With Halloween approaching, Whatcom ‘wildlife nerd’ creates backyard squirrel-o-lantern
Though she grew up in Whatcom County, it wasn’t until she and her family returned to the area in January 2020 — right before the onset of COVID-19 — and found a home in the Glenhaven area that Tia Renee Melhus became a self professed “wildlife nerd.”
How else do you describe someone who deliberately carves, baits and hangs pumpkin jack-o-lanterns in her backyard strategically so that squirrels will stick their head inside so she can snap a picture of them that makes them look like tiny, furry versions of the Headless Horseman?
“My husband was making fun of me,” Melhus told The Bellingham Herald. “He heard me in there giggling to myself while I was waiting for the squirrels to come so I could take a picture. I’m such a wildlife nerd.”
A wildlife nerd with a mischievous sense of humor, especially around Halloween, and a keen eye for photography.
Her pictures would send a cold shiver down Ichabod Crane’s spine and make just about anyone else chuckle at the sight of squirrels standing on their hind legs and sticking their heads inside the pumpkins, perfectly making them look like they had a jack-o-lantern for a head.
We’ll call them squirrel-o-lanterns.
Melhus posted the pictures on Whatcom Wildlife Facebook page Wednesday, and already they’ve been shared at least 60 times and garnered more than 280 likes, laughs and love reactions.
Whatcom backyard wildlife fun
Interacting and having fun with backyard wildlife has been a constant for Melhus and her family since they moved into a home near Reed Lake shortly before COVID’s onset.
When the pandemic shut the area down, forcing her to work from home while her kids learned at home, Melhus said she and the kids found new ways to enjoy the environment they were found themselves spending more time in, enjoying the squirrels — three gray and one black — that lived in the area and the countless birds that visited frequently.
“I think they (the squirrels and birds) got pretty used to the lady coming out and throwing peanuts and seed for them,” Melhus said.
She’s also hung corncobs on bungee cords to entice the wildlife to interact with them where Melhus and her family could watch and photograph.
Another idea, she said, was putting some carved pumpkins outside around her patio and sprinkling some birdseed around to “have a little fun and create a nice background for photos of the birds.”
She’s even allowed the squirrels to crawl through her carved jack-o-lanterns, using food to entice them inside the pumpkins.
‘It’s cheap entertainment’
But perhaps her best idea — at least she thought it was her idea — was the squirrel-o-lanterns.
“I have a squirrel feeder that is the shape of a unicorn head from Archie McPhee, that they have to stick their head up into, so it looks like they have a unicorn head on a squirrel body,” Melhus said. “I was carving pumpkins with the kids, and I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if we had a jack-o-lantern squirrel feeder?
“So I set about doing that, and then I looked it up on the internet, and danged if others hadn’t come up with it already. So I guess I came up with it, but others did, too.”
The steps to making her vision become a reality good enough for a wildlife nerd and Whatcom County social media fame?
▪ Cut the hole in the bottom of the pumpkin and clean it out.
▪ Carve the face and then spread peanut butter inside the pumpkins “just enough so they will smell it and want to stick their heads up inside,” Melhus said. Normal peanuts don’t work, because they will fall through the hole in the bottom.
▪ Put a hole through the stem and string a wire to hang it, then figure out how high to hang it so that a squirrel standing on its hind legs will look just right.
▪ Grab a camera and wait — and try your best to contain your giggles and excitement, which could scare off the squirrels.
“Once we got the other distractions that they’re used to playing with in my backyard out of the way, it didn’t take too long,” Melhus said, estimating it was only about 15 or 20 minutes. “It’s cheap entertainment.”
But it’s also been much for than that.
It’s combined four of her passions: photography, wildlife and birds, decorating and staging, and entertaining or bringing joy to others.
“My husband, myself, and the kids are so grateful for the home that we found right before COVID hit,” Melhus wrote in an email, “and with all the stresses and changes that came along with COVID, the backyard wildlife is a HUGE contributor to keeping our positivity, sanity, humor, and overall well being.
“Any opportunity we can find to make each day just a little bit brighter, sillier, or bring joy to ourselves and others around us, we take it.”
This story was originally published October 16, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
