Employee of the Month

I noticed that the birds were behaving irresponsibly with the feeder, eating recklessly and dropping a lot of perfectly good seeds on the ground so hired this squirrel to clean up the mess.

Indian Plums, Snickering Squirrel and the Elusive Northern Flicker

When I photographed the flowers of the Indian Plum earlier this spring I read that one rarely sees the fruit since it is a favorite food for wild birds. This is not surprising since it comes so early - right now there are no other wild fruits or berries to eat. I can also see why it is not a part of our diet - these lovely little fruits are only about the size of a pea. Shortly after photographing these I noticed the squirrel on the left below.

Why do I think the squirrel is snickering? I suspect it is because he knows I will fail once again to get a good clear photo of the Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) (right). I have dozens of photos of parts of Northern Flickers. They are very shy and have an unerring sense of anyone watching them. They always manage to be partly hidden behind the trunk of a tree or a branch as in this photo and seldom perch for long in a wholly unobstructed fashion.

I might not be so obsessed with Northern Flickers if it were not for the tiny hearts that cover their breasts. (Click the photo to enlarge it and you will see what I mean.)

Black Squirrel

I mentioned in an earlier post about the slightly confusing nomenclature of local squirrels and that some of the "gray" squirrels are black. Here's one and if I understand correctly, because he's black and living in the west we can safely assume he's an Eastern Gray Squirrel.