Abby is suggesting that I do another blog (actually that Pax and I do it)—a two-or-three-time-a-week nature/scientific blog—completely separate from this blog but loosely affiliated with KWill Publishing. Aimed at middle school level readers. No personal or family stuff, just our observations; perhaps called "Rambles With Paxton" in deference to Steinbeck's "Travels With Charlie." Or something else?

I guess that seems like a good idea? (Writing is pastime, after all.) So, as an audition (or pilot blog post), please see below the fold. (N.B. I can only write one blog a day so what's down there will have to do.)

I can say, however, in passing, that a dry cold front moved though last night, and conditions are now very pleasant, if also very, very dry.

Right now I can see four squirrels working in the back yard. They hop from one spot to another, stop, sit up, maybe chew something, then hop to another spot. Often they dig. Once in a while they chase each other up and down a bush.

I call what they are doing work because they stick to it, never seem to take a break, and do it from first light until it’s too dark to see. Each squirrel seems to be working on its own, no teamwork, but never any real fights either.

I’m quite sure that they are not just snacking all day long, but actually thinking ahead, planning for the future so to speak. They take the things they find—seeds, nuts, dried crab apples, dried bits of mushroom—and bury them. They are putting these food items into storage, for the lean times to come.

Wait, I just saw one of my backyard workers jump at a robin—shooing it away from a tasty morsel.

I know they are burying some of the stuff they collect because I find little divots all over the yard, and because every spring sunflowers sprout up in odd places (seeds taken from the bird feeder). One morning last winter I saw a dozen squirrels gathered underneath the feeder.

Why are there so many squirrels in this neighborhood? Could there be too many? One or more of them chewed a hole in the corner of my neighbor’s garage door, because, I assume, dog food was stored inside. We found a big squirrel nest in the attic of this house when we moved in. ( But I found their sneaky entrance holes and patched them up.)

Its a basic fact of ecology that a population of animals will keep expanding until the resources they are living off are used up. Then “survival of the fittest” kicks in.

I think the large population of squirrels in this neighborhood is the result the the great number of trees, including many oaks and walnuts, in all the yards and especially in the park across the street. Also a lot of bird feeders. Also because of a lack of predators.

Actually, I should say, because of a small number of predators. We can't forget about Pax. Pax, as we know, is a terrier, born and bred to hunt rodents. When he was younger he used to chase every squirrel he saw, and would sometimes catch one, which was a rather gruesome and unhappy ending for that animal. Survival of the fittest again—Pax catching the slowest ones, those not quick-witted enough to know a dog is dangerous, or those just not fast enough to make it to the safety of a tree.

Are predators necessary and good? Aldo Leopold thinks so. His essay “Thinking Like a Mountain” in A Sand County Almanac shows what happens when predators are wiped out.

Pax isn’t mean and nasty, btw. He isn’t cruel, either. He’s just doing what comes naturally.

Did I say that the hard working squirrels in my back yard were thinking ahead and planning for the future? On second thought, I don’t think so. What I really think is that they are motivated by instinct. They have a feeling in their bones that if they don’t do all their collecting, hopping, and digging right now they won’t be around next spring.