Attempted Murder

 If you visit the boat launch at Schoharie Crossing, beware of the lane near the aqueduct. It is a pretty rough neighborhood.

I bravely stupidly walked there today and was nearly assaulted. As I strolled under a black walnut tree, tennis ball-sized nuts began to rain down and I do mean rain. Thud-Thud-Thud-Thud-Thud, one after another a lot faster than I can type. The farther I walked the faster they came.

I held my binoculars on top of my head (better them than me) and hustled to get out from under that tree, only to realize (see stupid above) that the entire lane is lined with walnut trees. When I finally reached the relative safety of a giant black locust I looked back to see a red squirrel literally racing up a branch, nipping nut stems and dropping them as fast as he could run!

Dang! What did I ever do to him?

He kept dropping nuts until I was good distance away and then went back to gathering in for winter.

Speaking of red squirrels, check out this pile of spruce cones. Red squirrels gather and pile them for winter storage. They eat the seeds contained under the scales. They do a lot of dropping of these too, and they sound like cannon fire as they ricochet off the dry lower branches of the trees, but they don't seem quite as threatening as the walnuts.

Maybe I should get a helmet.