The Max Gate

Tuesday, April 08, 2014

Mother Squirrel

I was visiting my sister yesterday. In the late afternoon, the sun had warmed things up enough for the family to sit on the back porch, the first time we had done that this year. We immediately noticed a squirrel who seemed agitated by our arrival. It leaped on a crepe myrtle tree next to the porch and then on to the porch roof and then back to the crepe myrtle, it's behavior very bold and erratic. My nieces were a bit frightened by its actions thinking it might be rabid.

The squirrel kept coming back to a spot on the porch roof. Then my nephew saw the squirrel with a baby in its mouth scurrying down the crepe myrtle and then across the street.
We realized at that point that the mother squirrel must be transporting her young to another nest because she didn't think the present nest safe enough with us around, and sure enough, she came back, jumped to the roof again and brought another young one down in her mouth and carried it across the street to a blue spruce tree.

Fascinating to see that squirrel work. She recognized the problem and worked diligently and efficiently to solve it. Problem solved in less than twenty minutes.