A storm pushed through earlier today with strong winds and driving rain, and the deck is still wet. Some of our generous crop of acorns (see yesterday’s blog) is currently soaking in puddles of rainwater.
A couple of squirrels are busy in the aftermath of the storm, and I’m watching them through the picture window. One in particular continues to return to the deck and search for acorns worthy of burying for the winter. He goes from acorn to acorn, sniffing and looking them over, until he finds one he likes. (It seems the very wet ones are not preferred.) Then he grabs a “select nut” with jaws wide open and runs off to find a good spot to plant it underground.
His chosen burial spots are well within easily watch for me. First he digs-digs-digs furiously with his forepaws, his back arched with the effort – then drops the acorn in the hole and tamps-tamps-tamps with equal effort to make sure it is well covered. I would call this industriousness at its best.
Within seconds he runs back for another acorn as if there’s no time to waste. Hurryhurryhurry! Only occasionally does he sit and enjoy eating an acorn snack on-the-job.
Our yard is quickly becoming an acorn graveyard. I’m totally baffled by the squirrels’ ability to find them months later – a dilemma not unlike the one posed by the proverbial needle in the haystack.
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