"Short Tail" Update

Since "Short Tail" the squirrel lost her babies in the storm I haven't seen her much and have only caught an occasional fleeting glance of her doing her funny little hop around the neighborhood. On a recent weekend I caught her repeatedly hopping across the road with something in her mouth so I grabbed my camera and decided to watch her for awhile. That’s when I realized she was moving her old nest from the tree in my yard to a tree across the street mouthful by mouthful. I guess good nesting material is hard to find or else she is a very smart thrifty squirrel. She would scramble up the tree into her old nest, rummage around and then come back down the tree with her mouth stuffed full of old stuff from the nest. She would then do her funny little hop across the street and up the tree to her new nest. She kept this up all morning until I got too close to her old tree and she had to outsmart me. I was waiting behind her tree watching for her to come back across the street from the new nest when I suddenly heard rustling above my head. It was “Short Tail” back in her old nest. How did she get up there without me seeing her? I figured out how she managed to sneak past me when I spotted her on the electric wires strung across the street. She was using the wires to return to her old nest over my head! She is too smart! It was late morning before she decided to take a break and then raid my neighbor’s bird feeder for a snack. That is where I left her until later on in the day. When I went back out it was just in time to see her dig up an unopened pine cone from my yard and run up a tree where she sat eating it for awhile. I guess all the hard work of moving her nest and being pregnant has made her a very hungry squirrel. From some of the pictures I took it is clear that she is expecting again.

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