Ft. Clatsop

Known as "chickaree" , "pine squirrel", "chipmunk squirrel" or "Douglas squirrel", it's a miniature squirrel with a beautiful cinnamon belly. They chattered noisily as we approached the replica of Ft. Clatsop. In prime chickaree territory, surrounded by dense conifer forest, one individual sat brazenly on a narrow twig and proceeded to devour a spruce cone as if it was corn on the cob. They have been observed running around gathering cones, and can grab up to twelve large Douglas-fir cones a minute. Smaller cones allow up to thirty a minute to be collected. The squirrel we watched was adding to the "midden" under the branch…the scales peeled, gnawed and bitten off cones, left to drop to the ground beneath…a dead give-away of a favorite perch. The wonderful thing about this encounter was when we looked again at his meal-station, (after he had left), we saw he had left behind his spruce cob, sitting daintily on the slender branch, right at eye level. We proceeded on…