Photo of the Day: September 8

ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/30s, 18-105mm lens on Nikon D40

This morning Nick asked me to walk him down to the bus instead of watching him from the house like I usually do.  (Not sure what's going on with him, but that's a story for another day).  On the way out the door we saw "Red Squirrel" run across the yard and up one of the walnut trees.  Then the kids noticed something else moving around near the edge of our driveway.  It turned out to be a baby squirrel.  "Red Squirrel" turns out is a mama.  But not a very good one in my opinion.

When she sensed danger, she scurried up the walnut tree with no regard to what would happen to her baby.  She was all like, "you're on your own, baby!"

Maybe that's just how squirrels operate.  I'm not that interested in doing research to find out.  But I was a little miffed at Mama Squirrel for ditching her baby for the safety of the tree.  He was so scared - he was shaking.  Poor guy.

The kids, of course, were intrigued by Baby Squirrel.  And, of course, wanted to know if we could keep it.

Um, no.

We observed him for a few minutes, got Nick on the bus, then Alex observed him a little more.  I got the camera and snapped a photo of him in the grass.  After doing so I noticed one of his back legs looked funny, like it might be broken.  So I went into the house to get a pair of gloves.  I was planning to pick him up and check things out before setting him free.

Well, when I got back outside with my gloves on, he was about 2 feet up the tree that his Mama had ditched him for.  That is when I got the above photo.  Then he quickly made his way up to a pretty high branch.  I guess his leg wasn't broken after all.

We're not that crazy about having another squirrel in the neighborhood, but as long as they stay out of our house, we'll get along just fine.  :)

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