Help My Squirrel Is Out To Get Me!

[ravenwoodglass]

Hope this gives you all the smile it gave me this afternoon.

Okay this is the strangest thing gluten related that I have had happen since I went gluten free. I was innocently working in my garden getting the fish pond ready for the season. The birds are mad at me for draining their bathtub so perhaps they spread the word to 'get' me. I am standing there enjoying the wildlife and newly rising flowers when I heard a distinct thump next to me. I looked down and there was a donut, Dunkin glazed, my prediagnosis fav. Now my neighbors are on vacation and my yard is not real close to the street. Looking more closely I could see the tell tale tooth marks of my backyard 'freind'. He must have really struggled to get it up that tree as it was whole. As much as I feel he deserves to OD on sugar I am on my way to get gloves and toss it. Perhaps his way of telling me he wants more of my gluten-free treats?

[jerseyangel]

OMG--squirrels dropping donuts from trees! That's a new one for sure!

Hialarious

[Ursa Major]

Donut bombs! That is definitely funny.

[CeliacMom2008]

Too funny!

Having nothing to do with gluten, but a squirrel story to add...this week I thought a squirrel died before my eyes! I had been watching a squirrel at the bird feeder through my office window while talking on the phone. I glanced away and next time I looked back he was on his stomach with his front legs and back legs spread straight out (kind of like he was being frisked by the police on the ground!). He was just laying there! When he didn't get up for awhile I became sure he was dead. I got out the binaculars (I work from home) to check him out. He was laying there still as could be with his head kind of held up. I finally decided to go check on him (what I could do for him, I have no idea) and he jumped up and ran into the woods. I have no idea what he was doing, but it did offer a good 15 minute distraction in my day!!

[pixiegirl]

DUCK!

I work from my home most of the time and my iMac is set up with a huge window behind it and right out side the window is my "diner" (read: animal feeding station).

I have a squirrel proof bird feeder (really is squirrel proof) suet, niger, water in a bird bath and on the ground and I throw corn and other things on the ground for the squirrels, my lone chipmunk and other wildlife.

The antics of these animals keeps me laughing. I'm a stockbroker - a fairly stressful job but I love that I can just glance up and see what's going on in our little world. The antics between the 10 squirrels and my "chippie" are hysterical. The amount and variety of birds I get is unreal. We have a few field mice and a couple of voles.

We also have a pretty little red fox that makes frequent stops at my diner to eat some of the things I put on the ground. For the most part its a peaceful family.... I have put up what I call "cat baffles" not real pretty but prior to putting them up I was losing birds every day due to neighborhood cats, now I don't lose any (and no cats are harmed).

The worst thing was this winter I had a hawk dive out of the sky, it really was a black streak, I couldn't even tell what it was until it hit the small bird it was after, it fell out of the sky full speed and slammed into a small bird got it in its claws and flew off. I was upset for days after, thankfully he is hunting elsewhere now, but seeing that speed and power was unreal.

Susan

[JNBunnie1]

Apparently, that squirrel hates you.

We had a squirrel come on our house once when I was a kid, I don't know HOW it got in there, but our dog was USELESS. She played with it! The bloody thing was terrified, of course, here's this big dog, and all the dog wanted to do was play. We couldn't get the thing out for like, six hours. Oy.

And then there was the squirrel that fried itself on the power lines outside and took out the neighborhood's power and my neighbor cut it up and made stew.....

[flourgirl]

Funny! Thanks for the laugh. We feed the birds, too, and garden. We love to bird watch. Our run-in with nature this year is a bear. We have to bring the bird feeders in at night because of him. So far he has trashed the neighborhood feeders, picnicked on trash waiting for pick up, left muddy footprints all around the garage and up to the front door, left muddy prints up the back deck stairs and up to the pool (think he was getting a good drink!) and took a stroll across the new pond I'm putting in (no water yet, but the sand showed some pretty BIG footprints). The worst was that he was sitting next to my husbands truck and didn't want to move away. Almost made hubby late for work! Actually I guess the worst was that the next door neighbor got 2 rather large crab apple trees ruined.

Hopefully the bear will move on soon. It's a real pain to keep moving the feeders in and out. Apparently Encon will fine us for "feeding the bear" , intentional or not, if they have to do something about him.

[ravenwoodglass]

I often wish I lived in the country so I would get more of variety of the larger creatures, not the bear though he might be fun to watch. I would love to see a fox in my yard. We have them in the area so who knows they may visit at night. I should set up my 'wildlife' camera when I get the ponds up again.

We also had a hawk a couple of weeks ago. I have some older big evergreen shrubs that the sparrows like to nest in. I heard this weird cry and looked up to see a hawk fly into one of the shrubs. There was plenty of noise and rustling but he went away empty handed.

We also have had some bear issues in our area, usually young ones looking for mates and territory. We never had this when I was young, but then we also had more woods around also. Almost every neighborhood had woods where kids could go and play, most with streams and such. All gone now, as the old song goes "pave paradise and put in a parking lot" It looks like lots of us do our parts to help provide but boy do I get nostalgic for those woods and fields and all the little critters that lived in them.