Freddy the Freeloader

This is Fred, my squirrel. He is the most talented furry creature I have ever seen, and certainly the only one I have ever fed, encouraged and just talked to. I talk to him all the time. He's pretty good on the high wire too. And the little sucker can fly through the air as he goes from limb to limb and from limb to the fence. Once in a while he stops as he runs along the fence and faces me. I think he is thinking something like this, "Are you still here?" Some times he sits high up one of the trees and chatters his protest of all the noise that human below makes with all his tools. For awhile there he was chasing one female squirrel and then another. I couldn't count them all.

Last winter he didn't have ANY pecans to put away. The summer had been so dry that the pecan trees just didn't produce. So I kept peanuts and corn on the cob around. I even bought one of the wire frames to put cobs in. But Fred didn't like that comtraption. He would remove the cob and throw it on the ground, so he could get to the corn easier. I would place the peanuts in the fork of a big pecan tree, and they would disappear. Every once in while I would find a peanut, hidden away. But I noticed the Blue Birds liked both, and they could get the corn off the cob in the wire cage.

It's humorous to watch Fred look for pecans in the grass. He gets in the prone position, you know like you do when you shoot at targets. He spreads out, flat on the ground, then he pulls himself forward with his front paws. This way he can feel the pecan, or peanut, or thorn beheath him when he slides across it. I can't think of any other reason he would do this.

The wind storm we had early in the week left a lot of leaves, limbs and pecans scattered around in the yard. There a few pecans this winter, although they are smaller than usual. This afternoon I was working in my shop, rubbing a finish on the Icebox thing I've been putting off. I thought to myself, get the wheelbarrow and pick up those limbs while you're waiting on this to dry. So I did, and I noticed all the pecans scattered around. So I picked up some pecans too. This took me about an hour, but I had a wheelbarrow full of sticks and pecans. I unloaded the sticks into this bin I made from pallets. But I left the pecans in the wheelbarrow. I'm curious to see if Fred packs away the whole bunch tonight, or if he will leave them for me. But I can't eat them, so I really want him to have them. After all, I think he will have an exta mouth or two to feed by spring.

If I hear him playing his harmonica tonight I will know he's grateful for Buddy's lay-a-way plan.

Bears with insomnia, not funny

MOSCOW, Nov 15 (Reuters Life!) - Insomniac bears are roaming the forests of southwestern Siberia scaring local people as the weather stays too warm for the animals to fall into their usual winter slumber.

The furry mammals escape harsh winters by going to sleep in October-November for around six months, but in the snowless Kemerovo region where the weather is unseasonably warm, bears have no desire yet to hibernate.

“Due to weather conditions, bears didn’t go into the winter sleep in time,” said Tatiana Maslova, chief expert at a regional environmental agency in the city of Kemerovo, about 3,500 km (2,190 miles) southeast of Moscow.

“Our teams are making sure there is no damage to farming and to local residents,” she told Reuters on Wednesday, adding that every patch of land is watched by a specially assigned inspector.

To survive the prolonged winter rest, bears have to put on extra body fat — up to 180 kg (396 pounds) — and so spend the preceding months devouring as much food as they can find.

“At the moment there is enough fodder, so they are not wreaking any havoc,” Maslova said.
Hunters, out in the woods stalking birds and hares now that the hunting season is open, need protection from restless bears the most, she added.

“We have observers who ensure there are no attacks on hunters.”

Bears den in dry places usually covered by snow, and wet weather makes finding a suitable “bedroom” for the winter difficult.

Russian media reported that in the Kemerovo region and other areas, normally cold and snowy by now, there are fresh buds on trees and some flowers have blossomed for the second time this year.

(Could this be an effect of global warming? No snow in Siberia in November! That bear looks strange, there is so much white around the outside of his eyes. He is not 'normal.')