Squirrels are getting ready for winter. They are looking for nuts and seeds, digging holes in the ground or finding holes in trees. That's where they store the food they will need during the coming months, when the weather is cold and sometimes snowy.
Squirrels spend a lot of time in trees, which are like restaurants for them. Among their favorite things to eat are nuts and other parts of trees, like tender buds (花苞).
Squirrels may also eat corn, insects and other animals. And, as anyone who has a bird knows, squirrels love bird food!
Squirrels stay active all winter, so they need plenty of food to help keep up their energy. Squirrels tend to bury food underground, piece by piece. Some squirrels may gather food into piles that they put at the base of trees or bury underground.
When they need food, squirrels use their memory and smell to help them find what they buried. Sometimes, you'll even see them digging through the snow.
Squirrels make nests in trees. Some squirrels spend much of the winter in underground tunnels (地道), where it is warmer.
When spring comes, squirrels change their eating habits to new plant growth, like buds and leaves. Sometimes they forget to dig up all their buried nuts.
That's why you'll sometimes find a little tree growing in a place where neither you nor your family planted it. It must have been the squirrels.
