Pine cone assault

I awoke early on Sunday morning to what sounded like my neighbor using a pneumatic drill. It turned out to be an air hammer of a very different sort. High in the Norway spruce at the corner of the lot, a red squirrel was systematically gnawing through the stems of hundreds of spruce cones and hurling them down with great force from on high. They hit the pavement with a solid thud, my neighbor’s truck with a more ominous thwack, and in less than a hour the yard was absolutely filled with a bonanza of sticky, green cones.

Red squirrels have a specialized diet that consists predominantly of conifer cones, though they will also eat spruce tips and needles. They like maple sap, too, and nip the new shoots of the tree in my backyard to tap it each spring. 

They harvest conifer cones,though, at this time of year, and hoard them in caches for the winter. Middens of chewed and discarded cone scales can grow to considerable size in a red squirrel territory. 

My spruce tree is clearly prime forage. As it is a Norway spruce, it brings to mind a certain European red squirrel of Norse mythology — Ratatoskry — that runs up and down the great World Tree Yggdrasil carrying messages between the serpent at its roots and the eagle that perches at the very top. There are no eagles on my tree, but there are often black vultures roosting there. I’m not sure how well acquainted this red squirrel may be with the vultures, though an eagle would put an end to its cone barrage in short order.

Red squirrels are not defenseless, however, and they will aggressively drive off others of their kind to maintain control over the resources of their territories. They will take on gray squirrels, too, though the old tale that they castrate those they catch does not hold up to scrutiny. They are feisty and the grays are shy, but not for this reason.

I hope this squirrel gives us all a rest soon. There is now plenty of food piled up beneath the tree, and none to contest it. If it doesn’t, I’ll be looking for a friendly eagle.

Tim Abbott is program director of Housatonic Valley Association’s Litchfield Hills Greenprint. His blog is at www.greensleeves.typepad.com. 

 

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