“Nuts!” Cried the Critters…

Our younger daughter has been setting out peanuts in the shell and corn cobs on her backyard patio deck.

It drew a sizeable crowd of birds and squirrels to feat upon the repast.

The squirrels, in particular, are fun to observe as they scurry up the wooden deck and travel out to the dish holding the nuts.

Then they sprint away with their haul.

My wife, with hopes of re-attracting a rather large and bushy-tailed squirrel to our back yard said we should support our corn cobs with some plain peanuts in the shell.

We’ve attracted a large number of noisy blue jays to feast on the nuts and when things quiet down, the cardinals will show up as well as the starlings and grackles.

But we haven’t see much of Mr. Squirrel.

Our critters go through about a pound of peanuts-in-the-shell per day and they usually clean one ear of corn or kernels in the same time.

I’ve observed blue jays on occasion apparently swallow a peanut and fly off with another in their beak.

I found out they have a gular pouch, a stretchy throat pouch, and they can carry food in their mouth as well as their beak.

Like squirrels, blue jays have terrific memories for where they stash food.

It my back yard, there’s some “shell litter” beneath the trees but it’s nowhere close to the amount of peanuts I put out for them daily.

The squawky blue jays will swoop in shortly after I fill our peanut holders and will take turns swooping in from the branches of the nearby trees.

After the opening rush, the cardinals will show up and grab some treats but I’ve seen them more interested in the corn cobs many times.

Same goes for the woodpeckers.

What’s also amusing is to see the occasional robin land on the fence, seemingly curious about all the chatter they hear from the jays before they fly off in search of the next juicy earthworm.

I’ve learned that squirrels use the combination of a good memory and sense of smell to locate buried nuts.

Some suggest they can relocate 90-95% of the nuts they “squirrel away”.

Folks who study these rodents says recognize landmarks such as trees, rocks and benches.

Squirrels can stash away more than 3,000 nuts in a season.

Some use “scatter hoarding” to bury or hide nuts in multiple, scattered locations to avoid losing their stash to predators or other squirrels that might be spying.

Squirrels can also employ “larder hoarding” and that’s when they bury or hide everything in ne or two spots.

I think I’ve seen some of that method employed in my backyard barn.

Still other squirrels will create “false caches to trick predators or other squirrels.

Squirrels have strong spatial memory.

I also thin they daydream a lot based on the number of them I nearly clobber with my truck on the backroads.

Our current “bird and squirrel” restaurant is about 100 feet from the back door but close enough that you can keep an eye on the proceedings with a pair of binoculars.

My wife might like it closer to the house but I think we and the critters need our distance.

Now, we opened this “eatery” when there was still some snow and cold air around.

I’m sure the birds and squirrels will keep coming and chowing down if I keep putting out a pound of peanuts every day for them.

But, I’m somewhat fond of salted peanuts in the shell and eating them in the warmer weather months means I an just toss the shells into the yard, sorta like the critters do.

In the winter months, I’ll collect them in a container while I’m munching and dump them into the mulch of the flower bed out the front door.

It’s all quite biodegradable.

I was just think that if squirrels recall where they bury their nuts 90-95% of the time, that explains why the trees have a chance to keep expanding their area of coverage.

I remember folks use to say if someone was a bit crazy, we might call them “squirrely”.

That might also be related to the way they twitch their tails before dashing off to spring from tree limb to tree limb ands even glide across utility wires.

Nature’s zip-lining at its’ best.