Sneaky Squirrel!

**Jeemag_USA** · 10-Jun-07, 22:12

today for some reason about 11 or 12 squirrels decided that the bottom of my garden was going to be their playground, I think it was two families of squirrels that were taking their young out to get them orientated and get some running around practice done. They were having a great time chasing each other up and down trees, one decided to chase a mockingbird on my lawn and alsmot came off second best in that battle, mockingbirds can be pretty ferocious. This one in the photos was the bravest of all, he decided to use a branch right above me to practice his camoflage skills, he was a dead give away because he kept turning his head to see if I was looking at him, this is probably a youngster, maybe only a few months old. He lay himself flat against the branch and spread his legs out so he woudl blend with the tree. So cute!

**Jeemag_USA** · 10-Jun-07, 22:14

and a third photo

**highlander** · 10-Jun-07, 22:41

LOL cheeky chappie, great pictures.

**Jeemag_USA** · 10-Jun-07, 23:27

If anyone is interested, the tree is a Honey Locust tree, I just found out today after looking for ages, its the wierdest of trees, it has thorns sticking out of it starting from around head height and some of those thorns can be up to 8 inches long and they are piercing sharp, apparently the tree evolved these thorns to stop a now extinct species of sloth like creature from climbing up and eating the leaves and fruits. I read on Wikipedia the thorns used to be used as nails for working with soft woods once upon a time, they are that hard. I also learned that the long seed pods that fall down in autumn and look like large pea pods have a very sweet pulp inside that was food for native american indians, so I think I will be trying that in autumn this year for the crack, apparently it makes good beer too. If I get anymore interesting photos from my garden I will post them in this thread.

**Sporran** · 11-Jun-07, 02:58

LOL, Jeemag, that's so cute the way he's trying to hide by blending in with the tree! He wants to be a secret squirrel!

I love squirrels - they are frequent visitors in our garden, and I like watching them run along the top of the fence, chasing each other up and down our huge oak tree, etc.

That's an interesting story about the Honey Locust tree too, thanks. Hope to see some more pics from your garden soon!

**Jeemag_USA** · 13-Jun-07, 23:58

I had this visitor hrough the day on my porch, I guess when it gets dark he will be off again, this is a Blinded Sphinx Moth body about 2.5 inches long.

This is just a wee picture of my plantings at the front of the house, still working on the garden, mostly low ground cover plants, grasses, evergreen shrubs and sages, I love sages, the white on on the right is a White Mountain Sage, its very stinky, and the skinny purple one left of the tall grass is a Russian Sage. I got some Sedums, Carnations and other stuff and growing Lupins from seed at the moment cause i really miss my Lupins from home.

**Jeemag_USA** · 14-Jun-07, 22:18

I took a walk down the White River today, I took some photos but have to apologise for their quality as I had to have my zoom on full and with only 5.1 megapixel the pics always look poor, but it gives you an idea of what I saw on my wee walkie!

The first picture shows the current RCA Dome, the home of the Indianapolis Colts on the left, and the construction on the right is the building of the new stadium, it will look like a Cathedral with a retractable roof when it is finished and hold 70,000 people. We won the Superbowl this year and are hoping to host it when the new stadium is built.

The next picture is of another cheeky chappy squirrel having a scratch, poor light.

**Jeemag_USA** · 14-Jun-07, 22:20

Cheeky squirrel again scratchin the old chinny chin chin.

This is a Redwing Blackbird, despite its name it is not like the UK Blackbird, its more akin to a minah bird and is very vocal like one too.

**Jeemag_USA** · 14-Jun-07, 22:23

This picture is a poor quality effort, its a male and female Yellowfinch, taken from far away which caused it to be fuzzy.

I don't know what kind of bird this is but is kind of the Crow family for sure, looks like a Jackdaw from UK but much smaller, possibly some kind of Chough, Jay or Jackdaw, has a shimmery blue to its blackness like a Jackdaw.