Agility and Irony

Wednesday was warm for January 9th:  45± degrees F. 



East Pond and Bridge

So I set off for a walk in the North Park Village Nature Preserve, camera in hand.  It was 3:00pm and they lock the gates at 4:00pm, so I hurried.


West Pond: Frozen Over. 

The ponds were still frozen, so there weren't any water birds.
There were no deer to be seen.  Just the day before I had seen more than a dozen in the park. 

So I walked the long path around the inside of the park, stopping and shooting from time to time, just to capture the feel of the park on a quiet, relatively warm winter's day.

 The west end of the park is as empty as the east end.  One can hear airplanes overhead and cars and trucks on the surrounding city streets, but there are no sounds and no signs of larger animal life inside the park.  Just the day earlier, there had been more than a dozen grazing deer in this area.

 

  



 

The bees are tucked inside their hives.  They are active inside. It's just the girls now.  The drones have been driven out.
They will need to go out for sanitary purposes, and they will get days warm enough for this, even in winter. 

Not yesterday.

Maybe today.



Over by the Nature Center, the squirrels seemed active, more active than previous days.  Then it dawned on me that the staff had refilled the bird-feeders and the squirrels were having what amounts to a feeding frenzy.

These squirrels are well-fed. First there was that great crop of acorns and now there is plentiful birdseed to keep them plump and, presumably, happy.

There has been no sign of hawks for over a week. For plump squirrels, this is a good thing.  Now, it is the squirrels who are helping one another to feast on the birdseed that the staff has loaded into the bird-feeders around the Nature Center.

Here is the guy who was knocking the birdseed out of the feeder for the squirrels on the ground. You can see the string that holds the feeder on the right.

  

 



 












Two days ago when I walked by, there was no sign of squirrels.  Then I noticed that there was no birdseed in the bird-feeders.  Today is different and the squirrels are taking advantage of their sudden wealth.




Squirrels are amazingly agile.  They will somehow leap from one pencil-thin branch to another pencil-thin branch in clear violation of the laws of physics, in order to get at a single acorn. 
So, we should not be surprised at the way they get at the bird-feeders.  They hang on with their hind claws and reach....out across space to bring in their own harvest.

What surprises me is the way they seem to cooperate.  Take another look at the first photos of the squirrels in this blog.  They are eating birdseed on the ground that another squirrel has knocked out of a bird-feeder.  Is this a conscious effort or, perhaps, an unintended consequence of satisfying their own needs? 

Finally, on a note of irony, take a look at this last photo:

Why is this plastic bag so happy?