On bleak, damp days when the trees are devoid of birdlife, I can always rely on grey squirrels to bring a smile to my face. Rain or shine, they come tumbling through the bare winter branches like a troop of circus acrobats, walking the tightrope of my washing line and swinging from my bird feeders as though they are performing on the flying trapeze.
I have three regular garden visitors – the dominant male, a portly boar with a voluminous tail; a wiry subordinate male, recognisable by the distinctive nick in his left ear; and a beautiful young female with fluffy white ear-tufts. The males are nervy creatures, scarpering the minute I set foot outside, but the female is very confiding. Every morning she sits outside the back door and waits for a handout of nuts, which she usually eats one by one while perched on the back of a patio chair.
For the past fortnight her routine has been disturbed. Grey squirrels begin mating in mid-December, but the males already have eyes for her. As soon as they spot her, they streak across the lawn in chittering pursuit, sending her spiralling up the trunk of my weeping birch and skittering along the fence. The food I put out has continued to disappear, but she has been conspicuous by her absence.
One morning I glanced out of the window and noticed that the lawnmower cover was billowing. I assumed it was being buffeted by a breeze, but then realised that the leaves on my evergreens were still. Something was lurking beneath the fabric. Stepping out, I watched the nylon bulge and ripple until the creature came to rest on the handle. It was too large to be a mouse or rat – it had to be a squirrel.
Crouching down, I could see that the drawstring fastening was tightly closed. Fearing that the female squirrel had found her way inside and become trapped, I loosened the cord and tentatively curled my fingers inside to tug open an exit. There was a frenzy of movement, the clatter of toenails against metal; then the squirrel burst out, showering me with two weeks’ worth of empty walnut, peanut and hazelnut shells.
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