A time of feasting

The neighbor to our east has a large walnut tree in their side yard next to our property line. It provides some nice shade, but it is a pain and adds a lot of additional work for me. In the early winter I have to trim it back so it is not sitting on our roof or hanging too low over the side-yard. In the spring it flowers, pouring vast quantities of pollen into the air and triggering weeks of bad allergies for both The Wife and myself. Then all the flowers drop, creating a large mess to clean up, including out of the rain gutters which they tend to block. After that there is about three months in which the tree is a great neighbor.   The lasts until the walnuts are ripe adding another mess, and an infestation of small moths that seem to grow up in the walnut tree or walnuts. And finally in the fall we have all the leaves to deal with, and that includes more work on keeping the rain gutters clean.

The walnuts seem to be ‘ripe’ around late July into mid-August. We are near the end of that period now, a period when it is difficult to go into that side yard and during which we get pre-dawn wake up calls from those who feast on the bounty of the walnut tree. The Wife complains that the racket starts way too early most mornings these days. By 5:15 AM or so there may be 2, 3, or 4 squirrels in the tree cracking open walnuts right outside our bedroom window, and dropping quite a few on the roof. Soon the cacophony of Chickadees starts; they come to eat whatever insects are feeding on the tree or the nuts. Occasionally one of the neighborhood feral cats will come to try to get a squirrel, which leads to an all out symphony of warning notices. The pile of walnut shells grows on that side of the house until the weekly visit of the gardeners. By the time they got here last Saturday the debris was probably about a half-inch deep all along that side, making it difficult to get into the side entry into the garage.

Working from home this summer I have been witness to more of the action than normal. As I sit in the back office I can often see two or more squirrels running around the yard or cavorting in the privet trees. I see them digging a lot in the gardens and wonder how many volunteer walnut trees might spring up next year. I have not seen any walnut seedlings yet, but we do have three volunteer oak seedlings in the yard which I presume are the after-effect of squirrel nut hording behaviour.

The local squirrels have feasted so much for the past three weeks that they are looking a bit thick. Perhaps we need to add some exercise facilities. Or perhaps enjoy some squirrel fricassee with a nice salad garnished with walnut bits.