John Avison: squirrels attack

Mar 18 2010 by John Avison, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

SQUIRRELS: What do we think of them?

Most people, I imagine, don’t give them a second thought.

Their first thought usually involves either the words ‘cute’ and ‘furry’ or the words ‘tree’ and ‘rat’.

I’m a red squirrel man myself, and can’t forgive the American Grey for driving the native species into Cumbria, Scotland, eastern Ireland and the Isle of Wight.

The last time I saw a red squirrel in Huddersfield was in 1963.

It was eating peanuts on local meteorologist S Morris Bower’s garden wall.

Both are long gone, and for all I know, so has Mr Bower’s garden wall.

I do have second thoughts about grey squirrels, and these are dark and politically incorrect speculations on how many pelts it would take to make a decent fur coat.

The squirrels that live in our local woods are probably reciprocating by wondering how many Avison pelts it would take to line their dreys comfortably.

An odd thing happened a couple of mornings back.

My morning constitutional takes me up a walled path that separates woodland from a field.

At least half a dozen squirrels were foraging in the field, presumably having exhausted their woodland food supply.

When they saw me, they clearly saw a potential pelt-hunter, and set off for home (the woodland) at full tilt.

This meant that half a dozen squirrels flew like little grey rockets from wall to wall, out of the field and into the woods, immediately in front of me.

Had one only slightly misjudged the leap, I would have had a sore ear and the makings of my first Davey Crockett cap.

Bring it on, squirrels.