Squirrel had a nut in its mouth and saw me as a threat. I was talking to it - on the approach. In tail-wagging fear (whether wagging the tail constitutes fear I don't know, they do this a lot), the thing darted up a tree and then cruised out on a branch. The squirrels here, I have noticed, love to jump and launch themselves across giant voids and this one was no different. But the branch didn't have enough strength to support it and started to droop. Still the squirrel leaped and not surprisingly it missed! Fell right on its face fifteen feet or so down. I stood there in shock. The squirrel didn't think anything of it though and didn't make a noise (acorn in its mouth). Ran up the telephone pole with the acorn in its mouth. They are a dominant creature and I sometimes see five at a time, two of which, maybe three, will be chasing each other around a tree, while I'm outside chuckling into my drink.
It was a blustery, near-dusk night, the other night, we had been getting tornado warnings, but not on this night, there was thunder I think and a dark sky and I glimpsed a gorgeous bird, brown, yellow, its coloring was superb, a yellow band on its tail shining like fresh paint. I was on campus in the writing office on the third floor, making copies with no one else in the building, which is somewhat atmospheric and I went to get a closer look. In the tree to the right was a treeful of these birds, who soon flocked to a tree along the next building, nibbling on the red fruit present in the picture below.
Then two days ago, I saw a blue jay. My first sighting. They're mean, my friend tells me and I told her I did hear a squawk as it zoomed by my office window.
