When I got up this morning and put the seeds out, filled up the flat feeder and washed down the deck, I also put out some water for the birds and squirrels to drink. Even though it has rained a lot this summer, it is so hot this week I’m sure they need the water. I hope it’s at least a bit cooler in the woods where the shade is deep.

This little girl squirrel was sitting in the flat feeder when I came out this morning to refresh their food supply. She scurried away with a quick leap into the aspen on the north end of the deck. It was a bit of a hurry up because she waited until I was on the deck with both hands full of seeds before she decided maybe she ought to move.

After I put the food out, she was back in two blinks of the eye. And she was still there hours later when another squirrel who looks exactly like she does (I bet they were littermates), except he’s bigger, came out to get a bite. She did her best to chase him away. In the end, she had to bow out. It really was someone else’s turn.

She’s rounding up, finally. I think she is also very pregnant, so it’s hard to tell what’s plump and what are babies. She is incredibly cute and the reddest of all our red squirrels.

Some of these squirrels have never eaten anywhere but on our deck. I have to assume if they were forced to find their own food, they would know how, but I have to wonder. This is where their mama brings them as soon as they are ready to leave the nest. This IS their home.

Categories: #animals, #Photography, #Squirrel, Anecdote, Blackstone Valley, Nature, Wildlife

Tags: #Photography, Marilyn Armstrong, red squirrel, Squirrels, summertime, Wildlife