We’ve Played Where’s the Squirrel
We haven’t had such fun with squirrels since the days of the great Bill Burton. The dean of Maryland outdoor writers, Burton chronicled his battles of wits with bushy tails, as he called them. He patterned his story-telling on the Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies formula. Despite the contraption he installed to deter them, he’d usually come out the loser while his squirrels got fatter, smarter and happier.
The game has changed. Since Dennis Doyle’s Sporting Life column of January 12, much of Chesapeake Country has been playing Where’s the Black Squirrel. Everywhere seems to be the answer.
You’ve recorded sightings in Pasadena, Gambrills, Arnold, downtown Annapolis, West Annapolis, Eastport, Edgewater, Mayo, Galesville, Tracys Landing, Dunkirk, Lusby and St. Mary’s County. Plus D.C., Landover Hills, Cheverly, Kensington, Montgomery County and beyond.
It’s getting so a person can’t go anywhere without seeing a black squirrel.
Not to be outdone, the white squirrel has also joined the game. We’ve had reports from near and far, including Washington, D.C., Olney, IL, Brevard, NC, Marionville, MO, and Kenton, TN.
White squirrels, at the risk of turning Queenstown into a tourist haunt, abound through the town, writes correspondent William Hopkins from Annapolis. There is even one on the town Crest of Arms seen in the town hall at the traffic circle.
I have seen five to six at a time, mixed broods (both white and brown females with mixed-color babies, but never a pied in brown or black and white.
I’ve enjoyed Where’s the Squirrel as much as you have for I love seeing Chesapeake Country — and the wider world — through your eyes.
Now I’m hoping you’ll expand your range.
Besides squirrel hunting, would you show me where else Bay Weekly takes you? As we’ve seen, smart phones make it so easy.
I’d like to see you picking up Bay Weekly — and shopping in the stores where you get your Bay Weekly. Our hundreds of distribution partners give Bay Weekly free space. In return, you’d help us show them that Bay Weekly readers are their customers, too.
I’d like to see you enjoying events you learned about in Bay Weekly. Hold up your paper and snap a shot while you’re visiting Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater to hear Bert Drake talk about climate change. Catching the Ruth Starr Rose art exhibits at Mitchell Gallery or Banneker Douglass Museum in Annapolis. Joining the crowd in Bay History Museum in North Beach to hear Chesapeake Country writer Mick Blackistone talk about his book Just Passing Through.
I’d especially like to see you, Bay Weekly in hand, doing business with the advertisers whose support keeps us publishing week after week. Show me your picture enjoying the music at Pirates Cove in Galesville, The Old Stein in Edgewater or Anthony’s in Dunkirk. Carrying out your lunch at Bowen’s Grocery in Huntingtown. Shopping for historic treasures at Second Wind Consignments or Vintage Stew in Deale and Then and Again Antiques in Annapolis. For whimsical reuses at The Shops at Ogden’s Common in Port Republic. Browsing Turn Around Consignments, also in Deale. Buying new tires at Granados Automotive Center.
You get the idea.
I’d love it, and so would our advertisers.
Send me your pictures. On Facebook and in our pages, we’ll show the world how Bay Weekly brings us together in Chesapeake Country.
I’m waiting to see you.
Sandra Olivetti Martin
Editor and publisher
email [email protected], www.sandraolivettimartin.com