Squirrel Nest Disaster
Or, I found a peanut! Here is the story:
While photographing other birds, I was seeing a stream of magpies emerging from a clump of spruce trees carrying peanuts and flying off to hide them. At the peak of activity, there were probably a dozen magpies involved so I went to see what was up.
What I found was a number of magpies rummaging through a bunch of dried grasses mixed with paper, feathers, leaves and other materials. And they were pulling out peanuts. I quickly realized some unfortunate squirrel had its winter nest removed from the branches of a spruce tree and dumped on the ground. The nest was stuffed with its cache of peanuts that it had spent a long time collecting. I'll never know if the magpies, the wind, or some other critter did the initial damage.
The squirrel soon made an appearance and alternated between chasing the looters away (including blue jays), recovering its peanuts, and dragging its nesting material back up into the tree. Sometimes it just sat and ate a peanut. I guess chasing birds takes energy!
I felt sorry for the squirrel, as it probably took a lot of time and effort to build the thick, warm nest and stash so many peanuts in it. Of course, the magpies were unconcerned with the plight of the squirrel. They were merely taking advantage of an opportunity. The squirrel was doing its best to limit its losses but was not overly successful.
Photo descriptions:
Top Left - Black-billed magpie rummaging through the nesting material.
Top Right - Magpies showing off their peanut plunder. Many dozens of the peanuts were flown from the squirrel's cache to the magpies' hiding spots.
Bottom Left - Red squirrel recovering nesting material.
Bottom Centre - A blue Jay gets involved in the heist (they were not as persistent as the magpies).
Bottom Right - Rest & snack time. The offended red squirrel eating a red-skinned peanut.
Squirrel Nest Disaster
Or, I found a peanut! Here is the story:
While photographing other birds, I was seeing a stream of magpies emerging from a clump of spruce trees carrying peanuts and flying off to hide them. At the peak of activity, there were probably a dozen magpies involved so I went to see what was up.
What I found was a number of magpies rummaging through a bunch of dried grasses mixed with paper, feathers, leaves and other materials. And they were pulling out peanuts. I quickly realized some unfortunate squirrel had its winter nest removed from the branches of a spruce tree and dumped on the ground. The nest was stuffed with its cache of peanuts that it had spent a long time collecting. I'll never know if the magpies, the wind, or some other critter did the initial damage.
The squirrel soon made an appearance and alternated between chasing the looters away (including blue jays), recovering its peanuts, and dragging its nesting material back up into the tree. Sometimes it just sat and ate a peanut. I guess chasing birds takes energy!
I felt sorry for the squirrel, as it probably took a lot of time and effort to build the thick, warm nest and stash so many peanuts in it. Of course, the magpies were unconcerned with the plight of the squirrel. They were merely taking advantage of an opportunity. The squirrel was doing its best to limit its losses but was not overly successful.
Photo descriptions:
Top Left - Black-billed magpie rummaging through the nesting material.
Top Right - Magpies showing off their peanut plunder. Many dozens of the peanuts were flown from the squirrel's cache to the magpies' hiding spots.
Bottom Left - Red squirrel recovering nesting material.
Bottom Centre - A blue Jay gets involved in the heist (they were not as persistent as the magpies).
Bottom Right - Rest & snack time. The offended red squirrel eating a red-skinned peanut.