Little Red Contemplates the Promised Land

Just behind the children's garden at the Arboretum is a stand of bird feeders. There are actually two sets of them: one group of feeders is just outside the fence, and a second group is further away, closer to the tree line, near the gorgeous red elm tree that I never grow tired of taking pictures of.

The clouds were doing some amazing things, and so I had been standing at the very back of the children's garden photographing the ever-changing sky. I heard a commotion behind me and turned to discover that squirrels had invaded the closest feeders.

I also saw another critter with designs on the bird feeders. In looking closer at the feeders further away, I spotted a small red/orange creature making its way from branch to branch, and finally it skittered adroitly down a tree trunk head-first.

It was smaller than a regular squirrel, and redder, and at first I wondered if it might be a chipmunk. However, most sane chipmunks are holed up this time of year, dreaming of a feast of spring acorns. As it turns out, the creature I spotted was a red squirrel.

The little red squirrel (whom I immediately nicknamed "Little Red") did some foraging on the ground near its tree. But then, with great care, it advanced upon the bird feeders along the tree line.

This is what Little Red looked like as it approached the feeders. In this photo, Little Red seems rather um. . . avoirdupois . . . er, I mean, kind of . . . round. The little squirrel may have had its fur puffed up to stay warm. Its little paws were neatly tucked against its tummy. And its eyes were great big and round, as it contemplated the great Promised Land of Bird Food.

If those paws had been a bit closer together and folded, I might have expected the next words out of Little Red's mouth to be, "For these thy gifts which we are about to consume . . . Lord, make us truly grateful."

For the next thing that happened was that the squirrel gave a few big leaps, and began digging in the snow around the feeders, happily eating whatever it found there. Bird seed, most likely.

It used the traditional "tush-in-the-air" digging method to ferret food out from under the snow. Some birds showed up, walked past looking generally disapproving ("If this turns into a squirrel bar, we're outta here"), and left, disappointed, while Little Red feasted . . . and feasted . . . and feasted.

Now, you already guessed the song to accompany this posting, didn't you? :-) Those who know me, know that I will latch onto any shameless ploy to include a Bruce Springsteen song. And so today's tune is a classic: Promised Land. I'm including three versions. Here are the first two: a black and white live version at Passaic, NJ, in 1978; and a version featuring Bruce and Clarence in Paris.

I'm also including a live version of Promised Land from the reunion tour that began in April 1999, in Spain. They kicked off the second (U.S.) leg of the tour in July 1999, with 15 performances in New Rutherford, NJ, where this video was filmed.

P.S. The third and final leg of that reunion tour began on February 28, 2000, at the Bryce Jordan Center, in Pennsylvania. (Yes, I was there and it was absolutely fantastic!) It concluded in June into July, with two weeks of sold-out performances at Madison Square Garden in NYC. (Yes, you can buy a copy of either the CD or the DVD on amazon.com for around $12 to $14, and I highly recommend it: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band/Live in New York City.)