I looked down the driveway the other day and here came Larry the Lynx strolling along, just a cool cat strutting his stuff. When he got to the top of the little hill near the house he did what all of our dogs have always done -- flipped over on his back and scooched back and forth while he slid downhill. Then he walked up and did it again.
Finally he continued walking up the drive and that's when the ground around the bird feeder came into view.
"Holy spruce cones! Look at all the squirrels!" he must have thought for at first he froze, then crouched down and started his stalk. Every time all eight squirrels were out of sight over the snowbank, he moved forward, sometimes rapidly, sometimes creeping.
He was still 30 feet away when I saw him take six quick steps and then crouch down again. It took awhile for me to realize he had caught one of the squirrels already. It must have come right to him.
It took him about 30 minutes to eat his catch, all the while the other squirrels continued foraging for sunflower seeds, not realizing one of their own was missing.
Finally, Larry stood up and the squirrels scattered. He moved to the edge of the bush, then lay down and groomed himself for a long while. By that time the squirrels seemed to have forgotten about him and went back to looking for seeds. Larry noticed and headed back to the bird feeder.
But the squirrels saw him coming and scrambled up the trees.
Larry just parked himself at the edge of the snowbank, facing the trees.
"The nice thing about squirrels, besides their nutty taste, is they have no short-term memory," thought Larry as he waited for another squirrel to stumble into view.
As he lay there bathed in the noon winter sunlight, and having just finished a full meal, he stretched out on his side and fell asleep. When he awoke 30 minutes later, the squirrels were chattering at him from all the trees.
"We see you, Larry! We totally see you!"
Larry stood up and walked deliberately down the middle of the yard, then around the house to another nice sunny spot out of sight of the squirrels and finished his nap.
When he awoke the squirrels were all back on the ground looking for fallen seeds around the feeder.
Larry stretched and then crept around the house again.
"No short-term memory at all," he thought and smiled to himself.
3 comments:
Wow Dan that must have been neat to watch. Thanks for sharing!
Mike S
That is cool with a front row seat for the show. I did see one near camp swimming a channel. I didn’t realize what it was until it went ashore.
It seems odd for a cat but lynx don't seem to have any aversion to swimming. The population around Nolalu seems very high. We have seen them every winter for probably 5 years now.
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