Tuesday I was in the woods cutting firewood. It turned cold, from 46 on Satuday to 14 on Tuesday. I noticed many more squirrels running on the ground and saw several digs where they were digging up their stash.

Is there some folklore about the squirrels and coming weather? It has stayed cold this week and looks like more cold weather coming.

What do the old timers say about this, or they looking over my shoulder at Weatherbug?

Gene

How about weather and starlings? They migrate through here by the thousands. The biggest problem is they hand around and congregate at the dairys and feed on the rolled oats and other grains the daiymen feed their milk cows. The government gets involved and poisons them. I have a large ivy growing on the wall next to the back door they began nesting in. This morning there were 16 of them on the ground.

Haven't seen the starlings yet. They will come through after the ground thaws. Last fall when migrating south, they hung around here for about a week, just as I had finished planting my wheat. Chased them off with the tractor and golf cart. My dog Bandy saw what I was doing and took over the chore after that. He also watches for the Canadian geese and will chase them away. He watches them as they fly over and if they act like they want to land, he is out there to discourage them. Haven't been bothered by them in over a year.. We have inland gulls here, being close to Indian Lake. Drove by a wheat stubble field last year and thought there was snow covering the field, but was several thousand gulls gleaning the wheat left behind.

I was in the woods this sfternoon splitting wood and there are squirrel tracks everywhere in the snow. Guess their winter cache is getting low.

Gene

I think the squirrels do get more active just before things turn colder.  In Michigan we seem to have more and more of them because no one really hunts them anymore.  I have two younger boys who really enjoy shooting at them, they even give them names, then make a game out of hunting "Nuts" or "Crazy", ect.  I have no idea how they can tell them apart, but at least it keeps them occupied during the winter.