Those Darn Squirrels!

I’ve found that people are usually one side of the fence or the other when it comes to squirrels. Me? I love them. They’re tenacious and feisty, especially given their size. Maybe it’s something I aspire to. Or maybe it’s because they’re “fuzzy little geniuses” (see book link at the end!)

When the girls were young, they attended nature preschool at the Schlitz-Audubon Nature Center. It was there that I was introduced to the idea of a “squirrel kitchen”. Beneath a copse of conifers, we would often discover pinecones nibbled down to their stems. This was the handiwork of unseen (and sometimes seen and heard) squirrels getting the seeds out from beneath the scales of the cones.

And while we can find this evidence of squirrel feeding during other times of the year, it is especially striking to find them in the fall and winter, knowing that the squirrels were storing up their reserves for the cold months.

We have plans this week to put up our squirrel twirler once again for winter entertainment (seriously, watch the link), and laughing at many other squirrel obstacle courses videos when we’re stuck inside and it’s dark. Maybe we’ll even convince Peter to help us set one up!

I’ll be reading Those Darn Squirrels by Adam Rubin and illustrated by Daniel Salmieri to laugh along with the grumpy old man who (besides looking like he is DEFINITELY sneezing out coronavirus) tries his hardest to outsmart those fuzzy geniuses. It’s worth sharing with your little geniuses too, in case they need some winter creative inspiration.