{"id":91,"date":"2008-11-24T01:00:13","date_gmt":"2008-11-24T05:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogshevik.com\/garneredimages\/?p=91"},"modified":"2008-11-24T01:00:13","modified_gmt":"2008-11-24T05:00:13","slug":"chillin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/squirreltale.com\/garneredimages\/?p=91","title":{"rendered":"Chillin’"},"content":{"rendered":"

“It was so cold today that I saw a dog chasing a cat, and the dog was walking.”
\n(Mickey Rivers)<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

November’s chilly promises have begun to fulfill themselves in earnest now, though I admit taking great delight in the fact that they are not yet accompanied by the rains that force that chill right down into\u00a0one’s bones.\u00a0 Instead, I simply freeze my\u00a0fingers off standing outside in\u00a0a most\u00a0welcome frequence\u00a0of\u00a0low, brilliant sunshine; understanding why the squirrels flop on high, leafless branches\u00a0as the warming rays\u00a0soak\u00a0into my layers of clothing.\u00a0\u00a0 There is certainly no SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) here; indeed, more days than not have held a goodly measure of simple happiness as we all go about the business of continuing our preparations for winter.<\/p>\n

The bare trees now afford a different and better view of the hawks that hang out in the ‘hood.\u00a0 We can often spot them a block or more away and Matilda’s big honking lens is able to snag evidence of their presence.\u00a0 Such distance pushes Matilda to her limits, to be sure, and while I will actually walk down the block to get the best shots when the light is clear, I like the challenge of picking them out from their hiding places.\u00a0 This red-tail was out assessing the prey situation\u00a0from a backyard tree of a house on the block behind us,\u00a0maybe 400 feet away and about 50 feet up.\u00a0 The light was grey and flat under snow-bound skies and I hope I never get used to being able to get such\u00a0really good glimpses of what they do way up there:<\/p>\n

\"Red-tail<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

This beauty was shot on one of those short walks early\u00a0last week.\u00a0 The overcast morning sky\u00a0had begun\u00a0to\u00a0break up into\u00a0moments of clear blue, giving the brightness and clarity needed to show off the exquisite detail of these agile predators.\u00a0 We suspect this Cooper had already managed to snag a good breakfast for it sat on this perch for literally all the midday hours; unfortunately the temperatures were too cold for me to sit with it and wait to try to take an in-flight shot.<\/p>\n

\"Cooper's<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of course the most hilarious posturing by the Coop would occur when the gusty winds had blown that wonderful light back to almost\u00a0complete\u00a0grey again:<\/p>\n

\"How!\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

All\u00a0wildlife takes\u00a0weather pretty much in stride, but it was so frosty the other morning, even\u00a0the furballs\u00a0showed visible signs of protest:<\/p>\n

\"Cold<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

This little one stands out because it is becoming more obvious each day that it isn’t feeling all that well (and damage to its ears an outward clue something is going on).\u00a0 I’ve started the serious, reinforcement feedings and hope it’s one of Eleanor’s kids, for then it\u00a0should continue to show\u00a0up and so do ok.\u00a0 Logic doesn’t completely alleviate worry, though, so I’ll be out doing daily spotting even more diligently than is the norm.<\/p>\n

While all the squirrels are busiest this time of year and so afford the most “personality” kind of photo ops, the pine squirrels have become a particular source of amusement.\u00a0 At almost any time of day, Pipsqueak or\u00a0her kids or sometimes what appears to be all\u00a0of them\u00a0are darting around the backyard, commandeering the feeder at every opportunity and spending inordinate amounts of time chasing the larger squirrels out of the yard altogether.\u00a0 The other day, this little one was especially obnoxious, going to far as to get into it with Pipsqueak her Self, who promptly pulled rank and gave such a scolding the young piney slunk off to the top of the fence to sit in penance:<\/p>\n

\"Chastized<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I think most\u00a0every one\u00a0of us knows exactly how it felt…!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“It was so cold today that I saw a dog chasing a cat, and the dog was walking.” (Mickey Rivers) \u00a0\u00a0 November’s chilly promises have begun to fulfill themselves in earnest now, though I admit taking great delight in the fact that they are not yet accompanied by the rains that force that chill right […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/squirreltale.com\/garneredimages\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/squirreltale.com\/garneredimages\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/squirreltale.com\/garneredimages\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/squirreltale.com\/garneredimages\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/squirreltale.com\/garneredimages\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=91"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/squirreltale.com\/garneredimages\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/squirreltale.com\/garneredimages\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=91"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/squirreltale.com\/garneredimages\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=91"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/squirreltale.com\/garneredimages\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=91"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}