Mine! Mine! Mine!

It doesn't take much to amuse me -- even if it's a silly squirrel. As you know, I love feeding the birds and squirrels. Lately, the wild turkeys think they need sunflower seeds, so they'll jump up onto the deck to steal a snack. I've seen some pretty crazy things these past few days. One of the turkeys was eating from a feeder when a squirrel walked up behind him, stood up on her hind legs, and pulled on the turkey's tail with both paws. It was the craziest thing! Then yesterday they were battling it out again, as you can see in this picture. The turkey would slowly move toward the feeder, and then the squirrel would reach out and slap it on the beak. It just cracks me up.

I've seen animals do weird things before. One time we were in Yellowstone and we watched two adult cranes attack a young bull elk. Apparently, the elk had wandered too close to the crane's chick, so they were giving him a really hard time. It was the weirdest thing to see these birds go after this elk, all the while the little chick was scuttling around trying not to get squished. We've also seen bald eagles fighting with osprey, grizzly bears chasing elk herds, and other strange things. It's definitely a dog-eat-dog world out there, even for squirrels and turkeys!

As I'm typing, there's a little red squirrel in my feeder now. I just put it out a few minutes ago. She came running, jumped up onto it, and then proceeded to wash her face before she began eating. She keeps stopping to chatter at something, and then she takes off running before coming back up. And just as I write this -- here comes Mr. Turkey wanting his snack. I swear, this place is a zoo sometimes! Squirrels are solitary animals, and therefore, there is no group or congregation name for them. That's why there are no squirrels in my Critter books. However, they sure keep me entertained, especially on dark rainy days like today.