Reader Rick Longworth sent us a largesse of not one, not two, but three wildlife videos he made. Turn up the sound, as there’s music or bird sounds, too. Rick’s captions are indented:
Fox squirrel (Sciurus niger) acrobatics. This fussy female is checking out the left over apples and crab apples from last season. She is very shy of my camera, so I had to shoot through window glass.
A pair of wood ducks (Aix sponsa) have been checking out my new duck box. The entrance hole is on the far side, and the female is trying to see if it suits her taste. The drake stands guard and fends off a competing female. I hope they stick around and raise a brood.
A time-lapse of the full moon setting over the Snake River at the end of March. Sound is in real time.
Really lovely videos. Thank you.
I loved the music in the top too, they fit beautifully.
These videos are all a nice way for me to start the day.
Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed them. Free music is tough to find.
Wonderful videos and perfect music selections.
A few years ago I picked all the crab apples and piled them on the ground. I was concerned the squirrels would go out on a branch as you showed, and break off. They did not appreciate my labor. My crabapple tree is now gone and so are most of the fox squirrels. Now I have young black squirrels, middle aged gray squirrels and those quick red squirrels.
You can’t fool Mother Nature. 😎
Particularly love the sqrl. Are you serenading it live?
We have crabapple trees all up and down our street which the “town” (now close to 200,000 but still called a town) planted near the sidewalks. Ours died almost immediately so was replaced with something with tiny berries which the birds eat snd poop out, bluish. The rest of the neighbors mutter about sweeping up the crabapples which drop and get stepped on by passersby. They do have lovely flowers.
In December the crabapples feed the birds that spend the winter here. This photo is from yesterday just before sunset.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/92797706@N00/49802140211/in/dateposted/
Gorgeous!
The squirrel video showed some rather wasteful eating by the squirrel. He ate half of the apple and then dropped it. At times he just knocked one off the branch. Is he discarding the inedible parts or is he just that sloppy.
My squirrels that eat the corn cobs I set out for them sometimes seem to be a little sloppy in their eating too though.
I think squirrels should be considered gleaners. They take bits from here, there, and everywhere. In the end they probably get a balanced diet, and if some source dries up, they have a dozen more to work with.