Tree rats!

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In past years we have had visits from one squirrel on odd occasions, usually when the hazel nuts are fit on the various trees we have.
This year we have two who are about every day, so are either living here somewhere or very close by.
At the back of the pond is the tall stump of a Poplar tree that we had cut down, which has two squirrel garden ornaments attached to it.
Some fuzzy photos through the kitchen window – spot the real from the fake!

There are two real ones on this photo, one down the bottom just coming round from the back.

Pretty photos of one sitting beside the fake one, just a shame it isn’t a red squirrel!

As you will have noted these were taken a while ago as the daffodils are still in flower. Amazing how fast they come and go, the daffodils that is.
Having chased each other round the tree stump, not sure if they are a pair or rivals, they move on to the Greengage tree, which has the bird feeders on it, by way of the back of the pond and Peter’s tree stumps that he sits on. (Peacock not person).

Acrobatics on the feeders, you have to admire their dexterity. These feeders are the sort that when the handle is up, the lid won’t lift off – much to the disgust of the squirrels who like to take off the lids and scoop out the nuts from the top.

The holes in the lawn, that I always assumed were rabbits, may well have been these two. A shallow hole with two halves of a hazelnut lying on the grass, so probably buried last year and dug up this. I have found these holes and half nuts down on the field under the large hazel growing there. Someone is busy at hazelnut time as nearly every flowerpot that has soil in will also have a hazelnut tucked in it, lots of which grow the following year!
Other things also eat the hazelnuts, Field mice leave a different shaped hole in the nut, so you know where they have been.
The two squirrels may well be the culprits for stealing my chicken eggs. We only have two chickens, both of which lay and both of which lose their egg to something. The shell is there with a portion missing, the egg inside gone of course. Could be Squirrel, Magpie, Rook, Crow, Stoat, Weasel or even Hedgehog all of which are partial to eggs. I could rule out the hedgehog as the eggs disappear during the day, but any of the others are possible.
Thanks for reading so far, back to the weeding of the garden for now.

• 11 May, 2020
• 11 likes

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