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Reminder of Tarzan My back yard bird chorus seems less intense than usual for this time of year, but the squirrels are doing fine.  I love watching their death-defying leaps from my back deck.  Once in a great while I see a mistake.  They'll jump for a branch that can't support their weight.  But, like a cat, they manage to go through rapid body contortions on the way down, reducing their speed, and usually having a safe landing.  Unlike cats, they seem just as adept at climbing down a trunk as they are at climbing up, due to their ability to rotate the rear legs into a position that the claws on the rear feet can grasp the bark.
Woodpeckers have this ability, too, with two toes pointing forward and two backward, rather than the more common configuration for birds of three forward and one backward.  Exciting details.

Posted by Joe Willis at 9:27 AM