I don't know where they've been hiding until now -- well, I do; they've been in the treetops -- but at any rate, a veritable army of silver gray squirrels appears to inhabit our little patch of woods.
We'd caught an occasional glimpse of one now and again, but they have now, apparently, grown comfortable with our presence. Being able to watch out the windows of the house no doubt helps. Between rain showers on Saturday, we spent some 30 minutes or more watching at least half a dozen of them chasing each other around the forest floor and up and down the fir trees, leaping between branches some 20 and 30 feet up, like circus acrobats.
They explored the pump jacks still lying next to the woods at the edge of the meadow, checked out the front porch, did laps around the driveway, and amused themselves by racing in opposite directions up and down trees until they met nose to nose in the middle.
Even the little Douglas squirrel who lives in the tree outside the front door got into the act at one point, joining the silver grays racing up the tree trunk.
The window in the stair landing, and one in the living room look directly out at a massive fir tree just outside the front door. It is the tree of life, inhabited by the charming and often quite chatty little Douglas squirrel, chipmunks, chickadees, and, evidently, silver gray squirrels. There are probably flying squirrels somewhere high up in the branches, too, but we've yet to catch a glimpse of them. There were Stellar's jays, but I haven't seen them lately. I hope they're still in residence.
At night we hear great horned owls and tiny saw whet owls calling. Coyotes sing from nearby fields.
The pretty little Douglas squirrel often sits in the branches and chirps at us, and one day, when I caught it near the house and stood very still, it grew bold enough to return to finish its business, darting back under the eaves a few feet away and digging busily until it finished retrieving its prize. It had quite a hole going, half as deep as its little body, and every now and again it would sit up to check and make sure I wasn't moving, before returning to its busy digging. Finally, it pulled out -- something -- and darted back to its tree.
There are chipmunks flashing across the ground constantly, providing a constant source of entertainment and frustration to the terrier they easily outrun and outclimb.
Silver grays, described by state Fish & Wildlife as wary and secretive, are an Oregon Conservation Strategy Species, and their presence here is one more in a litany of reasons to cherish this very special place.
It also makes sense; the wood is Douglas-fir up near the house, but there are plenty of oaks nearby -- just the sort of territory they like. Paradise, in a word. Paradise with troupes of squirrel acrobats performing in the tree tops.
