Brains over brawn..

 Every now and again,  Mother Nature goes and proves beyond a doubt one of the truisms that man has conjured.  Perhaps this is just a way of keeping our human pride in a bit of check by showing that the critters of this world also think...and at times, think better than we do! After working all day in the gardens, I made a quick run to the pier just at sunset.  The sun was fast slipping behind the pines on the opposite shore so I did not have a lot of time to dawdle.  Still, something a tad strange caught my eye.

Keep in mind that our pier stretches a good two hundred or more feet from the shore.  Not too many "land" critters make their way all the way to the end over the water. Perhaps the openness of the marsh and water makes them feel vulnerable to predators or perhaps they have just never had the urge to venture down the long stretch of planks.  It is true that ducks, geese, pelicans and other waterfowl occasionally visit the end of the pier but rarely anything else.  Yet, I am quite sure that none of the waterfowl were the perpetrators of the scene that I encountered on today's visit.  Our pier was made mostly using recycled lumber.  This included the large posts that keep the whole thing in place.  These posts bear evidence of their previous use via holes drilled through them at varying heights.  It was what I found hidden in these holes that led me to think that some land-loving critter had visited the pier often.  Poked deep inside each hole were acorns!  Lots of acorns that some critter had stored there for the winter!  I do not think this was done by squirrels...surely!  By the rat-a-tat-tat that I hear all day, I would have said that woodpeckers might be the perpetrator but then, again, blue jays have been known to store nuts for future use.  But why in the pier posts?  Unless....

As I sat pondering the enigma, a thought entered the head!  Two things actually occurred to me!  Maybe whatever critter hid the nuts in the posts grew tired of having other critters find and eat their other stored ones.  By hiding the acorns all the way  down at the end of the pier, the stash would not be easily found by other land critters.  The other thought?  The posts had pre-drilled holes!  If this (most likely) was a bird, that bird did not have to use brute force to peck holes in a tree!  The bird was using its brain over brawn!  Smart bird!  Smart in many ways!  The holes were already accessible allowing for more time to gather nuts! The posts are in a remote location, not many others would find the stash!  The post are durable unlike a dead tree ensuring that the nuts would remain intact! Waterfowl would have a hard time retrieving the nuts even if they wanted them! Good job!

Now, my job comes!  I need to watch the pier more closely to discover just what type bird (or other critter) is using the pier posts!  It will definitely be interesting to find this intelligent critter!