Nuts

Whilst stuck in a traffic jam next to our local park today we saw an interesting bit of animal behaviour.

A squirrel was sat by a young tree with a nut in it's mouth (nothing too strange yet!). As we watched it appeared to be looking back and forth at the traffic, and when there was a gap it ventured to the edge of the road and took a few furtive steps out. It slowly moved forwards until it was almost on the centre lines and then stopped. A car moving towards it slowed right down so as to avoid hitting it and for a few seconds the squirrel starred at the car, deciding what to do. It then ran back to the original side of the road, even though the cars on our side were completely stopped and it would have been safe to cross.

I've no idea why it was trying to cross the road, maybe to hide its nut, or why it decided running back was safer than going forwards, maybe because it had already tested that but of road. But it was a good reminder than interesting nature  can be found all around us if only we look, even in the centre of cities.