Good for You, Squirrel!
I was passing my kitchen window early this morning when I
saw something that opened my eyes wide. A clever squirrel figured out how to
bypass the baffles to the bird feeders. I didn’t see the actual process, just
the result. There he/she was, atop the accordion baffle reaching for the seeds.
Keeping squirrels off the feeders has been an ongoing struggle. We thought we
had finally solved the problem as no squirrel had succeeded in getting past the
baffles for a couple of years though there had been several attempts.
My husband was convinced that the squirrel leaped from the
branches of the butterfly bush that was nearby. He pruned the bush (it needed
it anyway), to make it harder for a squirrel to cross the chasm but I wonder if
this particular one will find another way to get up there. I have seen
squirrels traverse the whole backyard, leaping from black spruce branches to
tulip tree limbs, dashing the length of our back neighbor’s fence, and hurling
itself from one maple tree to another, before touching the ground. So perhaps
the butterfly bush was the conduit but I suspect that the pruning was only a
problem to be solved rather than an insurmountable barrier.
These creatures are certainly persistent. I have to respect
that. If the adage “Practice makes perfect” works for people, why not for
squirrels? Perseverance is often what leads to success. Writers revise their
manuscripts for clarity, inventors discard what doesn’t work and enhance what
does, chefs tweak recipes until the flavor is just right. So, I say Good for
you, Squirrel! I hope the sunflowers you munched were sufficient reward for
your efforts.
You won’t believe this!
Squirrel opening a peanut jar:
And here is an original story I wrote about squirrels in
PhlMetropolis:
http://www.phlmetropolis.com/2011/02/outsmarted-by-a-squirrel.php#disqus_thread
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Leave it to Ferida to see a positive attribute where others only see a nuisance.
ReplyDeleteGood for you, Ferida, I hope the kudos you receive show how much we appreciate your efforts at observation and story telling!
Thank you,Claire. I have been getting emails about my squirrel blog from others who are experiencing their antics so I know I wrote about a hot topic. Please feel free to share the blog with your friends.
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