Rodents and corvids

This was today, with Mr Driveway.

And a reminder of the squirrel and the Unbraves.

This is truly a midget squirrel.

Before I started filming the recent one, the squirrel looked up and clearly recognised me: he bounded toward me. Then realised I was a human and stopped.

It is so interesting to me that the animals see us as individuals - and of course, I see them as such, but it's not the universal norm. Mind you, on the whole, I guess animals see humans and just flee.

I've started listening to Touching the Wild by Joe Hatto, which is about a man who spent seven years with mule deer. It started when the deer turned up at his ranch for the winter. His wife especially bonded with one, Notcha, the first year. the second year, she was waiting for Notcha to return. The doe did, with three strangers, and when she saw Joe, she started to run away (the wife was inside). He called out her name, "Notcha!", and this wild deer turned around and came back. She recognised his voice rather than his face.

There's actually a video about it - which I may watch.

It reminds me of the book I read about the French dude who lived with roe deer.

Both the French guy (Delorme) and Hatto come to an understanding of the complex culture of these animals. My friend Francesca said I should consider something similar... looking at crows, robins, maybe badgers and foxes... but I have not the details of Len Howard nor done the work that Charles Foster does in Being a Beast. It would seem so superficial... When you read around this stuff, you come to feel, as I said in the last post, that there really is nothing new under the sun.