Winter Happenings

Squirrel and Jay snatch and hide, snatch and hide, all over the yard until the feeder is empty.

My resident Squirrel and the Jay gang, and any brave interloper, grab peanuts for their winter larder. The resident squirrel is a jealous guardian. These offerings of mine may mean survival when the winter is at it's worst.

They grab their prizes and scamper or flit to find a safe hiding place. Under leaves, in the fork of a branch, hide it quick and back for more. Grab and flit. grab and flit.

One Bluejay made many trips. Grab and flit. He hid his prizes in the neighbors snow packed gutters, and returned. In that short interval another jay slipped to the gutter and stole the treasure. He flew it to the garden and tucked the peanut under a pile of leaf litter. Another jay flew in when this one left, stole the peanut and hid his prize benieth the edge of an old rug I use in the garden. Each returned to steal the next peanut....and the next...the jays and peanuts traveled my yard and my neighbors and perhaps farther out of my sight.

So on and so on the peanuts traveled until the last was gone from the feeder. Consternation all around as each checked their hidden larder for their treasures. Alas and alack..all gone! not a peanut to be found. It is still a mystery who got the most of the peanuts and where their final hiding place might be found.

The squirrels mission is similar. To hide her treasures she chooses her ground close to the cats outdoor run, inches beyond their claws reach and very safe from thieving bluejays. Alas for the cats peace of mind I continue to provide peanuts for the jay gang and the squirrel. They in turn supply me with hours of entertainment. I sit at my potters wheel and follow the stratagems of Jay and Squirrel and the cats helpless twitches of desire to get just one, just one, for only an instant.

Such generals for plotting to outmanouver the opposition. There are , I believe, a great many more Alexander the Greats , Cesars and Nepolians in the animal world than many would guess.

I shall continue to provide the peanuts and sunflower kernals. Even though they sprout in my spring garden. some I give them were planted by others like them last winter and grew in the garden to be harvested for this winter. Thus the world moves in it's spiral dance. summer gardens to winter treat to spring sprout.

I remember summers sunshine in the cold blowing storms of winter. I shall wait happily for the miracle to come. When Jay and Squirrel show their young the secret of peanuts.