Outsmarting a Squirrel!
Guess where he stays? Inside the roof of the old house with his family!
Hearing noises in the ceilings we thought it was rats, but the landlady told us that she thinks that they are squirrels. I call this little guy the "Phantom", as every time that I step out of the front door, there's a rustle in the pecan nut tree and I could always just catch a brief glimpse of the squirrel before he disappeared.
And so I decided to investigate. I took my little tripod camping chair and sat down at 3 o clock, in a bush near the front end of the roof. At exactly 5:30pm this little guy popped out of the roof.
Let me show you!
An easy jump from the roof into the pecan nut tree and rushing towards a nut!
As he moved I moved closer and I was ready for his show with the nut!
His wife must have told him not to clean the nut's outer casings in their house, so he sat and cleaned the nut off in the tree!
Ever so carefully he sat in different poses cleaning the outer part of the nut!
Finally the nut was clean and it was time to go back home!
There he goes, back into the roof through a they made behind the facia board!
Even greater news is that I think that there's a baby or two inside the roof. I spotted a small squirrel in the oak tree at the back and now that I know where they stay, I will keep an eye out and see what I can get.
Like I said before, this old heritage house where we rent the one half is approximately 100 years old and I am sure that many animals have lived in the roof and in the large gardens over time.
A lovely place to explore!
We hope you have enjoyed the pictures and thank you for visiting a post by @papilloncharity
Team South Africa banner designed by @bearone
These are awesome, Stephen! I can't believe the minutest details that you picked up! I know how long it takes a squirrel to unfurl the outer layer and I must say that you have the patience of a saint.
When I was living in Texas, I had a family of raccoons that ate through my fascia board and made home of it. I never heard them until night time as they are nocturnal, but it used to scare the bejesus out of me! I finally had to have them removed because they were making a mess up there, but when they did that there was a whole nest of babies. I wish I had waited!
So great to see you here blondie and I saw that you also joined @powerhousecreatives. I will go and look for your post and do my thing.
Sad to hear about the raccoon babies, but you didn't know, else you would have waited.
I remember at our old place when they started to prune the trees and I warned them to wait with the one tree, as there was a Loerie nest with babies in it. They cut three down and brought me the nest. All of the babies died! So sad!
Congratulations @papilloncharity! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPDo not miss the last post from @steemitboard:
Thank you and upvoted!
Squirrels in the roof, what a pleasure you discovered the entrance to the home Stephen. Now those exquisite photographs of this little one doing his daily tasks are gorgeous.
Old established home having a Pecan nut tree tree, plenty of food close at hand, why move?
Also macadamia, almond and some other nut trees here in the garden Lady Joan. I skinned one of the green pecans and my hands were a funny colour for a week.
Now I have to figure out how can a squirrel run up a steep corrugated roof with huge nuts in each of his front paws. Time will reveal all!
Blessings!
Your stories are always so uplifting. I love watching squirrels and how they jump around in the trees!
Thank you Sir, now that I found where he lives, we can pass some nuts on to them, as they are busy storing nuts for winter!
Blessings!
WOW those shots are amazing you caught him preparing the nut in such detail, and what patience you have waiting for him to appear, I know me and I could never do that LOL
Thank you JJ and believe me that when the time comes and conditions are right, you will also do it my friend!
Maybe your are right but my ability to sit patiently and wait for now is to limited I am too hyper but maybe with time I will change as you say
Ah, the chipmunk kind :) Cool expressions and moments :) I hope it's happy around there and causes no trouble.
Thank you and no problems here that we can't handle my friend. The old landlady is now very happy, as before we moved in here she could get no nuts because the squirrels got them all, but now I am collecting some nuts for her from the trees.
Squirrels are members of the same family (Sciuridae) that includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels, chipmunks, marmots, woodchucks, flying squirrels, prairie dogs and other small and medium rodents!
Chipmunks are smaller and have stripes on their backs. Their holes are under ground.
Tree squirrels live in trees and in our case roofs and they have no stripes on their backs!
The guy in this post is a tree squirrel in South Africa!
Blessings!
Thanks for you lesson :) I know the brown kind of tree squirrels only and this one looked striped and grey here and there. But now I remember the other kind of stripes on the North American Chips and Dales.
Wow! You have certainly been around my friend! Ever been to South Africa?
Watching pictures only ;)I've traveled little, actually. Maybe someday I will be.
Me too, although I have been over many parts of Africa, I have never been overseas. Getting a bit too old now and don't know what the future holds!
Blessings to you my friend!
Such a beautiful and cute animals. Can be a bit of a pest thought.
Thank you and most animals can be seen as pests my friend!
Charming squirrel! You managed to make great shots. I looked at them with pleasure.
Thank you my friend and glad that you enjoyed them!
Blessings!
Amazing shots @papilloncharity
I think he is enjoying the attention.
Gaz
Posted using Partiko Android
Thank you Gaz, brave little guy this as I was up at 5am this morning to see what I could get.
Found him a bit later running up a sharply angled corrugated steel roof with a huge nut in each of his front paws. A top athlete this little guy!
Blessings!
Brilliant! Very skilled! 😁
What an intrepid little fellow :D And you caught him so beautifully in these photographs ! I love those shots with him cleaning the nut in the tree <3 Such lovely colours and clarity <3 <3 <3 And, ah-ha! The secret entrance :D !!!
What a lovely and charming post this is ! <3
And what a great comment this is!
Glad that you liked it my friend and all blessings to you~!