Squirrels in the Snow

I was getting photos off my camera and found one from almost a month ago that I had forgotten to post here. It shows what happens when you dump birdseed just outside the back door in wintertime.

Count them... SIX squirrels in one frame!

Down to the River

Today was unseasonably warm, and my family decided to go for a drive. My parents and I picked up my sister, who lives just two minutes away, and we drove out to Columbia Bottom Conservation Area, which is located near the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers - in the bottom lands.

(Here's the official website.)

It was really gorgeous out - sun shining, blue sky... I started out wearing a sweatshirt but ended up in just a T-shirt by the time we were done.

The whole area is a flood plain, but it was fairly dry this time around, and the road was clear. There's a whole series of wetlands, alternating with cultivated fields. The old cornstalks, cattails and other plants were really glowing golden in the sun!

We stopped first at the boat ramp, and almost as soon as we got out of the car my sister Joanne spotted a bald eagle flying! We had two pairs of binoculars so we all got a good look, even though it wasn't close enough to get a picture. It stayed in sight almost the whole time we were there, gradually making its way down the river.

We walked down the ramp to the river's edge. I found a couple of beaver sticks - evidence of wildlife, even if I didn't see the actual animal! The river was brown as always, but with the clear blue sky there were some bright patches reflected in the water as well. The brown of the river, the gray-brown of the trees, the golden-brown of the plants on the bank... the blue of the sky, the blue-brown of the reflections... it was quite a complex color palette, once you really started looking.

Looking across. 

More squirrels!

The squirrels in our yard are getting used to having birdseed put out. We've seen six, even seven or eight at a time out on the patio or the yard nearby! They have begun to notice that there is also seed in the squirrel-proof bird feeder hanging over the patio, and have begun to test it... It's been fun to watch.

At first the challenge was that of getting up to the feeder in the first place. Quite a few times we would look out just as a squirrel was trying to climb up the pole - only to be unable to get to the feeder once he was at its level! Although the funniest was on a rainy day, when the pole was wet, and evidently slippery - resulting in a frantic scramble of "climbing in place", ending with a hopeless slide back to the ground...

Now they have gotten to the point of getting onto the feeder itself - sometimes by climbing the pole, sometimes by leaping from the top of the cinder block nearby. However, as I mentioned, this is a squirrel-proof feeder - the wire cage around it slides down when something as heavy as a squirrel lands on it, and this covers up the holes. So I now keep seeing squirrels who have made it onto the feeder but cannot understand why they can't get any food out of it...

They also jump down really fast when you suddenly open the back door!

Making a winter run

Since this was a holiday weekend, I  suggested that my family take a drive out to one of the state parks. We ended up going to Meramec State Park, which is about 75 miles from our house. My parents and I picked up my sister Joanne, who lives just two minutes from us, and the four of us hit the road. We had just had a quick bowl of cereal, so we stopped for a second breakfast at McDonalds after about 40 minutes. We read the paper. We worked on crossword puzzles together. We noticed the restaurant was starting to serve lunch...

Fortunately it was only another half hour or so to get to the park. We took a side road first, the "spur road", which took us up onto a high ridge with pine trees. The woods around there are mostly deciduous, which are bare and gray at this time of year, so the deep bright green of the pines was really eye-catching. The bare trees meant that there was a long view through the woods on either side.

We had to turn around at the end of that road and go out the same way, but from there it was only a minute to get to the visitor center. We've been in there many times, but we always have to walk through the exhibits! Favorites are the huge chunk of rock full of gastropod fossils that are partly crystallized and very sparkly, and of course the giant aquarium. While we were looking at the fish, a group that seemed to be two or three families traveling together, with a whole bunch of kids, came in - so it was fun to watch them looking at the fish!

We left the visitor center and Dad thought he made a wrong turn - so he overcorrected and made an actual wrong turn, and we ended up at a picnic area we hadn't been to before. We might as well get out and look around while we were there... and fairly quickly ended up in a creek bed. That happens a lot with us.

(I will be putting photos in at this point, and while most of them were mine, there are several that my dad took with his camera. This means there will actually be pictures with me in them!)

That's me on the left and Joanne on the right.

Critters!

This week my dad finally started putting birdseed out again. We usually feed the birds in the winter but the supply had run out and it took a while to get over to the hardware store. He still has to fill the feeders but he tossed seed out on the patio, on the back steps and on the cinder blocks out near the grass. The immediate result: squirrels!

We got some birds eventually, too, but the squirrels have been crowding the patio in their eagerness to forage here. Not only do we have sunflower seeds, but Dad also got some corn still-on-the-cob, and even tossed out some hazelnuts that he said had gone stale. Time for a party!

There are six squirrels that I can spot in this picture - two by the steps, two in the cinder blocks and two in the yard just beyond that. 

I'm not sure where that greenish tinge at the bottom came from...

Anyway, here's a closeup of the squirrel in the block. There have been times when all four holes were occupied, with a squirrel on top as well! (Also note the flattened remnants of the pumpkins I put out after Halloween...)

Finally, here is a picture of something I gave my mom for Christmas. I bought it at the Miner's Castle visitor center. It's a ranger doll, and it looks just like me!

Well, it's mainly the hair that makes it - this is pretty much what mine does if I don't tie it up or braid it. You should see it when I've just washed it and then brush it out - POOF!!!

It's my very own little avatar, that my mom can keep with her when I'm away park rangering this summer*. I just have to be careful not to do anything to upset her, in case she decides to start sticking pins into it...

*I am still applying for National Park seasonal jobs for this year, but my default assumption is that I will get a position somewhere!

Alternative Uses For Old Halloween Decorations

Neither my mom or I felt like going to all the trouble of cooking and scraping our jack-o-lanterns after Halloween, so I went and set them on the back patio, to see if squirrels would go for them.

After a couple of days with no activity, I went out and put some birdseed - mostly sunflower seeds - inside each pumpkin, and a little around the mouth of each one. Today when I was outside I took the lid off of one of them, to see if that made any difference.

A few hours later...

Scenes around the house

I'm taking a moment to post some photos of my yard that I've taken over the last few days.

Actually, the first few are of the bird feeder hanging from the eaves just outside the backdoor. This is not your typical bird feeder. It's an upside-down feeder, with the holes placed under the perches!

The upside-down feeder is filled with thistle seed to attract goldfinches, but it's the upside-down-ness that really draws them. They have no problem at all simply flipping upside down for a few seconds to grab a seed, and the bigger birds like sparrows and house finches can't manage it! For a long time we hadn't seen any goldfinches for a while, just the bigger house finches or purple finches, which seemed to be bullying them away. Then when we got the upside-down feeder, we started seeing goldfinches again! And we found out that they were still around in the winter - but they lost their color! Instead of the bright canary-yellow (on the males, anyway) they are a drab gray-brown with hints of yellow.