Fat squirrels in love

(With apologies to Loverboy.)

Today I strolled a bit around Central Park in Burnaby, taking advantage of the somewhat rare dry conditions. It was cold (relatively speaking–we don’t get frostbite warnings here) but was clear and otherwise pleasant.

The two ponds were partly frozen and the seagulls were shuffling in a way that struck me as funny. Birds probably don’t like falling on their faces any more than humans do.

You can’t see them shuffling here, but I present seagulls walking on water all the same:

On frozen pond, starring seagull and ducks.

It looks kind of chilly because it was. But sun! Blue sky! Wondrous and amazing!

Sun and shade on ice.

Some things never change, though. The squirrels remain as chunky as ever, given the generous food donations made by good-hearted passersby. NOTE: squirrels can feed themselves, you don’t need to help them. Really! Several people were feeding them today and they are kind of cute when they’re scampering (or waddling) around–until you get close to them and realize they kind of look like rats with bushy tails. Check out the thighs on this one. He could be checking into Weight Watchers tomorrow as part of his New Year resolutions.

“I’ll gladly trade you a perky twitch of my tail for anything I can eat. NOM NOM FEED ME.”

The reason I can get so close for pictures like this is the squirrels have shed their customary wariness of humans, having grown accustomed to people approaching them with armfuls of fudge instead. Or maybe not fudge, maybe nuts or whatever the people have in their pockets that is both edible and something they’re willing to give up to these fur-covered blubber balls.

Anyway, it was a nice walk and I didn’t slip or fall. Hooray.

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