This squirrel’s enjoying the rose hips offered by Rosa ‘new dawn’. I thought rose hips were eaten by the birds only. Imagine my surprise looking out my window at the rose trellis and coming eye to eye with this fellow. By the time I got my camera out, he or she had turned but you can still see the orangish rose hip in its paws.
Making friends with squirrels or other critters involves the leap of thought from “mine” as in my garden to “all” as in this piece of land is also the home for many critters. I’ve learned if it bothers me that the groundhog eats all the asters and so, then I won’t plant them in that area. That way the groundhogs will eat what’s in the wet meadow and forest behind my garden.
Same with the squirrels–I’ve squirrel proofed the bird feeders because while I didn’t mind the squirrels helping themselves to seed–I found out how fast squirrels can empty feeders.
But the raccoons have no problem with squirrel proof feeders and have even learned how to open the ‘locking” galvanised container. So for most of the summer I stopped filling the feeders. The raccoons made such a mess–seed all over the place. And they brought babies who used the planters as step stools–thereby breaking plants!I’m going to try filling the feeders again as its winter and I’m home to see the birds feed. But I’ll keep the seed indoors and perhaps only use one feeder. We’ll see.
But I like thinking of animals in a friendly way rather than as enemies. I don’t need to stress my body with anger and hate at animals. Thankfully living in this century and place I don’t need to fear them either. Peace. Harmony. Got to start somewhere.
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