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This time of year, it’s common to see squirrels sitting high in trees and bouncing at the
tips of the outermost twigs. It’s a food thing. Though squirrels still dig up nuts
they cached last fall, they’re hungry for spring greens. And while leaf break is still
more than a month away, they get a head start by eating tree flower buds.
These buds are swelling now, and certain kinds of trees are favored as salad species. Elms
and maples are the favorites. Their flower buds swell into edible structures long before
their leaf buds do, and squirrels seek this succulent food as early as mid-February. Cut
into a bud, and you can see what they’re after. Later, these buds flower to produce
seeds. Flower buds are located on twig tips, and
the squirrels are quite visible when balancing in these slight branches. Since only a tiny
amount of greenery is found in each bud, a squirrel may eat hundreds or more at one feeding.
Sometimes, the buds are picked one by one. Other times, a long twig is cut and the buds
are stripped from it.n You’d think that this kind of pressure,
day after day, might interrupt the tree’s reproductive ability. But with millions of
flower buds available, there are plenty for both wildlife food and seed production. That’s
the nature of the living world. It’s all part of the seasonal variation
to be seen in the Kansas outdoors. Each week, there’s something new to those who watch.
Next time you see a squirrel doing acrobatics on the end of a limb, you’ll know why.
I’m Mike Blair for Kansas Wildlife and Parks.