Room with a view

Squirrels are simply rats with an appealingly fluffy tail. Discuss.

From this window

one can watch the bird feeder.
All sorts visit the globe shaped, squirrel resistant seed feeder, and the fat-ball feeder –

including this little chap – seen here visiting the bird bath under the feeder stand.

Quite bold.

After a quick drink and explore he’s up the post and nibbling at the fat balls through the wire…

then once he has secured a piece he nips up to the top for a snack

He’s obviously not concerned about coronary heart disease, stroke and high blood pressure.

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Author: Sarah

No time to lose. No, time to lose. Make time to stand and stare.... Did you see that?

49 thoughts on “Room with a view”

  2. Squirrels are simply rats with an appealingly fluffy tail.

    My mother would almost agree with you – she would not agree that there is anything ‘appealing’ about a squirrel. They are all vermin to her!

    My grandson, however, has no problems with rats – he and his ex kept a couple as pets… I didn’t feel one bit inclined to pick them up.

    I once watched a program about rats. Fascinating creatures – as long as they stay out of my way!

  5. Number 2 daughter had two pet rats until quite recently, and both of them had rats as pets when they were children.

    I don’t mind them at all; they are very intelligent. I’m not keen on the wild variety, and I really do object when they saunter around the garden and try to gain entrance to the house.

  6. We too have had pet rats in this household and though they were sweet they had a disconcerting urinary habit.

    I find squirrels very appealing to watch, but know they can wreak havoc in a roof space if they get in!

  10. Think spatchcocked on the barbie after a rosemary and garlic marinade.

    Oh drool!

    OZ

  11. There are enough of them round here, OZ to feed the five thousand.

    Bit of a pain to send through the post though. 😉

  15. I blame it on the composting, Nym, so I’ve stopped that as well.

    We are in siege mode at the moment, so I must check the fortifications before I retire for the night. I object to meeting one of the pesky criturs in the kitchen when I stagger down for my first cup of tea!

  18. Shudder, OZ, I don’t really want to get that close to them, and where does one stick the stamp?

    I could attach little labels round their necks, I suppose.

  19. “Rat on a stick”
    First Charioteer to identify book series and author gets a free virtual red squirrel. 😀

  20. Cikey, Bearsey…

    I’m off to bed: I have no idea, except it sounds a like Black Adderish to me

  21. Bearsy – I’ll go for Hugh Ferrnley-Whttibgstall’s ‘River Cottage Garden’ By the way, red suirrels are indidinous and to be preserved. It is the invasive grey suirrels that are to be spatchcocked.

    OZ

  22. Or even ‘squirrels’ would be good. I have a sticky and underused ‘q’

    OZ

  23. Not quite what I was thinking of, OZ.
    “Red suirrels may be indidinous”, but red squirrels are indigenous to the UK 😀

  25. Sorry, Bearsy, but red squirrels are indiginous to the UK and are to be protected, unlike the introduced greys – think rabbits snd cane toads here. I have to sleep now as I have an early assignation with the NSW tomorrow, Nighty hight,

    OZ

  27. OZ – when you’re awake again and sober, read my #23 with both eyes and have a laugh at your typos and mis-spellings. Then try to work out what I meant in my #24 – think “Ken Dodd”. 😆

    I do know all about reds and greys, honest.

  28. In San Francisco Chinatown, Little Saigon, and New Manila have very few rodents. Or stray cats or dogs. Actually, it seems that any place with large numbers of South East Asians has very little problems with stray animals…

  31. Neither will the bird-feeder, Bravo!

    We gave up feeding the parrots in Sydney because of the vermin that the dropped husks attracted. The wretched parrots came and squawked horrendously for days after we removed it!

  34. Boadicea, no danger to the bird-feeder – you can plink rats, grey squirrels and other small vermin out to about 100 feet with this: 700+ feet per second, military grade red-dot sight and I use an underslung military grade flashlight. (I don’t have the rifle in the illustration, but an earlier version with slightly less range.)

  38. Red squirrels are much more beautiful than the grey, but I’ve only ever seen reds in Scotland. Where we now live in England there are black squirrels.

    I bought a heavy-duty iron bird feeder for my daughter. The local squirrels used to get very annoyed and chatter angrily at it when they found it too heavy to deal with. But I’ve never seen rats at a bird feeder. I have seen a recipe for Brunswick stew that included squirrel, OZ.

    Lovely roses, Pseu.

  39. Thanks Sheona. I had no idea that there were black squirrels!

    According to the report I’ve just read, the English black squirrel is the same species as the grey, but there is also a black version of the red squirrel living in Skye.

  48. Hi Pseu!

    I take it your #45 was in response to a video…

    Just to remind you it’s your post – you can remove what you like or don’t like as the case might be!

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