Ha!

[telophase]

There’s a squirrel outside playing with a stick! Got about 20-30 seconds of video and I’ll try to remember to take it off my phone and upload it when I get a chance.

What I didn’t manage to film was the pair of bunnies that showed up a couple of minutes later, one big one small. The squirrel chased the big one away from its tree but once the bunny got about 3-4 feet away the squirrel went back to its stick.

The bunnies are better at spotting us peeking out through the curtains so it’s harder to catch them on camera.

Also the day before yesterday there was a flock of blue jays in the back yard screaming at D.Va sitting in the window and at us, when we wandered over to see what the fuss was about.

This is one of the reasons we went for this house specifically—windows in the living room and kitchen that overlook the back yard. The previous house didn’t and I always felt like the back yard was a foreign country that we occasionally visited instead of an extension of the house.

Sent from my Apple ][e

Comments

[movingfinger]

That's really interesting, I have not seen squirrels playing with objects. Mostly they seem to get their entertainment from other squirrels.

One of the things I love about my present home is that it has seven (counts again) eight doors leading outside, all but one onto the deck or into the garden. It's kind of a lot, but they all have windows and the feeling of outside being part of the home is important for me!

I imagine the previous owners' indoor-outdoor cat was kept very busy by using all of them.

[telophase]

This is the first time I've seen it! Earlier, after I saw it, I looked online for info about it and found this article online that says:

In the Grey [squirrel], Laidler describes solitary play as consisting of tumbling, acrobatics and creeping along or around an object, sometimes rubbing the body against it at the same time. Play fighting with an object is also frequently observed, involving the squirrel lying on its back and manipulating the item with its paws, frequently scratching and kicking it. In the case of Red squirrels, as well as play chases involving several kittens, the late Max Planck Institute behaviourist Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt described solitary youngsters kicking away a stick before pouncing on it again to resume play.

I have observed object-play behaviour in both young Red and Grey squirrels and seen videos of adult Greys engaging in solitary object-play; in each case a stick/twig was the toy.

[torachan]

We had a squirrel playing with a stick in our front yard a couple weeks ago and it was so cute. I was just as transfixed as the cats.

[telophase]

Our cats missed it! Too bad for them! :D