The Eastern Fox Squirrel

It looks like Squirrel Girl has moved in and brought her friends. Mr. N saw several squirrels partaking of the bounty of my suet feeder yesterday. She was out there while I was passing the time before I had to take Homer to a class this morning.

She was very curious about me. The other squirrel with her was curious, but not that curious, so I stood therer for a moment while she cautiously scampered closer and closer to me. “Cautiously scampered” does sound oxymoronic, but I don’t know how else to describe it, not being up on my squirrel lingo. Suffice it to say that she slowly but steadily came as close to me as I was willing to allow before she high tailed it up the basswood.

I was afraid she was going to run away, so I slowly stepped over to the tree. She didn’t run, but she did keep flicking her tail and chattering at me. Eventually, I got all of the pictures I wanted, talked to Daisy for a sec, and went back into the house.

When I went back outside on the way to take Homer to his class, Squirrel Girl was raiding the feeder. I have yet to see how they are getting up there, but I suspect they are jumping from a basswood branch. I had trimmed them back, but they apparently have a longer range than I thought.

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A “God” Thing

Homer and I went to a park and visited the ducks and geese this afternoon. That’s always fun. Until you get this feeling that you should run to the van and lock the doors when you see someone coming, and you turn out to be right to listen to that feeling.

The thing about it is, I was ready to go anyway, but we were lingering just in case a good shot presented itself. (I’m always attempting - in vain - to catch clear shots of birds in flight, and those blasted ducks always seem to take off or land as I’m leaving.) I saw the guy walking along the road when he was about a block away, but I wasn’t worried. Once in a while, when we’re just goofing around, one of us will say, “Look out! Somebody’s coming!” So, when I first saw him, I said, in a somewhat hushed tone, “Homer, let’s get out of here! Somebody’s coming!” I immediately felt bad for judging the guy for no good reason.

We turned around and headed back to the van, but I wasn’t in a big hurry. We got to the van and hopped in, still not in a real big hurry. As I shut my door, I saw the guy out of the corner of my eye, walking up to the driver’s side door. I was startled and put the van in reverse, thereby locking all the doors and preparing for a hasty getaway.

The guy motioned for me to put my window down.

In the space about 1/1000 of a second - I know how long that is because it’s a setting on my camera, I thought, Thank You GOD for looking out for us! Thank God I didn’t dismiss the idea of going back to the van as my own intraverted personality related paranoia; What’s this guy going to do? Should I scream? Is he reaching for the door? Is he going to try to stick his hand in the window? Should I scream? Make sure when you open the window a crack to hear him that it doesn’t do that auto-open-all-the-way-thing; Should I scream? Thank God Homer* is with me! lock the doors; get this thing in gear!

I put the window down just far enough to hear, but so that he couldn’t fit his hand through. As he got closer, it looked like his eyes were bruised. His lids were blue, whatever the case. He said, “Do you have a smoke?”* I said, “No.” He said, “Okay” and walked off.

Isaiah 30:21
Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”

Thank You, God, for looking out for us!!!

* Rereading this again, it sounds lame, but seriously.  Judging from the bag in his hand, fresh from the store, the guy had just bought something.  Why does he need to bum a cigarette off me?  Where I live, scraggly looking men with eye shadow, or very symmetrical bruising, don’t just walk up to strange women in somewhat isolated places and ask for a cigarette without some other intention.  Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure  he was after my camera.

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Birdies

Prior to that heart stopping instant, we were having an enjoyable time socializing with the ducks and a Canada goose.

Except for a few geese and the lone swan, the birds were all resting when we got there. It was pretty breezy so feathers were ruffling.

I haven’t seen many Canada geese up close and personal lately, so one of my goals was to lure one as close to me as possible. Am I the only one who thinks that birds are almost as fascinating to watch as water in motion? I mean, dogs rule, but birds are pretty amazing. Not all birds are necessarily interesting at the same time, but it seems like there’s always one that stands apart from the rest. This guy was perturbed at my boldness, but he was willing to take my bread anyway.

Homer was standing right behind me and I’m hoping he got some good shots of this one. His images are almost always better composed than mine pre-editing. It’s the art class paying off.