Furry jumper

The crook from which this peanut feeder hangs sports a squirrel baffle. Despite the evidence of this photo, it works quite well - at one stage it felt as though we were spending more money on bird supplies than on food for ourselves, because the squirrels scoffed so much of the stuff the feeders had to be refilled every day, but these days our bird food expenditure is back within acceptable bounds.

As far as I can see there are only two squirrels who regularly defeat the baffle, and because their athleticism is actually quite impressive I don't begrudge either of them a meal. This one is High Jump Squirrel; his technique is to position himself carefully near the lowest-hanging seed feeder, leap, and grab the bottom perch with his front paws. He then swings himself up, scales the feeder like a ladder, crosses the top of the crook and drops down onto the peanuts. This takes considerable strength, obviously, and receives high marks for Technical Merit, but it can't top the routine of his rival, Parkour Squirrel, whose flying leap is aimed at the baffle itself, from which he then executes a second, twisting leap directly onto the peanut feeder. This feat not only scores straight sixes for Artistic Interpretation, but also gets bonus points for Taking the Mickey.

For the record: it rained heavily all day today, but luckily it started quite lightly, so the ground was softened up before the downpour turned Biblical in the afternoon. We may not have received the 10.88 cm recorded at Woburn, but I don't think I'm going to need to worry about topping up the ponds in the near future. The bad weather is set to continue for a couple of days, before it turns dryer and colder.

R: C5, D4.