DEAR JOAN: About two weeks ago I found the squirrel baffle that I hang my bird feeder from on the ground and the lower hook assembly was missing. I looked for days and never found it. I called my local bird store and they said the squirrel probably ran off with it.<\/p>\n
Now this particular squirrel is a regular visitor and is very smart. He has been trying to get at the bird feeder for 3 months and can\u2019t figure out how to get around the 2\u00bd-foot metal \u201cumbrella\u201d that I hook my bird feeder to.<\/p>\n
I figured the wind had unwound the baffle and it came apart and fell into my modest garden. Without the lower hook I could not hang the baffle up again to confound my squirrel and I suspect he knew that.<\/p>\n
This evening, I was cleaning up around the garden and I looked down at my feet, directly below where the bird feeder would have been, and there was the lower hook assembly. It was clean with no dirt on it. I heard a rustle in the tree above me and that clever squirrel was dashing away but it stopped and looked at me to make sure I saw his \u201cpresent.\u201d Of course I left him a pile of bird seed where he left the hook. I will treat that squirrel with more respect now. Maybe we\u2019re buddies?<\/p>\n
\u2014 John M. Bonds, Cupertino<\/p>\n
DEAR JOHN: I would love to tell you that the squirrel decided to return the hardware, and for altruistic reasons, but probably not. However, I don\u2019t want to spoil a budding friendship, or ruin a great story, so maybe the squirrel was feeling guilty, or maybe it enjoys the challenge of getting to the bird seed.<\/p>\n
People have reported that animals have given them gifts, seemingly in return for a nice gesture from a human. These are heartwarming stories and these days, we all need to have our hearts warmed.<\/p>\n
Readers, if you have a friendly animal story, please send it to me.<\/p>\n
Happy campers<\/p>\n
The annual John Muir Mountain Day Camp is about to have its first session of the year, July 20-24, for children ages 7-12, and there are scholarships available. A second session is set for July 27-31.<\/p>\n
The camp, which is organized by the John Muir Association with the assistance of trained staff and National Park Service rangers, gives children a wilderness experience in the hills of Mount Wanda.<\/p>\n
The campers will, in the words of Muir, \u201cclimb the mountains and get their good tidings.\u201d There will be guided walks through oak woodlands, hands-on nature science, journaling, sketching and creative projects inspired by Muir\u2019s notebooks, baking sourdough bread using a 147-year-old starter, as well as outdoor games and team challenges.<\/p>\n
Campers are asked to bring lunch each day, and the sessions run from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.<\/p>\n
For more information, and to sign up, visit the website at johnmuirassociation.org\/muircamp. To apply for a scholarship, call Jill Harcke, the camp founder, at 510-701-3254. Cost for the sessions are $400, with discounts available on the website.<\/p>\n
The Animal Life column runs on Mondays. Contact Joan Morris at AskJoanMorris@gmail.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DEAR JOAN: About two weeks ago I found the squirrel baffle that I hang my bird feeder from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[389,12576,2113,184,7798,7,390,12577,392,186,332,393,971,395,4824,396,88,90,89,397,198,200,420,398,399],"class_list":["post-388048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-alameda-county","tag-animal-life","tag-animals","tag-bay-area","tag-birds","tag-california","tag-central-contra-costa","tag-coffee-break","tag-contra-costa-county","tag-cupertino","tag-east-bay","tag-east-contra-costa","tag-lifestyle","tag-peninsula","tag-pets-and-animals","tag-san-francisco-county","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-mateo-county","tag-santa-clara-county","tag-south-bay","tag-things-to-do","tag-tri-valley","tag-west-contra-costa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}