ANOTHER BUS EPISODE

      Ticks were not the only excitement on outdoor ed. trips. I taught outdoor ed. for a few years. We would pack the bus with kids and supplies and head for the Rocky mountains for field trips. We would overnight in youth hostels, rustic youth hostels. These youth hostels were meant for ten to twelve people. We would crowd in 15 or so boys and 2 or 3 adults. The boys had to cook for themselves. Sometimes there were other travelers there as well. We would reserve the hostels. We never had as many girls so the lady's hostel  was never so crowded. I remember 10 or so boys sleeping on the floor. Supervisors didn't get much sleep. 

    Sometimes a little guy would be rolling and bouncing around. If you could see who it was, it was easy to settle him down. Just tell him to go out and pee. 

   Those nights in the youth hostel were magical as we would go out in the moon light in the Rocky's. The bright snow and moonlight gave a beautiful view. 

   We also took summer field trips. The highway up to High Wood pass is closed until sometime in the late spring. From where the highway is closed to the top of the pass is 19 Km. We had the kids ride up the pass on bicycles. All of them made it. The ride down was dangerous as it was hard to persuade them that they would go too fast down the hill.

     Well, every field trip has to come to an end. We had routines that everybody had to follow. One time we had all the kids on the bus and equipment and supplies loaded. We were making one last check to make sure the area was left as it should be. All of a sudden kids were yelling and screaming. Somebody had seen a squirrel get in the bus. Well, that meant everybody had to get off the bus. It also meant that this old guy has to check the bus to make sure the squirrel was not on the bus. I had to check under the seats to see if the critter was hiding. The all clear sign was given and the kids got on the bus gain.

    Now we've talked about this incident a few times. We're not sure  a squirrel actually got on the bus or if someone's imagination got carried away or if the critter left very quickly and the kids didn't see it leave. 

    Field trips were always a great adventure. 

MORE RED SQUIRREL

     Many readers commented about squirrels being agile cute and fast. Many people enjoy watching them as when they run trough the tree branches  as if it was magic. Red squirrels are agile and seem to make those impossible moves look easy.

     Well, I hate to rain on your party. Squirrels may be lightening quick and agile but they do have accidents.

     Scientists studying squirrels find squirrel  bodies that have broken bones. So apparently squirrels fall from heights that cause broken bones. Now I know you've never seen a squirrel fall but I have. I've seen a couple of spectacular crashes.



   These crashes were so great that I told my classes the squirrel story for many years.

    Now I called my story The Retarded Squirrel. Yes I know retarded is not an acceptable term.

   So it goes like this. I have a long fence that has a 2 x 4 for a top. In other words the top of this fence is 4 inches wide. There was a squirrel in the area that would fall off the top of the fence. If it had happened once I wouldn't have made an issue out of it. But I did notice this squirrel fall off the top of the fence quite a few times.

   Now the second incident with my retarded squirrel was more interesting to watch. There were trees on each side of an alley that stuck out over the alley. The squirrel wanted to cross the alley by leaping from one tree to the other. This squirrel took a lot of time to consider the jump. It ran up and down and around the tree to find the best place to leap from one tree to the other tree on the other side. Finally, a choice was made and you could see the squirrel saying one,  two, three jump! Well the squirrel did not make it to the other tree across the alley. The squirrel fell about 3 meters into some soft snow. The squirrel shook itself and looked around as if to say, "What am I doing here?"  Then it picked itself up and waded through the snow to a tree.

     This was a story the kids loved and many years later  I was asked if I still had my squirrel.

   A sad note on my last post. This afternoon I found a squirrel that had been run over on the road. So one less competitor in this world.

ALL YOU DIDN'T NEED TO KNOW ABOUT RED SQUIRRELS

      I have had a red squirrel in my neighbor's big spruce tree for 20 years or more. The cones in this old tree are mature so there's lots of good food. Then there's a silly guy who has a bird feeder right beside the big spruce so it's free food. A squirrel has been busy  storing food since mid August. Today it's still gathering cones.

     Now this week I kept noticing a squirrel in the middle of the street. It's been looking my way and comes up to the side walk and then runs back and hides under a car. I was wondering what my squirrel was doing in the middle of the street. I kept saying get off the street or some car will run over you.

    Then one morning I noticed a squirrel in my yard giving the squirrel in the street a dirty look. Squirrels are territorial and very protective of their area. Some poor little squirrel had obviously been forced out of it's home territory and was looking for another home. Usually all the fighting is done by the beginning of July so I was surprised to see this lost squirrel. 

    Now some of the squirrels in my tree were female and had litters. What happens is that the mother squirrel moves after her litter becomes independent. She leaves her territory to a daughter and finds another area for her next year and litter. It's thought that this occurs to let the daughter stay in the  familiar home territory as she would have a higher possibility of surviving and having her own litter. 

   So the little guy I saw was probably the runt of some litter and was having trouble to find it's own territory. Many of these animals perish and do not survive their first year. They have accidents like getting run over on the street. They get diseases. There's also predation. In the wild pine martins catch squirrels almost exclusively. 

    Now I haven't seen the squirrel that was looking for a home for a few days. It's probably moved to try to find another territory.

    There's the 2017 version of the red squirrel. It's enjoying the food from the silly guy's bird feeder.

I am being very carefully watched.

These two photos were taken through my kitchen window.

SQUIRREL MAGPIE FEUD

     July is an interesting time of year to watch Red squirrels.  As I said in my last post they are setting up territory and there's some competition. Sometimes the competitions are a bit odd.

     I do my stretching so that I can look out my front room window. I have a bird feeder out in the front yard so it gives me a few minutes to watch the bird feeder and anything else that happens.

     So a few days ago an event took place. For some reason a Red squirrel was harassing a magpie. The squirrel would chase the magpie and the magpie would just keep ahead of the squirrel. There seemed to be a half dozen short sprints where the squirrel pursued the magpie. The magpie would hide under  car and as soon as he came out the squirrel would chase.

    Now a few years ago I saw a different squirrel magpie confrontation. This time there were two magpies and they had a Red squirrel cornered. The squirrel was on the tree trunk and one magpie was above and the other one below the squirrel. The squirrel wanted to gain the branches of the tree where it would be safe. The magpies were hoping the squirrel would make just one mistake and they would have lunch. The squirrel shifted from one side of the tree to another. He couldn't get up or down.

    Finally the squirrel took a leap from the tree trunk and set off across the yard and street. The magpies flew above the squirrel, but as long as they were in the air the squirrel was safe. The squirrel ran under a fence and it threw the magpies off their game. They just thought the squirrel somehow disappeared and didn't realize the squirrel was on the other side of the fence.

   So the squirrel magpie competition goes both ways.

Photo by Bill Heinsen

 

SQUIRREL COMPETITION

      Now let me get one thing off my chest . I hate squirrels. In particular I hate Red squirrels. With these two sentences I've just lost some friends or else I'll hear about things.

      Where was I? Red squirrels are nasty little beggars. I've had resident squirrels for around ten years. Mother Red squirrel establishes a territory in July and has a litter the next April. Mother squirrel leaves the territory once the litter has become independent. One of her daughters takes over the territory. In other words , every year I get a new female squirrel.

      So for the year I have my female squirrel she makes life miserable for me. She helps herself to my bird seed. That's the worst. She drops spruce cones all over the place. Some get very territorial and think that they should chase me away from my house. Some chew holes in things on my yard.

      I keep covers in a wooden shed to cover plants when there's danger of frost. One fall I kept seeing bits of blanket spread around. I was too dumb to figure out that the squirrel was entering the shed and taking material to make a nest. To top it off the same squirrel made a nest in the blankets in the shed to have and raise her litter. I accidentally discovered the nest when I went in that part of the shed and a nasty squirrel came out of nowhere and made a fast exit from the shed.

     So last week I observed two red squirrels competing for territory. I noticed two squirrels keeping on opposite sides of a tree and then they would chase around the yard. Back to the tree. Same game. Out in the yard and chase some more. Finally one squirrel made it up the tree and out tho the end of a branch. Dumb move! Second squirrel raced to the end of the branch and there was a lightning speed fight. One squirrel fell out of the branch . (15 ft.) At that point the chase ended.

    So two females were competing for territory.

     Sorry , no photos of this fight.

    Now Red squirrels may be cute and interesting to watch but I still hate them. Does anybody want a free Red Squirrel? Do I have any followers left?



Photo by Angela McLean Cormier

Territorial Squirrels

    This morning I was looking out my front window to check on  feeder. I got more than I bargained for.

    Two squirrels were chasing each other around and around the trunk of a large green ash. They continued this torrid pace for at least two minutes. I was expecting them to quit from exhaustion. I found out that they had a very high level of fitness.

    Now my interest in watching the chase was to see how it ended. Was there going to be  big squirrel dust up? Was one squirrel going to escape? Would it end up in a draw?

    Well it ended in a draw. One squirrel ran into the upper branches and the other squirrel did not pursue. 
   
     Red squirrels are very territorial. Usually they just chatter at one another. You hear the chattering going on and again you wonder when they will be out of breath. 

     So the territorial squirrels can get very physical in claiming their territory.

     I wish these characters would chase each other far away. They are a nuisance at my bird feeders.

    How about you? Have you seen squirrel fights? How do you control squirrels at you bird feeders?
    

     

That Darn Squirrel Again

      A few posts ago I told you about a squirrel that built a nest under my barbecue cover. What was humorous is that the exact same thing happened to my daughter about ten days before my episode. Of course, I gave her a rough time about her squirrel until the same thing happened to me.

     The story of my squirrel starts some time ago. She appeared last June and set up territory in my yard and several other yards. That was the first time we had a resident squirrel in this area. In August she began gathering cones for her winter larder. It was amazing how fast she could clip off spruce cones and toss them off the tree.

     In September she began building a nest somewhere. How do I know? I have covers that I use to cover plants in September to protect them from frost. The covers usually lie around the yard. I noticed that an old mattress cover seemed to be disintegrated faster than usual. Oops. Mrs squirrel was  using some fine fiber to line a nest!

     Today I reached in a wooden shed that I use for storing tools and another garden items.   All of a sudden the covers exploded and there was a thump thump and a squirrel went flying out of the shed. Oops, another nest! Sure enough a fine nest was built in the old mattress cover! So the rascal had found the old mattress cover that she used last September and just used the whole thing for a nest. What a smart critter to find the mattress cover! Now I have no photos because I didn't have the camera. And having a camera wouldn't have made any difference as the event happened so fast That I would not have had time to even reach for  camera.

    So I thought I was pretty smart by getting rid of the nest under the barbecue. I thought she wasn't coming back so I put the cover back on. Little did I know that I was being fooled. That squirrel is twice as smart as I thought she was.

This Time I WILL Quit Laughing AT people

      Sunday night my daughter from Illinois phoned to wish her Mom Happy Mother's Day. Since Mom was out walking I got to talk. 

     One of the things she told me was that a squirrel had built a nest in her barbecue. Now my daughter has a wicked sense of humor, has definite opinions, is spunky and enjoys life. So when ever you can tease her you don't miss the opportunity. So I razzed her about her squirrel that built a nest and had babies in her barbecue. They were sitting in the back yard around a fire one evening when they noticed a squirrel getting very irate with them. The squirrel was quite menacing. Finally the squirrel dived into the barbecue. Then it hit her...babies. When she lifted the barbecue lid the whole thing was full of nesting material. Then they    watched as mother squirrel took each baby to another nest in a nearby tree.


    Today, as I went out my back door the resident squirrel ran down my brick siding and under my barbecue. Was there stuff in the squirrel's mouth?  I didn't realize she had stayed under the barbecue. Just to be sure I banged on the cover with my broom. Nothing happened. I walked past the barbecue and heard a little scuffle and the squirrel was leaving the other way. Ah ha!!! My wife helped me take of the barbecue cover and yes, there it was , a big nest...no babies yet. And yes, there were a couple of holes in my barbecue cover.

     So the laugh is really on me! I can't believe the coincidence of the same thing happening to us when we're 1600 km (1000 miles apart). Maybe I should check with my son who's on the west coast.

     I was so startled by this that I didn't think of my camera until I had things cleaned up.

    I must admit that I don't like red squirrels. They have a nasty temperament and do damage. They get into places that they are not supposed to be. 

I Just Gotta Tell Some One

     I was standing on my side walk today when an old beater of a car swung across the road to me. The old guy looked pretty rough and his car was packed with stuff and he had a huge dog in the front seat. I thought he was maybe going to ask for directions. But no. He asked me if I knew about all the magpies around here. My Middle school teacher brain clicked in and I said, "No!"

    Now our area has a very heavy population of magpies. They are all over the place. They are a nuisance and steal lots of little birds from nests.

    The "no" answer didn't stop him for a second. He just had to tell somebody his story. He had just seen two magpies chasing a jack rabbit. One magpie was chasing from behind and one was at the front. He was so amazed at what he had just seen that he had to stop and tell the first person what he had seen. He picked a good person to tell his story to as I am interested in those things and have posted many times on jack rabbits as our area has many jack rabbits as well as magpies. 

A feisty little guy in my neighbor's back yard

A trick rabbit drinking from the sprinkler also from my neighbor's yard

You have to look very hard but you will see a very young rabbit.

I was two steps away from this one when I took his picture.

    Magpies are well known to be teasers. They will tease dogs . When the dog leaves it's food dish in goes a magpie as magpies like dog food.

   Magpies will tease red squirrels. One magpie will be above the squirrel in the tree and the other one will be below the squirrel. The poor squirrel will try to climb the tree and finds Mr magpie. The squirrel goes down the tree and there's a magpie below. The chase gets pretty exciting until the squirrel jumps from the tree and escapes. 

   So watching the critters sometimes gives us unexpected stories.