Mid-Summer III: Our Children

As summer came closer and closer we experienced the presence of more and more animals around the house which was wonderful.  We now have a variety of animals who frequently visit us.  Some of these are swans, doves, small birds which look like “Mossies”, crows (we’re not so fond of them), sea gulls and squirrels.  We particularly like the small birds and the squirrels.  They get three meals a day put out for them on the balcony and the deck down stairs.  This mostly includes bird seed, bread, peanuts and sunflower seeds.

The following two photos are of swans who visited us during the beginning of summer.  But they seem to now live across from us over the sea on Birch Island.

 

 

The squirrels are our little darlings.  We have four who come to eat on the balcony regularly.  They are Red Tree Squirrels and fairly abundant in Finland.  Each of them has a name as well a unique personality.  This photo is of three of them having breakfast.  We’ll keep on feeding them during winter time as the Red Tree Squirrels does not go into hibernation.

 

Let us introduce you to them.  This photo is of Kleintjie  (“The Little One”) who seems to be still very young.

 

He or she (it’s difficult to distinguish between males and females) is the busiest one of all.  He does a lot of exploring; running up and down different trees, playing in the grass etc.

This photo is of Skaampie  (“The Shy One”).  She is definitely a female as one can see her tie-ties in this photo.  We call her Skaampie as she is not seen that much and runs away when she sees one of us.

 

We suspect that she might be pregnant as June and July are the mating seasons.  Her tie-ties and waist are also getting bigger and she eats like a maniac.  And not to mention the temper which she has that is similar to that of a pregnant woman.

This is Bliksempie  (“The Naughty One”).  He is always up to mischief.  One can just see that from that sharp look on his face.  His main hobby is to dig up and destroy the potted plants on the balcony.  He loves to dig holes in the pots, then go and sit in it and simply stare into the daylight as if he’s dreaming.

 

Bliksempie is also the most courageous of all and one day decided to pay us a visit inside the house and seen below.

 

As mentioned, Bliksempie just love to be his naughty little self in the potted plants on the balcony.  The photos below are before-and-after photos of his destruction.

 

 

The fourth squirrel is Stompie (“Little Stump”).  He seems to be the youngest of all and his tail is still very short like a stump, hence the name.  We don’t see him that often and don’t have a photo yet.

As we’ve mentioned, we think that Skaampie might be pregnant and therefor she eats a lot.  The following photo shows her on one of the big tree’s branches waiting for her breakfast.

 

After feeding her she came back asking for some more food; a late brunch maybe.

 

 

Eventually she made it clear that she really is still hungry and came asking for food at the door of the balcony.

 

We found the squirrel’s nest in the big tree just next to the balcony.  It rather resembles that of a bird’s nest.

 

Some of our other children are “Mossies” who tend to feed more in the garden where we put out bread for them.  The following two photos are of them having their breakfast.

 

 

And, finally, we have a dove or two who usually feed with the “Mossies”.  They are very beautiful with white, blue, black, and purple colours in their feathers.

 

That’s our children!  We intend to prepare them for winter when autumn comes.  We’ll give them extra food as well as materials to build nests for the cold winter.

We hope that everybody is doing well in South-Africa and surviving the winter, or “winter” as we now like to refer to it…