'poster edges' filter to make it less blurry.)
Well, I was almost out of the woods this morning when I saw this squirrel come running towards me on the path. I could tell he(she?) had something in his mouth but couldn't tell what, until he stopped short when he noticed me standing there. He then ran over to and up a tree until he was almost over my head, scolding me all the while, holding on to the grass the whole time.
Doing a little research on Red Squirrels after I got home, I discovered that they have two litters, one in the spring and one in the late summer. So, I think I must have interrupted mama squirrel in nest-building mode.
Part of the trail around the marsh winds through a wooded area which includes a number of Scots pine trees. Where there are pine trees one usually finds squirrels. Today I happened to glimpse this little furry head at the top of a dead pine snag at the marsh edge. Next he (she?) peered down into the hollow interior, perhaps thinking "I could hide a lot of pine cones in there." The little fellow then jumped to a nearby tree right on the edge of the path, where it inspected a branch stub. (Continued . . .)
