Getting the winter duvet out

It’s been a cold night and there’s an unexpected frost with this clear blue sky. There’s a Grey Squirrel above me. Instead of nibbling buds it’s working furiously to strip bark off a dead branch. It’s working away and freeing an end of bark and then pulling it off in strips. It must need some fresh bedding after last night.

Squirrel - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

Its dexterity is exceptional. It’s too quick for me to see what its furry paws are doing.

Squirrel - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

One thing I do see is that the bark is very long and is overlapping its mouth and drooping either side of its face. In one swift and sure movement it wraps the ends in with both paws and grasps them with its mouth and runs and jumps off into the trees, safe from snagging on branches. What an expert.

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