Squirrel Watching

There are millions of squirrels here. Millions! There are lots of walnut trees close by and we have been watching the squirrels going "nuts" preparing for winter. Right outside one of our living room windows is a big oak tree. Obviously a branch that was probably growing into the house got cut off and it creates a perfect little ledge for a squirrel to sit and shred his walnuts. I had no idea what squirrels did. Well, I knew they collected nuts, but I've never really watched it. From my observations here is what they do. The walnuts grow on these huge trees and they are actually inside a big fruit...about the size of a lemon...kind of looks like a lemon, but round. They fall off the trees and the squirrels grab them and find a safe place to sit. They then proceed to shred all the "fruit" off of the walnut. Once they get the walnut fruit skin off, I think they hide them. I saw one squirrel digging in the yard with this big walnut in his mouth. I've heard they will even take your bulbs and hide them in other places. Sometimes they will sit and eat the walnut, which we observed this morning. The boys love it! The little branch by the window is really close, so we get a good look at exactly what the little guys are doing. I hear also, that they are actually quite pesty, especially in the winter...getting into the house and stuff. I refuse to kill them or witness anyone killing them, they are way too cute. I do prefer to watch them from the window as opposed to trying to get them out of my attic! Brendan really wants one for a pet, but I don't want him to get rabies, so we keep to just squirrel watching.


(that yellow blur in the background was a leaf falling. It just rains leaves!)