Well, There You Go Then

Something I discovered this weekend is that squirrels actually make noises.

I don't know why, but I sort of always saw them as silent creatures.  Or maybe just quiet, chittering at each other in forests and .... squirrel holes together.  I know they chirp, but that's about it I always thought.

I certainly didn't expect what I found this weekend, that's for sure!

I have a surprising amount of wildlife that lives sort of around my place.  I guess there are enough trees and things around that it's not TOO city, and so I get to hear lots of animal noises.  There's a hawk and of course crows and seagulls, and raccoons and cats (if they count) and all of their noises I know and recognize.

Well, over the ... years (? I dunno... a while) I've heard a sort of dying bird sound.  I figured seagull or something, but like this squalk of not so nice.  Don't hear it all that often but it always sounds like a dying animal kind of sound.

Which is why I was surprised to hear it, look outside and see a little squirrel making the noise!

At first I thought it was just co-incidence.  That the squirrel just happened to be around while the bird was doing the dying squalk thing but no... I watched his/her little chest filling and emptying with air while that wee squirrel made that hideous noise!  WHAT?

I can assume it's the time of year when perhaps things are starting to attract mates and put it down to that and, no, it's not a sound I particularly feel like researching but man... I had no idea that squirrels could be that vocal.  I still can't really connect that sound with that little fluffy tailed rodent.

What else is making weird noises that I don't know they make?  My world is.... not as it seems!