Squirrel Stunts In Silly-Stan

 Last count was 4 squirrels caught and released in a new home. Note that in each case only one trap was tripped at a time, even though one day both were tripped, hours apart, requiring two trips to the release point.

After that were several days with no captures. I won't say no action, since nuts were disappearing from inside and around the traps, wherever they fell as I dropped them through the wire top. Just no tripping of the lever that brought the door firmly down. I knew there was at least one in the area, since we'd seen it from the car as we passed a neighbor's home. And, I'll repeat, nuts were going away.

I decided not to renew the nuts for a bit. I picked up the trap in the garden planting section and moved it over next to the other one alongside the house, back-to-back, with each opening on opposite ends. Both had the few nuts I'd picked out of the dirt scattered inside, and the doors were left open. My plan was only ambitious enough to keep an eye on how much interest there was in the area to gather peanuts. Before combining the traps in a single area I had renewed the peanut butter in the one, and noted that it too had disappeared without triggering the door. 

Sigh.

I made the assumption that the squirrels had a learning curve. Although... how did they learn without tripping the trap?  No penalty, what's to learn?

It's been rainy off and on, and the chill from last week was slowly giving way to typically warmer early fall temperatures. Very slowly. I'd give the traps a quick glance as I passed them, either to move garbage cans to the street, or go in and out of the house. Whatever squirrels remained nearby just weren't interested.

A bit before lunchtime, I headed out to get stuff out of the shed for another round of bulb planting. My list includes the bulbs, of course, in a plastic bag, with a trowel, a clippers to cut rhubarb stalks as well as last years plastic hardware cloth into new configurations for this year's plantings, and finally a folding chair to keep me steady for the task. I spend less energy from that vantage point, as well as having less risk of falling. 

I barely passed the porch before noting that both traps had their doors down. BOTH of them! All those days of being pretty well ignored, and suddenly both were sprung.

The immediate question, of course, as soon as I noted both were full, was just which one of them was the stupid one that went in their trap after the first one was tripped. The two were touching, for Pete's sake! Did one not notice their fellow squirrel in distress? Or did their tiny brains think this meant they could get all the nuts to themself?

Second move was to let Steve know my plans had changed a bit since I had two squirrels to relocate and release.

The minute I'd noticed them, they started wildly scrambling in their respective traps in a panic. It continued as I picked them up to place on the back seat, side-by side so neither would tumble in a fast stop. The back of the passenger seat was in the perfect spot to prevent a tumble. The scrambling didn't stop until I turned the radio on to classical music, It seems to calm them... just like it calms me. Earlier ones liked Mozart or Beethoven, which happened to be playing during their release trips. Today we started with the triumphant end to the William Tell Overture, aka The Lone Ranger theme to a lot of us, not that the squirrels would care. They immediately settled down, and stayed that way for some Bach.

Release point: dirt road, marsh & pond on left, hill full of trees on right.

The release today was a bit interesting. When I set them  side-by-side in the car, some piece of wire stuck out in a bend and snared the other trap. I had to lift one so the opening pointed down to freedom, but the other trap came along for the ride.  Squirrel #1 zoomed out, just like the 4 previous ones. When it was #2's turn, it climbed to the high end if it's trap despite freedom beckoning below. (Hey, maybe this was the stupid one?) I shook it gently and it finally decided to exit.

First oak tree up the hill, more beyond.

A little fussing with the two joined traps persuaded me to try it later after getting home, planting some bulbs as intended originally.  A fresh approach could be tried. If necessary, my son would be over during the weekend and I could rely on his eye to find the fix. I didn't care right then if any more squirrels were around, I had other things to do.

Current tally: 6.