Earlene Lawrence of Easton is a full-time ed-tech at Easton Elementary School. Every school day, she helps kids in kindergarten and first, third and fifth grades keep up with their classwork.
But she’s also an amateur photographer and at the end of most school days, she watches her bird feeders through a window, waiting for chances at beautiful candids of wildlife.
“It helps me unwind,” she said.
Lawrence chronicles what she sees on her Facebook page Moments in Time Photography, where she posts a good mixture of scenics, closeups of birds and a few animals she takes from her house or when she’s out and about in Aroostook County.
But earlier this week, Lawrence witnessed a red squirrel brawl under her bird feeder like she’s never seen before.
It all started with one red squirrel, happily munching seeds that had spilled from the bird feeder onto the ground. She had seen it before. That one and another that tended to come eat under the feeder at different times.
But on this day, the two squirrels showed up at the same time for a meal under the feeder. The second squirrel sneaked up on the first multiple times and would scurry away after coming within 6 inches of the first.
Finally the first squirrel turned around and stared hard at the potential threat to the seed pile where it was eating.
“It had this particular look on its face and suddenly it just went for the interloper,” Lawrence said.
She began snapping photos fast.
The two squirrels wrestled, then the second squirrel ran away, returning a few minutes later. It looked like the animal would keep its distance and respect that the seeds on the ground belonged to the first squirrel at the moment.
Then it barreled over the embankment and just went for it, she said.
Photographing the brawling squirrels was a challenge, Lawrence said. The animals were too fast for most of her lenses, but she was able to get several good shots.
“I had to crop a lot so they would be clear,” she said.
Lawrence will soon have more time for her hobby. She plans to retire at the end of this school year after 23 years at Easton Elementary.
“I really enjoy photography and working gets in the way,” she said, although she plans to do some substitute teaching.
As for the squirrels, there was no king of the seed pile in the end. The pair chased each other into the woods and that was the last Lawrence saw them that day, she said.
She’s only seen one of them since. The fate of the other isn’t known.