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Precariously perched.

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We all know squirrels are dedicated acrobats, pilfering seed from feeders upside down and while hanging from one foot. But the other day I found myself being impressed with their balance.

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This little guy was sitting straight up… on a bent branch of our crabapple tree… in high wind.

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It was cold, and his little front feet were tucked in.

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But his back trotters were gripping for all they were worth.

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Bravo little guy.

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20 thoughts on “Precariously perched.”

  3. Over the winter our Stanley has succeeded in chasing away all the birds that used to come eat from our feeder, but he is so cute we cannot bring ourselves to turn him away. Even the ravens and blue jays stopped coming. But those were just individual battles, the war is yet to come–we hope. In May the evening grosbeaks come by, 50 to 100 at a time, on their annual trek to the Northwest Territories. (That is only the splinter group, we lost the main flock a few years ago when someone else put out a better spread than we did!) Those grosbeaks can be pretty mean too, though they share well with sparrows and redpolls. I bet their big beaks can do a lot of damage. We don’t want to see Stanley get hurt, but at the same time we want the birds to win. We are hoping he will see the better side of valour and retreat to other pastures. Nature is so much fun to watch. We never saw anything like this living in the city.

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    1. It’s funny, but our birds nosh right along with the squirrels. We get some grosbeaks in the spring but not flocks. My favorite are the large groups of cedar waxwings that visit now and then. They take over one tree at a time and are such beautiful things.

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      1. AWWWWWWWE. No Cedar Waxwings up here. Though we do get occasional birds here from Asia, blown by the strong jet stream winds, I guess. It has happened twice now, maybe three times. I cannot guess how they end up at our feeder for awhile. Then they disappear, leaving us to wonder where they went.

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  4. Fat little bugger.

    Here’s an interesting fact as presented to me in biology in 10th grade. Birds? CAN’T fall off the branch when perched. As they settle down , their legs bend at the joints, It pulls the tendon tight so their toes cannot uncurl from the branch they are sitting on. Wonder if it’s the same for squirrels.
    Any biology majors out there??

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  5. I’ve mentioned before that we have a walnut tree in our front yard which attracts squirrels, but unfortunately they leave the walnut leavings on the sidewalk by the porch, leaving stains. I was thinking of getting a cat (I’ve never owned one) to keep the squirrels at bay, but based on what I’ve seen of Lord Dudley, that would be wishful thinking. Oh well, I guess there’s worse things than a walnut-stained sidewalk.

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