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Cold Weather Action and Tiny Scoiattolo Jr. | December 23, 2013 |
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Since late in 2007 I've been photographing the antics of the neighborhood squirrel Tiny Scoiattolo Jr. (also known as Spot). Her first name came about by her being so tiny, and her second name is in honor of a squirrel of a good friend, Squirrelmama.
For central Pennsylvania, snow came by late November, which required the squirrels to try harder, in terms of extra eating and food storage. In the first photo, of Tiny incoming from the main or feed tree in the yard, you can see why she has an alternative name, Spot. Her spot is a mark without much fur on her upper left shoulder. It makes identification ever so much easier. |
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Tiny enjoys almonds, but should she see peanuts in a shell, she'll grab it immediately, which leads to the following sequence. Tiny has any number of complicated routes home (wherever that is), and one of them involves crossing a larger branch of the feed tree. At a particular location, she almost always pauses a few seconds. |
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While her pause is a photo opportunity for me, Tiny uses it to rearrange whatever she's carrying for the final series of leaps and bounds. |
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Once the peanut is firmly in place, Tiny continues her run up the tree. |
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Neither rain nor snow slow her down. For six years she's been a perpetual motion gray squirrel.
Photo note: I used a Pentax K20D, with the SMC-DA 60-250mm lens, for these photos, which were taken on 29 November 2013.
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