Snowed In Again!

Wow, twice in one season.  It must be a special present just for me that Springfield should get a real snow storm again.  Either that or global climate change.I could have gone out to make some snow pictures as proof that we can, on rare occasions have something that resembles a real winter, but I’ve got something better.

Ann and I have been talking a lot about how she can set up our house and yard to take some good bird photographs in the Spring and Summer when I’m, hopefully, gone.  We’ve discussed a range of ideas.

Well, a few days ago, Ann came across a whole bag of Costco almonds that she’d forgotten about.  They were stale.  But instead of throwing them away, she put a few on the porch.  Immediately a squirrel came by to grab some.  So did the Stellar’s Jays, which weren’t quite as friendly.  Over the next few days I figured out how to set almonds out for the squirrel where the birds wouldn’t swoop in and gobble them all up - put them in the planters.  We figure that since we don’t have huge dogs to bark up the house whenever we say “squirrel” we should at least get some entertainment from our now very friendly buddy.

Yesterday’s and today’s snow made the planter trick unnecessary.  Birds don’t like snow, so we could just set the almonds on the deck.  The first few almonds our buddy just ate.  Grab one and either hop up onto the hand rail or onto the tree and eat it, come back for another.  Once he was full, he’d grab one then jump off the deck to the tree, hop onto the fence, run along it for a bit, then climb down onto the other side of the yard where we can’t see him to either hide it in his hole or in the ground.  Then he’d come back, following the same pattern.  At one point I said, “He’s probably going to get tired of that trip and start burying them in the snow.”

A couple of hours later I’m back in my office working and I hear Ann busting out in laughter.  “Dan, you gotta come see this - you were right.”  I ran out there and sure enough, he’s burying a new set of almonds in the snow on the deck.  I ran back to get my camera and shot this for you to enjoy.

I really appreciate how careful he is about covering up his tracks!