More Squirrels

Observer: Eloise Bacher
Date: 11 September, 2008
Time: 0604-0619
Place: North of Goudy, under an unidentified tree.
Weather: Slight breeze, still warm but cooling off as it gets later.

I’m having great luck with the squirrels that inhabit Willamette; it’s been very easy to observe them almost anywhere. This one, another Eastern Gray Squirrel, is climbing about on a tree to the north of Goudy. I can’t really tell what it’s trying to do, but whatever it is involves a lot of falling…I’m remembering talking in class about how 16% of squirrels get broken limbs that heal back, and that some get injured so badly they die. This squirrel seems to be having a lot of close calls; it’s climbing on very thing branches and keeps falling or slipping and having to grab onto the branch. I wonder what it’s doing…what do squirrels normally do in the evening? It would make sense that they would try and bed down for the evening, but this one doesn’t seem to be doing that. Now it’s disappeared behind some leaves….and reappeared again, this time clutching some kind of nut. It sits on a branch and begins chewing. Was it looking specifically for food, or did it happen to find it as it played? The squirrel’s not saying anything, so I guess we’ll never know.