Squirrels, a Sure Sign of Spring

The Super Bowl is over and the groundhogs have had their say and this morning I had several close calls with an abundance of squirrels busily chasing across the quiet roadways in St. Marys. None of them were flattened by my wheels but it almost seemed like it wasn't for the lack of trying. This spring looks to be shaping up as a very good start for the bushy tailed rats, as some like to call them. Squirrels close cousins, regular rats, are also good climbers, though they prefer the nighttime hours and sadly are not (to me at least) as cute or entertaining as squirrels. Squirrels seem to have the desire to attract my attention with their death defying leaps high in the tree tops, sometimes resulting in a carefully aimed pine cone plunking me on my head. This usually happens when I’m hanging linens on my clothesline, another sign that spring is on its way. At other times, like this morning after the fog burned off, the squirrels in my neighborhood seem to have a death wish as they wait patiently on the shoulder of the road until my car gets in range and then suddenly with a twitch of the tail take off in a sprint right in front of me. And the noisy chattering of squirrels is one of the sounds of spring’s return, along with the return birdsong at dawn. I like the sound of spring in the south too.