The Red Squirrel And The Nut

Okay, I finally am bringing you the promised pictures of the red squirrel I've mentioned a few times for the past several days. I hope they are all that I promised... Wait, I didn't exactly promise anything, but they're pretty good anyway. One thing I did promise was a strange twist. It will be coming at the end. Some of you will like it, some of you won't, and others won't care at all.

Anyway, on to the story of this squirrel! I was standing next to a river getting ready to take a few pictures of the surrounding scenery when I heard a familiar, but very loud, noise.I looked over in the direction of the noise to see only the very second red squirrel I've ever seen. I knew they weren't rare by any means, but to me it was a great prize.

As you can see in the first picture, he was looking hungrily at the nut he was holding in his hands. He was actually not holding still at all. What he was really doing was hungrily devouring that nut as fast as he could. Crunch, crunch, crunch!!!

This little guy has a much bigger mouth than you might think. He's really got a pretty good mouthful of that nut. Another of his features is also bigger than expected. Look at his nose! He has what looks like a really huge nose! When I looked at these pictures for the first time, I kept thinking of proboscis monkeys. You know, the kind with the big noses.

I think it's pretty clear by now that I forgot all about the river, no matter how interesting it was. The red squirrel had all my attention, but all of its attention was directed right at the nut in its mouth. It didn't care at all that I was there! Most squirrels I've ever met have been shy, especially the other red squirrel. The one thing that overrides that shyness is their curiosity. This one showed neither.

But then I must have made a little too much noise or something. I wasn't actually alone this time, and somebody with me couldn't stop talking even with this red squirrel only a few feet away. The little red squirrel finally decided it had had enough of us, so it took its nut and went home.

And finally we come to the strange twist I promised at the beginning of the post. It's nothing the squirrel did, but it's something that I'm doing right now. You see, these pictures aren't the only thing I got from this squirrel. I also got a video of it munching away on that nut at the speed of light. It's fun to see and hear this squirrel in action, as well as hearing all the rest of the little creatures that were out there.

Oh, you don't see the video? That's because I've played a bit of a dirty trick on you. I liked the video so much that I decided to make it the Cool Nature Video on Nature Center Magazine this week. So go and watch the video. I promise that it's a really fun one. Go see it: Red Squirrel Video