When I walk home in the afternoon these days, I always have a bag of walnuts or unsalted peanuts with me. There are an unpredictable number of squirrels on my route home, and now that the Quad is open (it has been fenced off all summer for paving of the walks), squirrels are starting to appear in single-digit numbers, and they look SKINNY.
Also, after a tough day, there is nothing to cheer one up more than giving a nut to a hungry squirrel.
At any rate, I fed a couple on my way across the quad today (1 nut each), but then encountered a hungry little fellow (or girl) near the Presidential House. I gave it a peanut, and it grabbed it up immediately. But instead of eating the nut, the rodent sat there on its haunches about ten feet away from me with the nut in its mouth, staring at me. It was as if he wanted another nut.
I was a bit reluctant to proffer another peanut because, unlike chipmunks, squirrels lack cheek pouches, and where would he put it? But I tossed him another nut. He grabbed that one up, too, and then he had two peanuts sticking out of his mouth. I thought he’d eat one of them, but how could he? If he tried, he’d drop one of the nuts.
Eventually Mr. (or Ms.) Squirrel ran up a tree and sat on a low branch, still staring at me. Both nuts were hanging out of his mouth like fangs. I don’t know what happened in the end, but as I left, he was still sitting on the branch and staring at me with two nuts in his mouth:
Halloween is coming. Maybe the squirrel was practicing for a vampire costume?
Quite cute in any case.
Great pic!
That’s very funny!
That post and, especially the picture, was a welcome relief after a very trying day. Thanks!
I recommend feeding squirrels after a trying day. You cannot be gloomy when you see how happy it makes the squirrel!
😄
Perhaps saving the nuts for a Dracula Halloween costume…
My favorite mis-heard Grateful Dead lyric: Wake up to find out that you are disguised as a squirrel.
Good one!
The mature walnut tree next to my house has cropped heavily each of the 25 years we have lived here, and this year, just as in previous years, the squirrels have steadily stripped every single nut and moved them to a burial place of their choice. When I buy walnuts *I* eat them!
It is relaxing lying in a hot bath listening to the scampering of tiny feet across the roof though, and their antics in keeping the burials secret from rival squirrels is fun to watch.
Maybe the squirrel in the picture is taking those two peanuts to some secret stash somewhere. Winter is coming!
I can see that because there must be an over-abundance of food when kind people hand out free food. “Our” squirrels, two mainly, but there is at least one interloper that triggers the faux stashing behaviour, generally strip the green husk on the tree and drop them on my wife’s car before heading across the roof with the actual nut. They used to jump from the roof of our extension onto a twisted willow but I had that trimmed after one of them fell from height when the thin branch broke – I am assuming that the mutation that causes the twist also weakens the wood because that tree sheds branches if you just look at it in a funny way, thankfully not the big ones because it is over 20 feet tall. The fallen squirrel looked dead but revived when I wnt to check and it did go and find the nut it was carrying. Since the trimming they generally run down the roof slope and jump onto the kitchen window sill where they generally pause for a look in the kitchen before heading down the garden, sometimes into our paddock, in order to find a good spot for burial. I do not know how effective the faux stashing is; if they were card sharps everyone would spot the palmed card, and the fake burial followed by a bait and switch to carry off the nut makes me laugh every time I see it.
I needed this in the current news cycle. Thank you.
A third nut would probably kill him!
Our squirrels are fairly inconspicuous most of the year, but now that fall is coming they seem to be more noticeable. I suppose that they are starting to gather and store nuts for the winter. I’ll have to read about that. Is it really a thing that they become more active in fall?
I’m not sure if our most common squirrels are our native Western Gray Squirrels or the introduced Eastern Gray Squirrels. (More to read, but probably Eastern Gray Squirrels, as Western Grays are now classified as endangered.) Our most interesting squirrels out here are our native Douglas Squirrels. They’re small, noisy, and bold. They were our most common squirrels when we lived on forested Orcas Island, but I’ve only seen them a couple of times after moving back to the suburban mainland.
How do ‘ya like ‘dese nuts?
Charming. I sit in a café almost every morning and feed a bird that flies in a crumb from my scone (Pronounced scon, as in ‘gone’ where I’m living.). I think the bird recognizes me, and I’m happy with the thought. The act reminds me of early days when my grandfather took me to the pond at the San Francisco Shriners’ Children’s hospital to feed the ducks. Looking after animals is looking after ourselves. It’s all good.
Ah, such joy! I used to gather acorns this time of year while walking my dog through the neighborhood which I would later feed to the squirrels in our yard. That memory makes my heart swell. That dog (Nigel) has since passed and I lost that great house. There are no trees where I live now, either. Sh*t! Anyway, great photo. Thanks!
… eyeballing the human just in case another peanut comes up for grabs. Great stuff!
When I offer peanuts in the shell to the crows or the blue jays, I am stunned by how many they can take in one go. One goes in the crop, and in the case of the older, bigger crows, two or three in the beak. Blue jays fit one in the crop and one in the beak.
After a couple of years of doing this the birds tolerate me standing six feet away from the peanuts. I’m sure that if I stood still with peanuts in an extended hand they would, eventually, come to my hand (I’ve found chickadees and chipmunks easy to train to do this). But there are so many mosquitoes out there and my reaction to them—brand new immune system—so strong that I dare not stand there long.
I have read that peanuts are not the best thing to feed squirrels, as they are nutritionally poor compared to nuts, being a legume and containing a trypsin inhibitor and interfering with protein absorption (however, roasting peanuts will destroy the inhibitor).
Maybe the squirrel already had some experience with too many peanuts and was looking to see if you’d offer a walnut instead? This is the time of year too where they are so focused on getting as much fat and protein and stashable items as possible.
Or maybe he was just waiting and holding out for a third peanut before you walked away!
The only reason I give them peanuts is that my store is temporarily out of walnuts. The ones I give them are roasted and unsalted, and in the shell, and the reading I’ve just done says that it’s okay to give squirrels this kind of nuts so long as it’s a limited part of their diet, which it is!
I’m doing the best I can; walnuts are my usual item but I can’t get them in Hyde Park right now.
If they’re roasted and unsalted, do you still object to me giving them peanuts rather than not giving them anything?