And so on. I looked up to the trees and could see the branches shaking. I saw a wing flapping. It must be a bird, thought I, pecking about for seeds or some such.
Around me I could hear the continued, quite loud thud of things dropping from the canopy. Looking up, I could see the branches shake and the leaves catch as the things tumbled down from on high.
I tried desperately to watch them as they fell, hoping to work out what they were. I could see the signs of their fall, but it was difficult to catch them in the last few second of descent.
Eventually, I tracked a loud thud to the ground and marvelled at what I found: horse chestnut shells. Not whole, but in pieces, after something had chewed through them.
I turned my gaze upwards, still thinking a bird had been at them. Then I noticed a grey fluffy tail, curiously, it looked a touch red in the early evening sunlight. It whizzed along the branches, led by a scurrying rodenty body. As I continued watching, the leaves began that now familiar shake and the pit-pat-pi-pat-pit-pat started again.
It was no bird. It was a squirrel, possibly two squirrels. They must have been stripping the trees. I was
there for a good fifteen minutes and the thudding of the shells paused for only a fraction of a second.
I picked up three shells. One had a grey squirrel hair attached to it, now sadly lost.
I stood and watched and listened for another five minutes then continued my walk home.
The best end to an average day.
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