Thursday, February 10, 2022

Outside my Window

 My office looks out a window to a small side yard that holds a number of trees.  There is a house next door just a short span away and most days the only movement is the few black capped chickadees that come to visit and the frequent pair of squirrels.  The road is just beyond so there are often reflections in the windows as cars or trucks pass by. This is the spot where I've been lucky to have seen a red tail hawk swoop to grab its prey and an occasional deer pass by. Once there was a startled teenager that was using the yard as a short cut to who knows where.  

Although it is a small space, it holds my attention as I break from my long days.  I frequently slip into a hypnotic quiet state as I watch nothing in particular and think of no real thoughts.  I allow my brain to release some of the built up pressures so that I can tackle another work task.

The other day while I was working, one of the squirrels came scampering among the trees carrying something it had scavenged. It was half the size of his head and white.  It grabbed my attention and as a busybody I just needed to know what it was,

This grey squirrel was a small one.  Not like the fat boys that I feed at my bird feeders at home.  I wondered if it had wandered into our dumpster or into the neighbor's trash and found something to eat.  It was fast and my eye sight is not the best so I tracked it progression through the branches of the trees and finally saw that is was a roll or at least part of a larger roll.  I could see the bread face as he clenched it in his teeth and scampered across some branches.  

I watched as he got on a branch of one of the ragged pine trees and slowly crept out as far as his weight would allow.  I thought that was a strange place to eat that roll.  Instead, he gently placed it among the bows and ever so slowly backed away.  Another strange thing to do.  He reached the tree trunk and turned to climb down and was off out of my viewing range.

I was puzzled.  The bread was not hidden.  In fact it was clearly visible to me and to any bird that wanted a snack.  Why would he hide it there?

As these thoughts lingered in my brain and as I still hadn't discovered an answer to that puzzle, two squirrels came racing across the ground and up one tree and across the branches. They were pushing and shoving all the way.  One fell out of the tree and landed on the ground only to continue on to the trunk of the next tree that held the hidden treat. The other took the high route and jumped from one tree branch to another, successfully jumping from one tree to the other.  Both hit the intersection of the tree and the branch holding the prize at the same time and crashed into each other.  The impact did not slow them down and both scrambled out onto the branch that held the delicious morsel.  

The treat was almost at the tip of the branch and the branch could not hold the weight of both squirrels.  It tipped and swayed and dumped them both on the ground.  It was not a long fall but one stopped for a moment to catch its breath as the other hit the ground in stride to go back up the tree out the branch to grab the treat.  My entertainment ended as both ran out of the performance arena side by side.  I'm sure they were off to share their prize after a rousing game.



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