My Neighbors, The Squirrels

MY GUESS is about seven squirrels live around our house. I've seen four that hang out on the tree in front of the porch and three that seem like they live amongst the evergreens and low bushes behind the house. Of course it is possible that this is the same set of squirrels and that I can't tell one squirrel face from another. But for the sake of "guesstimating" let's just say my furry neighbors number seven.

I wan't to know where they live. In the autumn last year, they were almost always skittering about the yard, scampering up trees, and chittering and screeching from up tree branches. I know it's just not our yard they frequent. I've seen a particularly dirty one with a gnarly, surly face that visits the neighbors' yards across the street. Sometimes they chase each other atop electricity lines and play physical pranks amongst themselves that make me think of the Three Stooges.

This winter, I have not seen them much--which is to be expected. But on warm days some of them emerge from their hiding places. It makes me wonder how the hell they keep themselves warm. How much insulation can a tree provide to these critters?

I've been reading up on them (when I'm not reading up on mallards and greylags) and now I know that they live in dreys (nests atop trees) and dens (nests inside trees). The following link answers faqs on squirrels. I think the site is meant for kids, but it's good enough for a person like me who has never shared a habitat with them:
http://www.squirrels.org/faq.html#Q29


I also like the verb "squirrel". I probably wouldn't have been able to use it in any meaningful context for pieces that I write for a FIlipino audience. But I guess I can now use the verb for stuff that I write here.

Here's a link to a "squirrel" entry on an online dictionary:
http://www.answers.com/squirrel&r=67


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It's not just my squirrel neighbors I'd like to see again this Spring. I have seen one grey and one white rabbit hopping about in the backyard. I also see at least one crow collecting branches and twigs. There is a big red-breasted bird outside my study window. I don't know what it is called. And then the most beatiful of all is the blue jay that I've also seen outside my study.

According to Larry Weber of the Duluth Budgeteer, the vernal equinox happened yesterday and that makes today technically the second day of spring.

I wish I had heat-vision so I could melt the large hunks and piles of snow still lying around Duluth.