And you think people can be stubborn!
Today, like I do on many of my days, I was out again visiting one of my favorite parks in the local area. It is a family-oriented type of park with plenty of hiking trails, baseball/soccer fields, and picnic pavilions. In the summer months when school is out, it’s a happening place for families to get out and have some fun in the great outdoors. However, in the middle of winter, like it is now, the park turns quiet and only the diehard park-goers show up… that would include me.
This park is one of the best places to get up and close to some of the creatures that I consider fun to watch and interact with such as the gray squirrel and Eastern chipmunk. Armed with a bag of peanuts, I am one of these creatures’ favorite visitors because I come bearing gifts and food…PEANUTS!
So on this day, I am greeted by gray squirrels coming down from the trees that line this particular trail and they cautiously approach me. On this trail, the squirrels have become accustomed to visitors bringing snacks for them, so they are not too hesitant to come relatively close to you. They will come about two feet away from your feet, and look up at you like they are saying, “OK, what do you have for me today?” That’s my signal to toss down a peanut or two to the ground and immediately they will stuff the peanuts into their mouths and either scurry off into the brush to eat or, since it’s winter, they will take their peanuts to their favorite storage place and bury them in the ground where they can come back to it later when they are really hungry. So squirrels seem to be experts in putting food away for emergencies. Once you see and feed one squirrel, it seems that’s the signal for all others in the vicinity to come for the handouts. Sometimes, I’m standing in one spot spinning around just to try to keep up with the crowd at my feet. Great fun!
The Eastern chipmunk is another resident of the park. If one spots me walking the trail, he emerges from the brush and starts his race toward me. I think generally the chipmunks here tend to be a bit more trusting of humans than the squirrels, if that’s possible. What do I mean by that? Well, I have placed a peanut on the top of my sneakers and a chipmunk will come right up to it, stuff the peanut into his mouth, and then look up to me for another. I usually oblige him and he manages to fit two peanuts inside his mouth… I don’t know how he does it! But there he is… both sides of his face bulging out before he runs back to his tunnel in an old tree stump. You haven’t experienced true joy until a chipmunk has taken a peanut off the top of your shoe! You can call me weird if you want!
Now to get back to the reference I made in my title..”And you think people are stubborn??” A downy woodpecker was fluttering on tree branches above my head, occasionally uttering his brief call. I didn’t think too much of it at first, but he continued to follow me as I made my way up the trail and fed the squirrels and chipmunks. Downy woodpeckers don’t eat whole peanuts, do they? Their diet consists mostly of insects that they find in the bark of trees. Occasionally, they will also visit a backyard suet feeder.
Well, this downy wouldn’t leave me alone… he kept flying above my head, darting from one side of the trail to the other. What gives?? Finally, I decided to toss a peanut down to the ground, and darn if he didn’t fly down and scoop up that peanut and fly off. Lesson learned… downy woodpeckers love peanuts in the shell! And they don’t give up harassing you until you give them what they want.
So that’s how my visit to the park went today…full of fun and a surprise or two. Can’t wait to see what my next visit has in store for me!
******Thanks for coming along with me…talk to you again!*******