The Thing About Squirrels

There is something very important I have to explain to you. A little over a week ago I wrote a post titled "Furious Squirrel". In that story I wrote about how a very angry squirrel came very close to attacking me. Many of you found it hard to believe that a normal squirrel would do something like that. Some thought the behavior deviated from anything normal, and maybe there was something wrong with it.

I have to tell you now that it was perfectly normal behavior by a squirrel, and this squirrel was a very normal little forest creature. He had no diseases or dementia. He was just a squirrel. I know that many of you think of squirrels as fuzzy little bushy tailed animal friends that like to come up and beg for breadcrumbs and nuts. And you are actually somewhat correct if that's what you think, but that is actually the same thing that makes them seem so mean at other times.

I want to let you know right now that squirrels are some of my very favorite little creatures. You can find a very large population of them all around where I live. They are fun to watch. They do some seemingly very comical things. I have spent a lot of time laughing at their cute little antics. But there's a reason that the word squirrely also means crazy. The word nuts also means crazy, probably because nuts are associated with squirrels.

One of the things you have to remember is that squirrels, despite being so darn cute, are still wild animals. They also share a large part of their habitat with us humans. They see us every day, so they aren't as afraid of us as some other creatures might be. That's why neighborhood squirrels are so willing to come right up to us and sometimes beg for food.

It's also the very same reason why a forest squirrel would be brave enough to threaten to attack a big human, such as myself. A forest squirrel is much more likely to be angry with us because while they still see us very often, we are invading a space that they don't share with us as often as our neighborhoods. The forest is their home, not ours. They see us as trespassers. There are also other forest creatures that behave in this same sort of way.

I have told you many stories over the past year of my encounters with squirrels, so if you look through my archives you'll see many different types of behavior from them. Some do get very angry. Some come running curiously to see what I'm doing. And others are very friendly and don't mind me at all. I've also had very similar experiences with deer, some threatening to attack me because I was in a place they claimed as their own.

I just recently showed you an incident where a tribe of squirrels worked together to fight off a hawk that wanted to eat them. This demonstrates a level of intelligence that even I didn't expect. So while we think of squirrels as maybe crazy, or just dumb animals, they are very intelligent and they have reasons for the things they do. I don't always know those reasons.

The one thing I do know is that they have emotions. They feel happy and sad, or even angry. They are just creatures trying to live, just as we are trying to live. While it's a fun thing for us all to watch these funny little creatures, it's also wise to give them their space. They are wild animals. Any wild animal can be unpredictable. Any might attack you for reasons you don't understand.

So show the animals some respect while you try to move in for a photo. I sometimes get very close, but I know when to stop or when to back off, even if I don't always explain that clearly. You can get close, but just watch them for danger signs. I hope that explains just a little bit about our bushy tailed little friends. What do you think?

The Fall Of The Rat

As I walk along my forest path I look around and I see something very disturbing. But not only can I see it, I can feel it as well. Summer has abandoned me and fall is here. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but I have been telling everyone that summer had gone by too fast. At first I thought I just didn't want what might have been my favorite outside summer to go away, but I decided to investigate and I found something very wrong.

I have been writing this blog for over a year now, and this is the first year I've spent most of my time outside. I watched as winter turned to spring, and I watched as spring turned to summer. Now I'm watching summer turn to fall, but what could be wrong with that? That's the way it's supposed to happen, isn't it? Not quite! Let me explain.

As I said before, I decided to investigate. I keep an archive of every photo I have taken since I started this blog right here on my computer. It's a huge archive, but I keep it well organized. What I did was to look back to a year ago to see just what things were like back then. This is where I found a huge discrepancy. Last year the leaves were still on the trees. The trees were still very green. This year things are different.

Right now the trees are turning very quickly and the leaves are beginning to fall at an alarming rate. We are almost a full month ahead of where we were last year. Mother Nature is pulling a cruel prank on us here, and it's not fair! No, it's not fair at all! I think we deserve an apology! I want it right now or I'm going to throw a tantrum of titanic proportions! Oh. I guess maybe that's what I'm doing right now.

There were so many places I wanted to go. So many things I wanted to see! I haven't even gotten the chance to go to all of my precious nature parks this summer. I went to exactly one state park this year. There is another one I visited last year, and I'm going to miss it completely now. And what about the national parks? I have never visited a national park in my entire life!

Just recently my friend DNLee over at Urban Science Adventures wrote an excellent post about the national parks. You can find that right here: National Parks - America's Best Idea. She listed all of the parks that she has visited, and then she asked me and a few others to join in and write a similar post listing our national park visits. That's when I realized that I had never been to a national park. Astonishing! Take a look at her post, she even has a link to a map of all of our national parks so you can check yours too.

I wanted so much to tell her, and all of you, about my trip to Jellystone where I met Yogi Bear and stole his precious pic-a-nic basket. But alas, that trip never happened. It would have been a complete lie! Ahhh, who knows? Maybe I'll tell you all that story one day anyway. It's a pretty good one! There was this huge fight between us and...

I better stop right there. Since I never got to visit a national park yet, I have a question to ask all of you. Have you visited a national park? And which one? How many have you been to? Can you tell me a little about your trip? It can be any national park in any country. I'm asking you this so I can understand in a small way what it would be like to visit one of these places. Can you help me? Maybe it will help make this early fall feel slightly better.

(Warning! Sometimes a rat seems more upset than he really is when looking through a computer monitor.)