Squirrels are regular visitors to our yard. However, when we had just moved in and the yard did not have established trees and plants, they were rarely or never seen.
Within a few years of moving, we had a few trees growing nicely and birds, bees, and other animals often frequented. A palm in the corner of the yard grew much faster than we had expected it to, and soon, it had dead leaves that needed to be removed. One day, my husband thought he saw a squirrel go into the the dead leaves. Dried bases of leaves that we had already cut had formed a nice pattern on the tree trunk, and the squirrel had used them to climb up.
My husband was curious so he stood under the palm for a couple of minutes and looked up to see if he could see where the squirrel went. He saw nothing, so he went about with his business to see what kind of spring cleaning was needed around the yard.
Unknown to us, the squirrel was quite rattled by his curiousness. It peeped out of the 'window' of their home in the palms, and took stock of the situation. You can see part of the nest among the dead leaves.
It then decided to climb down. We realized the dead bases of leaves were the stairway to their home.
It climbed down the palm tree and that's when I saw that it had thrown down part of the coir like material from the palm that it had used to build the nest. The nest lay there in the flower bed.
The squirrel climbed all the way down, inspected the nest, and decided to carry it back up. I had still not realized that this was only part of the drama that was playing out. The nest went back up.
We realized now that the action had shifted to the roof of a tool shed in the adjacent yard. We had missed seeing that a little baby squirrel was on that roof! I had to use the zoom lens to take these pictures.
The mother squirrel used a fore limb to support the little one so she could carry it. The eyes of the baby squirrel were barely open.
As the mother made sure the baby was secure, we watched in disbelief!
It then decided it was time to go back home.
Unknown to us, the squirrel was quite rattled by his curiousness. It peeped out of the 'window' of their home in the palms, and took stock of the situation. You can see part of the nest among the dead leaves.
It then decided to climb down. We realized the dead bases of leaves were the stairway to their home.
It climbed down the palm tree and that's when I saw that it had thrown down part of the coir like material from the palm that it had used to build the nest. The nest lay there in the flower bed.
The squirrel climbed all the way down, inspected the nest, and decided to carry it back up. I had still not realized that this was only part of the drama that was playing out. The nest went back up.
We realized now that the action had shifted to the roof of a tool shed in the adjacent yard. We had missed seeing that a little baby squirrel was on that roof! I had to use the zoom lens to take these pictures.
As the mother made sure the baby was secure, we watched in disbelief!
It then decided it was time to go back home.
Hopping back on to the 'stairs', the duo went right back into their nest among the dead leaves.
We still haven't figured out what exactly happened that day. Was it a kind of tantrum? Was it spring cleaning? The baby was obviously not old enough to climb down on its own. Why did the mother engage in all that drama!
Everything is fine after that day. We have had several generations of squirrels raised in that 'home' in the palm. Sometimes, there are three or four young ones prancing all over the yard at full speed, up and down whatever comes in their path. It is fun to watch them. I put out apples or other fruit for the birds and others, and they have their share and go about their business.
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