Amy the Library Duck returned to her window this year, but fortunately she didn’t nest there. (We had a hard time with her last year, finally having to remove her ducklings after they hatched and jumped and to take them to rehab after mom didn’t know how to get to the nearest water since Botany Pond was dry. The water is a long way away, across several busy roads, and we tried to show her the way.)
But there’s better news this year: a squirrel, presumably a female, has built a nest on the same ledge where Amy nested. And in this case we don’t have to do anything, for baby squirrels don’t have to walk 1.5 miles to get to water. The ledge is isolated and well protected, and the squirrel has been adding leaves, dried and fresh, to the nest.
The squirrel has been named Snoozy, as she sleeps through the heat of the day. If you bookmark this webcam, look in once in a while as I’m pretty sure you’re shortly going to see baby squirrels: a vantage that few people get. And baby squirrels are adorable!
Click here or on the screenshot below. When you watch, be sure to press the “forward” arrow at the bottom left to see the live action (or lack of action). You can scroll back to see the squirrel’s activity over the past day. Stuff right now: move the dot all the way to the right.
Snoozy is there right now, and may be there all day. Have a look! (She was gone most of the morning, and you can’t see anything at night.) I took this picture about three minutes ago.
UPDATE: If the camera doesn’t work, nere are the squirrel friend’s instructions:
I just checked it a minute ago and it was fine. Snoozy is there snoozing away. The operator has it running on the Panopto service that I think is used for class stuff. I noticed it sometimes says “the webcast has ended” and then you have to push play again. Also on my browser it blocks autoplay so you have to push the play button to start it.
It’s what the world needs now!
Come to think of it, I oughta check on Tower Girl…
… cam down for fundraising.
Speaking of which, how’s the renovation of the Botany Pond coming?
They say they’re filling it with water in July and then adding the microbes, snails, etc. They will then landscape it. We should, if that is the case, have ducks stopping by in the late summer/fall, and ducks breeding next Spring.
But the article in the Maroon with an interview with an emeritus biologist project advisor said that the rebuilding of the ecosystem and accounting for public safety now that they realize the water is nine feet deep will take several months. Sounds like the interviews with Boeing regarding the Starliner spacecraft. Just in a bad place today, but I hope you are right.
The link isn’t working for me! It’s a UC web page but black, asking me to sign in if I want to comment. Darn!
Bummer. Ill check
I was watching her for awhile and then it went black on me, too. Can’t get it back as of 2pm Chicago time
If you want to see a bit more action, Snoozy woke up and headed out at webcam clock 1:50. She arrived and headed to sleep at about 20:42. It is currently 13:15 CDT. I don’t know how the webcam clock adjusts relative to real time.
Thanks to you and team duck for your continuing heroic efforts with Amy. Too bad that empty suit of a useless university president can’t even get a pretty straight-forward and bounded engineering project to restore the pond accomplished. Maybe he needs a dean of ducks staffer to take on the responsibility. It was really an idyllic retreat for all on your urban campus. From an engineering perspective, I can think of no reasonable excuse for total demolition without timely reconstruction and restoration. None!
Thank you Jerry. There are no squirrels here in NZ, so I shall watch with interest as I have never seen a baby squirrel (kit?)?
Kits or kittens.
If it ain’t working, here are some instructions I got from a Friend of Snoozy: