A squirrel here raids the bird feeder for the peanuts in it. Nothing odd in that but this bird feeder is a wire fine mesh cylinder suspended 3 metres up from the middle of a 6 metre line between two trees. My idea was to put it there to stop the squirrels taking the contents.Fat chanch!

At least one climbs the first tree then tightrope walks the line for about a metre before swinging upside down to complete the 3 metre trip. It then heads down the supporting hook, climbs down the cylinder and picks out the nuts. It was frustrated at first because the mesh is fine and the nuts difficult to free. It's improved its technique with practice (It was visibly annoyed at initial failure. There was much tail shaking). Now it's learned that swinging about swings the container, the shaking loosens the nuts, and the nuts come out or present themselves so they can be pulled out.It makes itself more comfortable by wrapping itself around the cylinder, like some living fur stole. No risk of a rush of blood to the head, doing it that way. That's all much easier than just picking at them.

There's an another English squirrel outdoing 'mine'. The BBC Natural History Department received films of athletic squirrels and decided to set up some experiments and also to invite householders to compete, setting harder tests for 'theirs'. The winner did a lot more than walk a line. It learned to negotiate lines, tunnels, even a ride on a little truck.

Squirrel

The second squirrel in the clip, taking from a machine, looks to be in America. The first is definitely a star British one. I try not to mention that the species is American, introduced here in the C19, the grey squirrel. It's a native of the South Eastern states. It is far more commonly seen here than the native red squirrel is. The native red one would never be so un-British as to show off like that!