Memory Monday: Squirrels at Havenhill (By Josh)

Prior to our landscaping breaking ground last summer, we had a great new wildlife sighting: hosting a family of squirrels in our backyard. We had previously spotted the occasional squirrel in the small open field area across the street from us but we never actually spotted one in our yard before. That sure changed last July when both smaller baby squirrels and the larger papa and mama squirrels started enjoying the food around the yard. It started with the bowl of dry food (pictured below) that we leave in our backyard walkway for the poor homeless kitties in the neighborhood. While we hate to stress our treasured Shadow inside kitty our hearts do always go out to the poor outside kitties that just want to be loved and have a home. We like to at least give them a little something to eat and a temporary safe place to rest in our yard.

We’ve spotted big crows and little house sparrows taking the dry cat food before but one day we noticed an adorable little squirrel tipping the bowl towards him and stuffing his cheeks! He eventually brought the whole family back and they would occasionally jump up to our birdfeeders and drink from our ground birdbath, too.

I know that a lot of birders get frustrated by squirrels eating the birdseed but we love to feed all creatures and get photos of them. The dry food bowl is near one of our glass sliding doors so we were able to get some close-ups with our telephoto lens.

Unfortunately, when construction started in August the squirrels disappeared from the yard. Just last week Rachel was saying to me that she wished we could see a squirrel in our yard again. Incredibly, I actually spotted a squirrel later that day running along our new backyard wall! I just couldn’t believe that he came the very day Rachel had said she wanted to see a squirrel again! We hadn’t seen a single one for almost a year. I always tell Rachel that she’s psychic about so many things so this just proved it again to me! I tried to run and tell Rachel to come and look out the window but by the time we came back the squirrel had already left. Fortunately, we both spotted him again a few days later. We aren’t getting as many squirrel sightings as we did last summer but at least they do still come around occasionally and surprise us.