Do you ever labor long and tend your fruit trees with loving care, watering and feeding, trimming and pruning, in hopes of a bounteous harvest — only to have squirrels come and take the fruit?
You know the explanation, don’t you? They can’t help it. They’re vampsquirrels…as relayed in this squirrelly story.
Have you ever visited Unsplash.com? Beautiful photos, free for most usages. An attribution is always welcome.
For example, this fellow from Norfolk (UK).
Squirrel hat! Squirrel hat! pic.twitter.com/HgajG5UvQg
— The Thanatos Archive (@thanatos_net) February 19, 2018
We’re taking a bit of a side trip here to another branch of the order Rodentia, from the suborder Sciuromorpha (wherein squirrels dwell) to the suborder Castorimorpha, Genus Castor, to our friend the American beaver.
This article from The Atlantic magazine (June 2012), includes a tale from the 1940s when Idaho’s Department of Fish and Game dropped parachuted crates of beavers to repopulate the wilderness and — quite progressively — improve the ecological balance thereby. (Current application: think climate change.)
Picture credit: OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay
That’s the number of squirrels counted in the tally by volunteers at New York’s Central Park.
Read this great article from Smithsonian.com which includes a succinct history of the creatures, from the 1800s on, including a mob gawking at an escaped pet squirrel in 1856.
Why the count? “We do it for the squirrels, because it makes us happy.”
A thoughtful article on a squirrel-harvesting trend that’s gaining ground, especially in England where the grey squirrel is encroaching on the native red squirrel (championed by the Red Squirrel Survival Trust — who have the support of Prince Charles, among others). Culling without wasting food..?
Ragu, yes? Or perhaps a pie with sweet pickled onion relish..?
Play it from this Google Doodle archive page!
This guy walks by our 1st floor window and produced half a cheese sandwich stashed on the window ledge
Then sat there and ate it whilst watching our TV! … https://t.co/WqXvjXsMcn pic.twitter.com/eJQv1Q3ujl— ES Photography (@edsimmonsphoto) December 22, 2017
*in the northern hemisphere
Now is a really important time for red squirrels. They're working hard to stock up seeds, berries, and bark to help them through winter. pic.twitter.com/BOeOL2EQWb
— BBC Springwatch (@BBCSpringwatch) September 15, 2017
