Benjamin Franklin’s Ode to Squirrels

This bit of ironic American History was brought to my attention from a friend that owns a surf shop https://www.surfcapeann.com .

It seems back in the 1700-1800’s squirrels as pets were quite the rage, especially among the elites…In fact Benjamin Franklin penned a letter with poem as an ode to squirrel that met its untimely demise at the jaws of a dog named Ranger….the letter is all the more humorous to me seeing as how I currently have a Dog name Ranger!

https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-19-02-0202

From Benjamin Franklin to Georgiana Shipley, 26 September 1772

To Georgiana Shipley

als (draft): Yale University Library

London, Sept. 26. 1773 [17724]

Dear Miss,

I lament with you most sincerely the unfortunate End of poor Mungo: Few Squirrels were better accomplish’d; for he had had a good Education, had travell’d far, and seen much of the World. As he had the Honour of being for his Virtues your Favourite, he should not go like common Skuggs5 without an Elegy or an Epitaph. Let us give him one in the monumental Stile and Measure, which being neither Prose nor Verse, is perhaps the properest for Grief; since to use common Language would look as if we were not affected, and to make Rhimes would seem Trifling in Sorrow.

Alas! poor Mungo!

Happy wert thou, hadst thou known

Thy own Felicity!

Remote from the fierce Bald-Eagle,

Tyrant of thy native Woods,

Thou hadst nought to fear from his piercing Talons;

Nor from the murdering Gun

Of the thoughtless Sportsman.

Safe in thy wired Castle,

Grimalkin never could annoy thee.

Daily wert thou fed with the choicest Viands

By the fair Hand

Of an indulgent Mistress.

But, discontented, thou wouldst have more Freedom.

Too soon, alas! didst thou obtain it,

And, wandering,

Fell by the merciless Fangs,

Of wanton, cruel Ranger.6

Learn hence, ye who blindly wish more Liberty,

Whether Subjects, Sons, Squirrels or Daughters,

That apparent Restraint may be real Protection,

Yielding Peace, Plenty, and Security.

You see how much more decent and proper this broken Stile, interrupted as it were with Sighs, is for the Occasion, than if one were to say, by way of Epitaph,

Here Skugg

Lies snug

As a Bug

In a Rug.

And yet perhaps there are People in the World of so little Feeling as to think, that would be a good-enough Epitaph for our poor Mungo!

If you wish it, I shall procure another to succeed him.7 But perhaps you will now chuse some other Amusement. Remember me respectfully to all the [torn] good Family; and believe me ever, Your affectionate Friend

B Franklin

[Note numbering follows the Franklin Papers source.]

4. bf misdated the draft by a year. He wrote on the inside of the four-page sheet that Georgiana used for the preceding document, to which he was clearly replying; five months later he sent the correspondence to df: below, Feb. 14, 1773.

5. The “Name by which all Squirrels are called here, as all Cats are called Puss”: ibid.

6. bf has christened the dog that Georgiana mentioned as the culprit.

7. bf did so, and the successor apparently lived to a ripe old age. See df to bfbelow, Oct. 29, 1773; Georgiana to bf, May 1, 1779, APS.PERMANENT LINK What’s this?https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-19-02-0202

Note: The annotations to this document, and any other modern editorial content, are copyright © the American Philosophical Society and Yale University. All rights reserved.Back to top

Owling Challenge: Superb_owl Sunday

The play on words I can not take credit for, I saw it on a social media owl site but it is very fittingly applied to the first points of the season, which did happen on Super Bowl Sunday. Late start this year for owl points. Anyway, my wife gets the first 2 points of the year, we went for a long family walk and she was able to fist see a great horned owl, and a snowy owl. The great horned owl was a truly impressive find from a distance, in fact I thought at first it was just a suspicious clump of leaves and pine needles after she pointed it out. We then got quite a bit closer to reveal it was in fact an owl that was behind the pine needles.

The great horned owl after we got closer to confirm, yes an owl

The trail went right under the tree that the owl was in, able to get a good photo.

A little ways after the great horned owl, my wife sees this snowy owl

so today:
My Wife 2 points
Me 0 points

Last year I earned the trophy with a 3 points to 2 total, breaking the tie driving my son home from practice, with this late day road side hunting barred owl and was able to get this ‘high-key’ portrait of it.

A 2 Saw-Whet Day

Its not often I find one saw-whet owl, so I was a bit taken back when I found 2 on a walk. I even double backed along the trail just to make sure the first one hadn’t followed me. Maybe a pair, or maybe just a good year for them?  No points for the challenge(solo walk) but exciting anyway.

Saw-whet owl #1,

Saw-whet #2 seen about 15-20 minutes later.

2 Points to Tie (Owling Challenge) + Lots of Photos

Score: 2 to 2

It has been a better than average year for snowy owl sightings so we took our first family walk of the season along a local beach and trails on a mild December day.  Now my wife stopped to help out our youngest put some layers of clothes into a backpack and I casually walked up a head.  My wife did not like the apparent cheating by me looking for owls while she was helping out.  She quickly filed a complaint to the rules committee.  The committee quickly sent out a ruling that this did not violate any rules and it was indeed a fair part of the challenge.  This ruling would comeback to haunt me a little later on as I helped our youngest up the trail of a larger dune. My wife took the competitive advantage, scampered to the top to get a good view and quickly found 2 snowy owls before anyone else reached the top.   We are now tied with 2 owl points a piece, but it seems like this year is a better owl year for us, as there have been plenty of owl sightings the were not counted as points.  Especially barred owls seem to be around in good numbers this season. So hopefully more points to come.

First snowy owl, 1 point for wife.

Second snowy owl, 1 point for wife

the rest of these owls were not found with-in challenge parameters so no points.

barred owl (solo owl walk, no points)

This screech owl was in a hollow used last year, (no points)

another solo find, barred owl

This barred owl seen with-in a couple hundred feet of the barred owl below(solo owl find, no points)

a saw-whet in a pine found on a solo owl hunt (no-point)

Owling Challenge 2018

Last years challenge was a bit of a pitcher’s duel, not many owls for points. I won last years challenge 1-0, with a road side barred owl. This year is off to a faster start. The first point for 2018 was also a road side barred owl, unfortunately it was too dark, and the docu-pic is in question. The ruling on the field is 1 point, but it maybe up for protest at the end of the season based on the poor quality of documentation. The second point was for a saw-whet owl that I was alerted to by tufted titmice. otherwise never would have seen it. So right now the score is 2 points for me, 0 points for my wife.

The questionable docu-shot for a barred owl, can almost make out the tail and the top of its head??? maybe a protest review if there is a tie.

Saw-Whet Owl 1 point for me

Owling Challenge: a ‘Pitcher’s Duel’

Last years owling challenge result, I won 2-0.
This year was off to a tense start with neither my wife nor myself able to pick up points, there were owls around, a good year for snowy owls too, but upon replay none qualified for points until yesterday. 1 point for a road side hunting barred owl for me. Found on my drive into work first thing in the morning. According to section 5: We have to be together for an owl to count as a point with the one exception being road side owls. Such as a new screech owl in hollow or a hunting owl. So this clearly qualifies. Anyway score is 1 to 0 in the bottom of the 7th.

No points for these owls as we were not together, seen earlier in the year
Barred owl:

Long-eared owl:

One challenge point for me for this road side barred owl:

Rules Committee

Over the offseason the owling challenge rules committee determined that an increase in scoring  would add more interest. Thus in a unanimous decision it decided to allow points for owls in previously used hollows; provided the hollows had been inactive owl wise for at least a season.  This decision has already made an impact. As I was able to pick up another point in a known roost. An owl was first seen here back in Dec. 2012, and was seen on and off into the early spring of 2013.  Since then, the hollow seemingly had gone inactive until this past Wednesday when something looked a bit off.  Turns out it was a very well camouflaged screech owl that was taking up part of the entrance.  I am up 2-0.

2016 Challenge Begins

Well… last year I lost 5 points to 3 to my wife.  That bitter taste lasted all summer long, so I was very focused and intensified my offseason training to do better this year. So far the intense training has given me the quick lead in this years owling challenge.  Or perhaps she was distracted by collecting driftwood.  Either way the first point was earned with a snowy owl at a local beach.  It seems it may be the 4th winter in a row with at least better than average snowy owl sightings.  So I am up 1 point to 0 early in the game.

Owling Challenge: 4 points 3 long-eared

After a slow mid-season things have definitely heated up owl wise!  The score was 3 points to 1 with my wife ahead.  On March 5th my wife and I were on walk at dusk, when she says she thinks she saw something fly…I thought ahh she  just saw a timberdoodle(aka woodcock) take off…But then I see a long eared owl hunting over a field/marsh. Upon review the owl sighting was declared a tie, 1 point for her 1 point for me.  But then my wife sees a second long-eared with the first and points it out to me. She gets 1 additional point.  I could only get an abstract silhouette of one of the owls as it landed in a tree briefly, in the dark conditions. But something is better than nothing, so at this point my wife is up 5 points to 2.

Until yesterday afternoon, when we took advantage of a questionable snowday with a family walk at a different place. I saw a puffy silhouette of a distant form about 80 feet up in a white pine. My first thought was, knowing my luck it was probably a turkey, I got the camera trained on it, then maybe a great horned because of its seemingly large “poofiness” but decidedly an owl. Then oooh cool a long-eared. Goes to show that size perception can be fooled based upon conditions. Got a decent photo anyway, relatively  open roost. So now score is 5 points to 3. I don’t know if this is a sign of a long-eared population uptick, or just a bit of the law of averages working its self out?

2 Barred Day: Challenge Check-in

So my wife was ahead in points 2-0 leading up today, both of her points were from snowy owls at the beach.  I have already reported on the first snowy owl point. The second snowy owl point we actually saw 2 snowies in total that morning back on December 15th. But only one of them counted towards the challenge because the first snowy owl of the morning was actually pointed out by a reservation staff.  The second snowy owl was indeed a good point for my wife as no one else was around and it was sitting on top of a dune.  
above first owl pointed out by staff= no point

1 point owl(wife) much further down beach on top of dune, both from Dec 15th.

Fast forward until today as it has been fairly quiet recently in the owl sightings.  We took a family walk along some local horse trails as we were coming to a smallish field. We all noticed horses up ahead with their riders enjoying the mild weather and practicing their riding technique. Anyway, I had to make sure our dog (which we normally leave at home) was secure on the leash and made sure I would be the one in control as we walked by the horses. Since I was being distracted with the kids, dog and horses, my wife sneakily found and pointed out a roosting Barred Owl.  Now at that time I was down 3 points to zero.  Thats a tough deficit to overcome. But I will keep fighting to the end… On the drive home I was able to spot an actively hunting Barred Owl that was fairly close to the road and was able to use the car as a blind of sorts. Phew, I at least won’t get skunked this year owl-point wise. So as it stands now the score is: wife 3 points to 1 point, me.

 roosting barred owl.

roadside hunting barred owl.