This is the week when all the baby squirrels born about 6 weeks ago are doing their first explorations of the scary below-tree area. It has been very fun for me when on campus to watch their first clumsy, coltlike endeavors that inevitably end in scampering back to the tree full force. For example, in trying to not get caught by The Scary Blowing Leaf or The Scary Car Noise.

I got to see the mama of a singleton sitting in the grass at the base of their tree, grooming the the little one as s/he clambered all over her and clung for all the world like a little monkey to her front. S/he ran for the safety of the tree when confronted with The Scary Flying Peanut, though Mama ran over and grabbed it.

There was also a treeful of four siblings of varied courage whom I began teaching about getting peanuts from strangers (all the wrong messages, I know). They didn't seem to connect the human throwing things with the food that began appearing about the foot of the tree, but in time, they will.