Hazel and Nutmeg - Episode Two - by Saralee Sky

The Bird Feeder

Hazel and Nutmeg lived in a cozy nest in a hollow area high in the big oak tree in the Big Backyard of the Man and the Woman and the Little Girl and the Baby Boy and the Dog and the Cat. Hazel was a black squirrel with a big bushy tail. She was the big sister of Nutmeg. Nutmeg was a gray squirrel (with a big bushy tail) and Hazel’s little brother. Hazel and Nutmeg lived with their mother, Mama Squirrel, and their father, Papa Squirrel.

All of the squirrels would stop from time to time for a snack at the Big Black Bucket on the Back Porch of the House, where the Woman put black sunflower seeds out for them to eat.

Hazel didn’t like eating from the Bucket. She liked eating from the Bird Feeder that hung from the roof of the Back Porch. She would grasp the wooden support from which the Feeder hung with her back legs, then stretch out as far as she could upside down. She could just reach the seeds in the Feeder. They were the same black sunflower seeds that were in the Big Black Bucket. But Hazel liked a challenge.

Mama and Papa squirrel had tried to warn her that she might hurt herself doing this. Or even worse, the Cat or the Dog might catch her while she was hanging upside down. But Hazel still preferred the seeds in the Bird Feeder. They tasted better, she was sure.

On this morning Hazel stopped for a bite to eat from the Bird Feeder on her way to the walnut trees to gather walnuts. Percy and Peachy were there, sitting in the branches of the big, old wisteria vine which wound over and under the porch railing across from the feeder.

“Good morning, good morning!” trilled Peachy.

“Be careful, be careful!” warned Percy. “You’ll fall on your head!” Percy and Peachy were House Finches, and Percy had a lovely peach colored head and chest. Their nest was in the same oak tree as Hazel’s family.

“No I won’t,” said Hazel confidently. “I do this all the time!”

“We know, we know!” said Peachy. “How’s the nut collecting going?”

“Good. We got lots already,” Hazel said, sitting upright on the wooden support to eat her seeds. “But Mama says we can’t eat them yet ‘cause they’re not ripe.”

“Well,” said Percy, “You can always fill up on sunflower seeds!”

Hazel gripped the wooden support with her back legs again and stretched her body as far as she could to reach for more seeds from the Bird Feeder. Just then the sounds of scampering feet could be heard. Little Nutmeg went racing by below the bird feeder and leaped into the tangle of wisteria vines. Close on his heels was The Dog, Bisbee the Golden Retriever, wagging her tail and barking.

Peachy and Percy went flying up in the air to safety in the branches of the nearby beech tree. But Hazel was upside down and the sudden noise startled her. She tumbled head over heels off the wooden support and landed in the Big Black Bucket. Bisbee swung away from the wisteria vine and started barking at Hazel in the Bucket.

“Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear,” trilled Peachy.

“Go away, go away, go away!” scolded Percy. Both remained safely out of reach in the beech tree.

“Over here, over here, you big silly Dog!” called Nutmeg. He scampered about in the wisteria vines just out of reach. “Bet you can’t catch me!”

Bisbee turned back toward the wisteria vines for just a moment, but it was long enough for Hazel to leap out of the Big Black Bucket and scamper across the porch to safety among the wisteria vines herself.

“Whew! That was a close one!” Hazel said as she and Nutmeg raced through the vines, up the beech tree trunk and into its branches.

“I’ll say!” said Nutmeg. “Lucky thing I was there to save you!”

“Silly Nutmeg! If you hadn’t been chased by The Dog I wouldn’t have tumbled into the Bucket!”

“Oh,” said Nutmeg.

Saralee Sky is the owner of Babynut.