Having thrown out a few grapes for the birds this morning I was a bit miffed when a cheeky squirrel suddenly appeared and selected a juicy grape to gobble down.

But, what happened next was really unexpected (to both me AND the squirrel)

After selecting  a nice grape the furry fiend jammed it into its open jaws and scampered off  to bury the tasty morsel to consume at a later date.

” Ah Ha” I chuckled to myself  “It will be a small pile of mush when you get back and dig it up –  that will teach you to steal the birds food”

But as the squirrel made its return trip to said bunch of grapes, a sudden movement  caught my eye.

An even cheekier magpie had been watching the squirrels food foraging and had noted where the squirrel had buried the grape  and , keeping a beady birdy eye on the busy tailed bandit, it unearthed the grape and gobbled it down. It then silently scurried back into the dappled background bushes to await its next move.

Oblivious to the slight of beak that was happening behind it,  the squirrel continued to select a grape and bury it for later…… and the magpie continue to wait in the shadows until its fruity dessert was ready to be snaffled.

So, in the end the birds did get the grapes…..

Moral of the story – squirrels are not as smart as their PR machine would like us to think !