The baby squirrel returned.
Just look at this, and it's too young for us to see its gender yet.
I told you that it would be back, in my squirrel post 2 days ago when we first saw it, and this time I got some great shots. The mom was with the little one, and I decided to post just some singular shots of the little one, and later a few shots of the mom. The baby will soon fit in as it is very nervous, but fortunately there are other squirrels around that can protect it in case of the big Ring-neck doves trying to scare it away.
Such a little cutie standing at attention.
Here you can see the baby aping the mom.
A last look at the baby, before it scampered off.
How's this below for a strange partnership?
The mom and a little laughing dove.
Having lunch (shelled peanuts) together with no fighting.
This is not the first time that we see this, as they regularly gather to eat together.
The strange thing is that the parents of the young dove only eat chopped nuts and they never eat the whole nuts. This is their youngster and it's a male, and it hasn't shown any negative effects of having eaten the whole nuts. Another trick of him is that he chases his mom around and he is scared of the dad. My wife often goes into the garden when it's time for the parents to eat, and she will drop some nuts separately from where the parents are eating.
The mommy squirrels, like the laughing dove parents, try to wean the babies as they get a bit older as they need to learn to look after themselves so that they can cope with the coming winter. So, no moddly-coddly things are going on in nature, as time is of the essence. We are in autumn now and winter is around the corner, and so we can only hope that the little ones will make it through.
Such is life.
I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the story.
Photos by Zac Smith. All-Rights-Reserved.
Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.
Thank you kindly for supporting this post.
!ALIVE
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Wow, nice how tgey share! Grest moments captured!
Cute! We have a few small ones coming to our feeder now. I can't believe how early they're born here. I think the first litters arrive in late Feb or early March and it can still be extremely cold here in Minnesota.
That little squirrel is a cute one. Still nervous but having the mother around for protection gives it the confidence to stay. It will have to learn to survive on it's own quickly as winter is coming and then it's sink or swim.
It's kind of bizarre that they young dove would just swallow those peanuts whole. Apparently it doesn't make it sick, so it's not unhealthy. I've never seen a bird do that before though, they usually break them up first like the parents do. It is interesting that the mother squirrel doesn't mind the baby dove, it must not seem like any sort of threat and is tolerated. Nature is strange at times!
Those were some great shots, it should be fun to see what others you come up with in the coming weeks as the weather cools. I hope you two are enjoying the cool off. The only bad part is that winter comes next...
As always your pictures are beautiful to look at.
The squirrel tails are something that caught my eyes...
The white hairs on its tips just make it more cute.