Moving Day!!

I waited on the front porch of our double wide at Birdsong for birds to come to the clearing.  It actually acts as a great blind, due to the large overhang. I refuse to get the porch screened in because I want to be able to get better pictures of birds than I would be able to if I shot through a metal screen. It is August, and not spring, so the birds are being a bit lazy and staying hidden in the top of the trees behind the leaves.

But there are always squirrels.  I try to find them doing something interesting, because squirrels being squirrels can get a bit boring. But wait!  Here is a squirrel!  What does it have in its mouth??  It is something pretty big. Last time I saw a squirrel with something that big in its mouth it was a slice of pizza, which came from a trash can at Centennial Park in Nashville. And why did the squirrel look like it had white fur on its face?  I knew this wasn't a piece of pizza because the squirrel came down from a tree, and the likelihood of a piece of pizza being up in a tree was not great.  I know the suspense is killing you.  Here is my best shot of what I saw.

 

No, I have never seen a squirrel carry a baby around, much less gotten a picture of it.  If it weren't for that white paw I still don't think I would know what it was the squirrel was carrying. Anyway, I was sort of dumbfounded.  But the best was yet to come. Three times the squirrel took a different baby from the original nest at the top of one tree, to a new tree several yards away, and climbed it, and dropped the baby somewhere out of my view. This was no easy task. The squirrel was clearly exhausted, and it was taking her forever. Every time she stopped to rest at the first limb of the tree with the original nest. And she panted!!  This was actually a little painful for me to watch.  I wanted to help.  I actually left after the squirrel went back to the original tree. I waited for her to bring a fourth baby down but it was taking so long I finally left. 

Here is the squirrel resting on the limb of the tree.  

 

I don't claim that these are wonderful photos, but I was very glad to get this documented.  There must have been some sort of emergency at the old nest.  Wow! Let's hope the babies are safe and sound in their new digs tonight.