A Funny Encounter with a Friendly Squirrel
It happened on a walk through Peasholm Glen in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England
Peasholm Glen is a lovely little ravine above Peasholm Park in Scarborough, North Yorkshire. There are pleasant paths up the ravine, which take you beside a charming stream with a series of small waterfalls.
Both sides of the glen have beautiful old trees, several of which are champion trees (i.e. the tallest or largest of their species for their county or country). It can be magical walking through the glen when sunlight filters through the trees to the paths below.
Peasholm Glen also has a large population of grey squirrels, and they are tame. Very tame. Of course, they are used to people feeding them nuts, and will happily take food from fingers, if offered.
On a recent trip with my partner, Matt, we sat down on a convenient bench to enjoy a flask of coffee and a nice cookie. We were soon surrounded by seagulls, ducks and squirrels, all hoping for some crumbs.
Now, Matt loves animals as much as I do, but he prefers to observe them from a distance. Touchy feely interactions are just not his style.
All was well until one of the squirrels took a fancy to Matt’s cookie. It literally launched itself from quite a considerable distance to land half way up Matt’s leg. At this point Matt let out a rather, it has to be said, unmanly squeal, spilt his coffee, and kicked out his leg in a knee-jerk reaction. The little squirrel was relaunched into the air and landed gracefully on an adjacent grass verge.
I would like to stress at this point that the squirrel was in no way hurt or harmed. It just looked a bit indignant, and retreated to a nearby tree trunk where it proceeded to give us a quizzical stare.
Even the seagulls thought it was funny.
We later continued with our walk, with Matt looking a bit sheepish, and insisting that he was just trying to protect our cookies.
But before we left I made sure the little squirrel got a well-deserved treat (from my cookie).
Such a funny story!
Thats funny! We get very tame greys in our garden. They love a monkey nut! None have launched themselves at my leg yet though! 🤣