Post by dradtke on Apr 26, 2015 11:27:59 GMT -5
We had a tree taken down yesterday. There were three large basswoods growing in a clump, and one of the three leaned toward the house. After a few limbs on that one went bad and fell, I figured it was time to take it down before some storm dropped in on the bedroom. The tree guy climbs up with ropes, trims off smaller branches, then chainsaws limbs that are lowered to the ground.
All went well until he sawed off part of a branch in which a squirrel had made its home. The squirrel shot out of the hole, down the trunk, up the next trunk, through the air to the next tree, and the next, and the next, until it finally disappeared into another hole, mad as hell and scared shitless, quivering violently the whole way. I wish we'd caught it on camera, I've never seen a squirrel move that fast.
He sawed off more of the same hollow branch and lowered it to the ground. As it landed, a young squirrel fell out. Not a baby, but not full grown yet. It looked a little dazed and confused, but it made it to one of the other trunks and climbed up. We lost track of it and assume it found a hole. There was a second young squirrel huddled in the remaining uncut limb. He scooped it out and set it on the trunk out of the way, but it decided that safety lay upwards and it scrambled out to the end of another branch and hung on, and we went back to work.
We were hauling the branches on the ground out of the way when the guy in the tree said, "It's on my hat. I'm coming down." Something about his hard hat must have looked like a hole, and the little squirrel climbed up the back of his neck. Looking like Davy Crockett, he roped himself down. The squirrel ran back up the same tree, and we took a short break.
The squirrel stayed out on the end of the branch this time, and hung on while his branch was cut and started swinging down, then fell off. Then he ran back up the same trunk again. He couldn't go very high this time, so he hung around on the trunk. Finally one of the ground guys scooped him up with a branch and deposited him on a different tree. He stayed where he was.
This was all around mid-morning. By mid-afternoon the tree was down and cut up and hauled away, and the guys loaded up their truck and left. Everything was quiet and I sat on the deck with a beer. The little squirrel was still in the same place on the other tree; he hadn't moved since we left him there. He had a lot of emotional recovery to do.
Then the momma squirrel came back, a little confused because her tree was gone. She climbed the other trunks and checked things out. The little guy started twitching, there was some chattering, and then she headed over to his tree. I was a little surprised when she picked him up; I thought he would be too big for that. She carried him up yet another tree then jumped with him to the basswood and came down to where she had found another hole - maybe the first youngster was already in it.
This hole was on the underside of a curve in the trunk and thus a little hard to get to. Momma was upside down above it, dangling the little one, trying to get him to go in but he was either scared or confused and she dropped him. Three times. She came down and carried him back up, and finally got him in the hole on the fourth try.
I hope they enjoyed their first night in their new home. They sure had a time getting there.
All went well until he sawed off part of a branch in which a squirrel had made its home. The squirrel shot out of the hole, down the trunk, up the next trunk, through the air to the next tree, and the next, and the next, until it finally disappeared into another hole, mad as hell and scared shitless, quivering violently the whole way. I wish we'd caught it on camera, I've never seen a squirrel move that fast.
He sawed off more of the same hollow branch and lowered it to the ground. As it landed, a young squirrel fell out. Not a baby, but not full grown yet. It looked a little dazed and confused, but it made it to one of the other trunks and climbed up. We lost track of it and assume it found a hole. There was a second young squirrel huddled in the remaining uncut limb. He scooped it out and set it on the trunk out of the way, but it decided that safety lay upwards and it scrambled out to the end of another branch and hung on, and we went back to work.
We were hauling the branches on the ground out of the way when the guy in the tree said, "It's on my hat. I'm coming down." Something about his hard hat must have looked like a hole, and the little squirrel climbed up the back of his neck. Looking like Davy Crockett, he roped himself down. The squirrel ran back up the same tree, and we took a short break.
The squirrel stayed out on the end of the branch this time, and hung on while his branch was cut and started swinging down, then fell off. Then he ran back up the same trunk again. He couldn't go very high this time, so he hung around on the trunk. Finally one of the ground guys scooped him up with a branch and deposited him on a different tree. He stayed where he was.
This was all around mid-morning. By mid-afternoon the tree was down and cut up and hauled away, and the guys loaded up their truck and left. Everything was quiet and I sat on the deck with a beer. The little squirrel was still in the same place on the other tree; he hadn't moved since we left him there. He had a lot of emotional recovery to do.
Then the momma squirrel came back, a little confused because her tree was gone. She climbed the other trunks and checked things out. The little guy started twitching, there was some chattering, and then she headed over to his tree. I was a little surprised when she picked him up; I thought he would be too big for that. She carried him up yet another tree then jumped with him to the basswood and came down to where she had found another hole - maybe the first youngster was already in it.
This hole was on the underside of a curve in the trunk and thus a little hard to get to. Momma was upside down above it, dangling the little one, trying to get him to go in but he was either scared or confused and she dropped him. Three times. She came down and carried him back up, and finally got him in the hole on the fourth try.
I hope they enjoyed their first night in their new home. They sure had a time getting there.
