Happy Squirrel Appreciation Day!

January 21, 2013

My Dad just told me…today is Squirrel Appreciation Day! And because I’m such a fan of these little scavengers, I thought I would share some of my favorite personal encounters with squirrels.

My favorite story is when I was taking a golf ball around the city of Chicago for photos and the squirrels were adventurous enough to come up to the golf ball and play with me! We pushed the ball back and forth. I wish there had been a videographer with me on that day. Happy Sciuridae!

Right before he leapt onto the bird feeder…

Cautiously approaching my golf ball…determined it wasn’t food and pushed it away!

Squirrels

January 25, 2012

Unlike puppies and kittens, squirrels aren’t universally adored. It seems to be a tie between people who think they are annoying, and people who think they are cute. I am on the side of cute for most critters, so I have a hard time understanding the other perspective. (I admit, I would not call a spider “cute” though.)

So when I am walking around Chicago parks, I like to follow the squirrels around and see what they are up to. Sure…it’s mostly about food, but they do make time for play and occasionally they are as curious about me as I am about them.

Their agility and resourcefulness make them one of my favorite critters, so they are often the subject of my photos. My favorite squirrel playtime involved a golf ball. As part of a gift for my Dad, I staged a golf ball around Chicago and I couldn’t resist getting the squirrel perspective.