The feel good thread

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

[Skybird]

[Jimbuna]

[Skybird]

They are not, and never were, just a "pest".

[Skybird]

Of snobs and blue collar workers.

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

[Skybird]

For a week now I've been getting daily morning visits from a female squirrel that has found its way to my 2nd floor (3rd floor in America) loggia/balcony. She was born spring last year, and I gave her the name Kleiner Geist: Little Ghost. She has her drey under the roof two houses north of me, and considering the immense amount of kapok wool she's been collecting in the last few days, I imagine she's getting ready to have offspring.


Who knows, in 3 months she might show off her whole family to me. I would be delighted!



Anyway, at the end of last week I prepared a corner of my loggia in an alarm-starting manner to give her plenty of reasons to keep coming back. Cunning is the Aquarius! His tricks do work.






Still many squirrels in the garden, although the reign of the three brothers Kira, Taro and Sari, born in spring 2020, seems to have come to an end. With these three my love journey into squirrels started, and they are and always will be special to me. Sari is assumed dead, and Taro and Kira do not show up often anymore, I miss them, they were so familiar in behaviour and appearance, and so big and strong, and somewhat aristocratic in behaviour, sovereign, present. Kira ruled his kingdom for quite some time. They all three had their fifth birthday this February, so are in their sixth year if they still live, which is very much for wild-living red squirrels. 75% of new-born squqirrles in Germany do not make it to their first winter, not to mention: over the winter, not even one in ten lives until third birthday, not even one in a hundred makes it to fifth birthday. Kept in good care, they could reach 10-11, very rarely up to 12 years.



Beside the three brothers (the "Nutketeers") there are two more residential squirrels since Easter 2023, I call them Stummelchen (it has a very calm and friendly and pacifistic temper and I did not expect it to survive its first year) and "Katze" which was the first confirmed female squirrel I noticed in the garden. Stummelchenm, for some strange reaosns, was NEVEr attacked by any of th eother squirrels,. never chased away, all other suairrels, when they arrived and saw him, imemdiately halted, and then silently, carefull retreated, and that is not becasue he is so strong ajd fearsome, he is exacly the opposite. Its possible that Taro or Kira are his father. Since last year, there also is Kleiner Geist-Little Ghist. Two winters ago, for the core time of the cold over 6-7 weeks, we had many temporary foreign guests who visited from much farther away, I had never seen them before, and not again after this time. I assume they did not find food in their home territories and had to risk these longer trips despite the danger and energy consumption. In these weeks, I served nuts and ice-free water to 11-12 squirrels out there!



In this small regional space, the squirrels are well off, the population seems to do well. I am proud that to a certain degree this is probably also due to my investment. I spend around 700 Euros per year in nuts. Rarely were there closer contacts between me and either Kira or Taro, on a very few occasions they watched me filling the nut buffet in the garden from less than a meter away, on even rarer occasion they took a nut from my hand. I never pressed them to close the gap between them and me if they did not wish to all by themselves. I always allowed them to define terms and conditions of any interaction. The ylearned to not flee in panic when I arrived but won some space to me, but doing so calmly and relaxed.



I just love squirrels!

[Jimbuna]

[Skybird]

On a sidenote: excellent sound, most excellent.
She had sound recordings of her squirrels being used in the movie Dune.