Some people with a particularly soft touch would say, "Well, the squirrels have to eat too." But many summers Anne and I have had so many squirrels that they consumed a third of our strawberries. She watches them outside the window indulging in the sunflower seeds set out for the birds and remarks mildly, "Those squirrels sure are greedy." But she has no such soft tone when she speaks of ground squirrels, which once devastated the marigolds in her flower garden. Red squirrels in her area might consider taking flying lessons.Ĭonversely, another neighbor of mine wouldn't think of killing red squirrels. Flying squirrels, a rarer and more intriguing species that also live near her, she gives sanctuary. A friend of mine, a well-bred elderly lady who lives on a small lake north of Wasilla, once said to me sternly, "I do shoot them." Red squirrels, that is. Passing judgment on squirrels isn't just a male/female thing. So he put a dollop of paint on one before releasing it, and sure enough, a little bright spot of neon came bouncing back into his yard in short order. But the population in his yard never diminished, and he thought some of them looked suspiciously familiar. (Though there may be a little grousing behind the scenes that I'm not aware of.)įor a while, one neighbor live-trapped the red rascals and offered them a new island home miles away. They're on good terms, frequently dining together but diplomatically avoiding the subject of squirrels. This doesn't seem to affect the couples' relationship. If squirrels set foot on one side of the property line, they are shot if they appear on the other, they are fed, sometimes by hand. I know two couples who live adjacent to each other here on Lake Clark in the summer. Unlike the killing of wolves, which often elicits fierce debate from opposing sides, we don't hear much about squirrels. He's diplomatic about it, always dispatching them in Mom's absence. He's been sniping squirrels for 35 years now, and they're still keeping him busy. 410 seldom decimates the local population. They're so numerous, in fact, that regular employment of a. Ask anyone who's had squirrels living in the attic. It's true that they can be incredibly destructive. According to this view, squirrels are varmints. In fact, there seems to be a kind of homesteader mentality that prefers to pick them off whenever the opportunity presents itself. Many people don't hesitate to shoot them. Still, there is that part of me that says, "Hey, wait a minute! That's my stuff." Plus - I'm proud of this one - I finally got off my duff and finished siding the outhouse. Now we keep the rags inside and put the toilet paper in a coffee can. There are, after all, things we can do to protect our property. So I find myself often sympathetic to their cause, and I'm generally amused by their antics. Who can blame any critter for filching things that will provide them insulation to pad their nests during the long cold winter? Later, we spotted the remnants, with their fluorescent red and orange bands, snagged 25 feet or more up nearby spruce trees.įor the squirrels, items like these are gold mines. Some of the socks they snatched from our open storage shed. It seems like just yesterday they were shredding the cardboard walls of our outhouse, pilfering toilet paper (a whole roll once) and discarded wool socks that Anne and I had been using for rags. Already, I anticipate the squirrels ratcheting up their scampering and chatter. Spring has catapulted into the world again, and not all of the things the season ushers in will be as welcome as songbirds. I know from last year that this will mean an explosion of caterpillars. Gray moths have begun dancing the evening hours away on our windows. Then I glanced from the tree to my forearm to find a mosquito topping off her tank with my blood. LAKE CLARK - A few days ago, I spied the first robin of the season on the branch of a nearby birch.
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