Just Trying To Get A Nut

In the past few days I've been somewhat seriously explaining the nature of some of the animals I meet along the way, but right now it's time to go back into Everyday Adventurer story mode. This story is about a friendly little fox squirrel I met while I was headed down to the lake.

This little squirrel was happily wandering around on the trail when I walked over. I kept my distance so he wouldn't run away, but he didn't really seem to mind my presence anyway. I didn't know what exactly he was doing, and I didn't want to interrupt him. He seemed to be sniffing all around the trail as if he was searching for something. Can you guess what it was?

He stopped a few times, examining things on the ground. But then he would quickly move on to his next little stop. He would only move along a short distance at a time before he checked out another little prize. Inch by inch, step by step, this little fox squirrel would creep along examining the ground for whatever it was he seemed to be searching for.

Then he stopped and looked up at me as if he wanted to let me know he knew I was there. Of course I didn't make a move at all! Even my finger that was holding down the shoot button on my camera was frozen so that the camera would continuously keep taking pictures. Let me tell you, I got plenty of shots of this little guy!

After deciding I was okay where I was, the squirrel went back to his jittery little search of the area. This time when he stopped to sniff at something, he seemed to take a little more time than he had every other time before. I knew it! He found something!

He quickly seemed to grasp something with his mouth, and began to seem to be chewing on his new little find. His little head was making very small little jerking motions as he gnawed away at his prize. Then as quick as a flash, his busy little hands reached out to where his face was, and he grabbed onto his little nugget.

 

Then finally he stood up to show off just what he had found. I'm sure you have already guessed what it was. No, that's completely ridiculous! Why would you think he had a toad in his mouth? It was a nut that he had! An acorn to be more specific. Acorns are one of the favorite foods of squirrels.

I always wondered if acorns were edible by humans. I never saw them in a store or market. Peanuts, walnuts, and cashews are everywhere, but no acorns. I decided to find out for myself, and I discovered that they are in fact edible, but it takes a little bit of work to do it. People do eat them, but I guess they must not taste as good to us as peanuts.

One of these days I'll have to do a whole post about acorns. My friend the squirrel seems to like them just fine. He likes them so much that he's willing to stand right there in front of me and eat one. He was mostly unconcerned with me, because he was just trying to get a nut.

The Geese Are Moving

One of the noticeable things around here at this time of the year is the geese. In the fall and the spring geese come around in hordes. Actually, the technical term isn't horde. For geese it's gaggle, but I don't care, this is a horde.

It seems that everywhere I go I am seeing gaggles(hordes) of geese resting in their favorite places. What are these places? The places I find them aren't lakes or ponds. Well, I guess it's not really a big secret or anything, and since it's you who I'm talking to, I guess I can tell you. The place I constantly find these geese are on any large patch of grass.

If you have a large yard with no fences or any wide open area that is full of grass, and you live in an area like mine, you'll see geese laying around. The grass has to be short. If it's even half as tall as the geese they won't like it. They especially love freshly mown grass. Mowing kicks up all kinds of stuff that they like to eat.

The geese also can get kind of loud this time of year. You'll hear their honking calls from very far away. They also get quite rowdy. You'll see them running around in their large crowds, playing and fighting for the oddest seeming reasons. I've seen anwhere from one to several hundred geese gathered in an open area like the one in the pictures.

This is also the time to be careful around the geese. They won't really do like a squirrel would, and run towards you to protect their territory. They're only visiting, so they are only there to rest. But if you get too close to a goose you might be sorry.

A goose is much bigger than a squirrel. They can seriously injure you if you seem like a threat. Most of the time they'll just ignore you or move away, but not if you get a particularly mean one that doesn't want to move away from you. You can still get close to the edge of their group as long as you don't bother them too much.

This is what happened when I got only a little too close to a few of them. Maybe they were leaving anyway, but any others just moved away when they saw me standing there. There were about fifty geese out there when I was taking these pictures.

The pictures could have been better if I wasn't still experimenting with my new camera add-ons. One of these times I'll find the right balance to use the camera and the add-ons correctly. I hope I will. For now the pictures are inferior to what I was getting before, except they're a lot closer to the animals.

It's been raining here for several days and there's no end in sight yet. I hope to show you a few interesting things I've seen before the weather changed. Maybe now in the next several days is my chance. This will all work out one way or another. I'll be right back here tomorrow, and today I'll be trying to catch up on reading your blogs. You all have a lot of blogs that I like so much. See you soon!