The woodpile was their favorite spot, nice little stacks, all neat in a row. The three of them were playing hide and seek, chasing each other up, down and all around. It was a favorite place for them, as the fence row alongside where the wood was stacked, was just on the other side of the forest. The house was set back from the road a good distance, and the driveway crossed over the little stream which came out of the woods. The woods were approximately 200 acres, and were special as some of the land was residential and the rest was a park. The people living here were ones who loved to be close to nature and coexisted with their native inhabitants.

          I’d lived in this neighborhood for about 10 years and I recognized these squirrels from playing around in my yard and woodpile ever since I could remember. The older two were more full and had big bushy tails, but the adolescent squirrel was still fairly thin with a thinner tail. His tail actually had rings around it like a raccoon which made him quite distinguishable among the others. Although one might think this a hybrid squirrel/raccoon, it is still an Eastern Gray Squirrel just with different markings. Instead of the black and white hairs being completely random on the tail, they are separated, having a more distinct black/white alternating pattern. I kind of liked the look of it, it looked like a miniature raccoon, in a way. The park had plenty of food to support them, with all of the Beech, Oak and Walnut trees nearby; they never had a lack of sustenance. This winter, however, was looking like it might be a rough one as the oak trees started dropping their acorns early, when they were still green. They got to work, gathering and stashing, in many of their food caches in the woods. The animals all seemed to know, they worked together to put up this food before winter. Nature giving its gifts, as it knew they would be needed and received by the woodland animals. My yard was usually littered with them all over, as the squirrels would discard them after they’d removed the food from the shells. However, not these green ones though, they weren’t ready to be eaten yet. It was a strange occurrence that I hadn’t noticed in past years, but according to the Farmer’s Almanac, we might have a long cold winter ahead.

          They might look like they were playing, but they were actually working as they were storing as many of the acorns as possible while eating some along the way. Many got stashed in and around the woodpile, for a quick snack later, but often forgotten this would be a seedling by next spring. The squirrels were running some of their stash to their nests back in the trees where they had large caches stored up for winter. These nests look like big bundles of leaves and sticks, which is exactly what they are but this is where the squirrels sleep and shelter during storms. They do not hibernate as some people might think, they are active all through the winter months. As more trees lose their leaves, however, the squirrels have to be a little more cautious on their excursions to and from their nests as they are now more visible to their predators. There are several hawks in these woods and on the other side of the woods, a Great Horned Owl; usually the two of these did not like to share spaces so the squirrels only had to watch out for one or the other. 

          The squirrels are great climbers, with their claws on both front and back legs, they can scamper up a tree as quick as lightning. They are good jumpers too, and if something is after them, they can leap in the air up to 5’. Usually when they are up to no good, like in my backyard trying to get to my bird feeders (which they do often), I have to try to run them off. With the click of the back door, the squirrel jumps down and takes two good hops and a third really long leap to the nearest tree. He doesn’t go too far though, just enough to wait until he thinks the coast is clear again, and then he’ll creep back down to the yard and try to sneak some more birdseed. This routine goes on a few times until I decide to take down the feeder and put it away in my garage for a bit until they decide to move somewhere else for the afternoon.  Sometimes though, the squirrel gets lucky and I don’t notice or I’m not home, in which case, he’ll just start feasting like it’s his last meal on Earth. I’ve watched them at times and notice they’re not eating it all at once but they will stuff their cheeks as much as possible to take back to the food cache so that the seeds can be enjoyed on a cold winter's day when not much other food can be found. 

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          I remember that crazy time last summer, when I was working in my kitchen and happened to hear the call of a red-tailed hawk in the backyard, so I started looking to see if I could find where it was located. I had been hearing them a lot recently, their telltale shrill call that even makes me freeze in my footsteps, I can’t imagine if I were a small mammal or rodent. The three usual squirrels had been at the wood pile and I looked around to see if they were still there. I only saw the younger squirrel with the ‘raccoon tail’ out there, the other two had already headed for shelter. I heard the call of the red-tailed hawk and saw it come swooping down from a tall pine tree on the edge of the woods, I couldn’t help but just watch as I heard it screech again as it came flying into view in my yard. At the last screech, the young squirrel perked up and leapt off the log pile and started running for cover of the trees where he could get to safety. He’d made 2 large jumps already but still wasn’t close enough to jump to the tree when I saw the hawk putting his feet down in preparation to grab the squirrel. As the hawk reached the squirrel and was trying to grasp it in his claws, the squirrel just disappeared into a hole down in the ground just short of the base of the tree. Luckily for the squirrel, the tree roots had a hollowed out spot just enough for him to dive down in and avoid the full grasp of the hawk, which grabbed nothing but air. Since the squirrel was thin, it was able to squeeze into this spot and burrowed down as far as it could go, out of reach of the hawk. The hawk walked around the area for a little bit, trying to see if the squirrel would come back out, but it did not. I guess that is one thing you have to say for the squirrel is that they are smart enough to help save their own skin and this one lived to see another day. The hawk eventually flew away and I didn’t see ‘raccoon tail’ visit my yard for a few days or even weeks; I guess he decided to stay in the trees where there was a little more coverage. 

          This winter, I’ll be curious to watch the trio and see if ‘raccoon tail’ will make it to see another spring. I’m also curious to see if, when he finds a mate, if their offspring will also have the ring tail like it’s dad or if he is just an anomaly. Maybe I should give him a name? Ringo? Lucky? Nine Lives? Whatever I call him, I’m sure he will never listen, unless it’s to hear me open the door and inspire him to go bounding off to the woods again…...