Squirrel on Speed?

We get quite a few squirrels in our garden who most of the time are happy to stay on the ground and help clean up what falls down from the feeders above. Sometimes they are more adventurous and try to slide down to the feeders and the ball with seeds from the holding branch. I try to keep the high shrub next to the feeders trimmed, but it is not always at a safe distance. Sometimes our furry little friends manage anyway. I have even seen them jump from the shrub onto the ball, but not successfully catch it on film.

Yesterday I spotted a young squirrel lurking in the shrub and I grabbed my camera. He was trying frantically to get to the metal feeder and he managed in the end, but could not hold on for too long, and he consequently dropped to the ground. Then he ran closer to where I was standing inside the patio doors with my long lens ready. I kept snapping and tried to follow his moves, but he only stood still for a fraction of a second before he moved away with lightning speed.

All of a sudden he ran towards, and into, the glass patio doors, seemingly trying to get in. He was moving so fast that the camera, which I had set to continuous shooting, could not keep up with his moves and had great trouble to focus for that valuable fraction of a second.

It turned out that I had managed to catch him three times, and the very best shot you can see below. He looks enormous on my screen when I open the file, and I certainly would not have liked to meet him at that size in real life. He was running around like he was mad, smashing into the glass several times before giving up. In future we had better keep the doors closed when we are not there!