Human shielding

Again, a hungry female squirrel. She has eaten this close to me for the last two days.

My movements worry her as does my voice unless I am speaking directly to her in a particular tone.

On both occasions, the two male squirrels were unable to challenge her for the food because I was there. One of them, looking at her and registering, I am sure, that she felt safe, plucked up his courage on the second day. It took him some time, they do this, squirrels: they come very close before realising I am there, then they freeze, then retreat, freeze, return, retreat - usually at some speed, but this male repeated the back and forth sequence steadily coming closer. I would turn from him to her, sure she'd registered his presence, she was, after all, exquisitely sensitive to my movements. But when he was very close, maybe five feet from her, she suddenly clocked him. She made a harrumphing little cough-growl and thumped a hind foot like a rabbit! He was not unduly put off by this, so I waved an arm gently in his direction, and that was enough, he fled. She resumed eating.

Of course, I am 'artificially' increasing local squirrel numbers by having food out. I assume that cats and cars and the occasional dog are equally artificially decreasing those numbers, however.

Oh, at I think that the neighbour at the back occasionally shoots at them with a pellet gun. This had happened a few times recently when I have been in the garden. The report, pigeons flapping noisily away, squirrels fleeing and the small songbirds launching themselves toward safety. I can't quite believe that's really what's happening. I thought it was kids and toy guns. But today I saw that something did fire into the big sycamore.

Just the sound scares everyone. But imagine being shot at as you sit twenty feet up a tree?