0:00 | So I’m walking along Union Street, I see a squirrel on top of a trash can, holding a-a complete croissant. And, y’know, it’s chewing on it. I’m saying, what are you doing? That’s a really funny thing. So I start to take photos of it, it runs down, it sees me, of course. And I’m basically chasing it across these, like, y’know, tree…tree things on the street. On the sidewalk, rather. And…you can see that it’s holding this whole croissant, and it can’t go up the tree to escape, so it’s just kind of, it’s just kind of cowering from me. I don’t know what it would have done if I had stepped a…y’know, a couple metres forward. But, it’s eating this. I take photos.
0:47 | I sit down, and there’s a crow. A crow flies in. The crow sees the food that the squirrel is eating, y’know. It’s about a quarter of the way into the croissant now. And obviously, the crow wants it. It doesn’t want to eat the squirrel; it wants to eat the croissant. So the crow’s in the tree, next to the tree where the squirrel was at the base of, still eating the croissant, very, very slowly—this thing is, like, y’know, half the size of the body of the squirrel. [laugh] So I don’t know how long it’s gonna take for one squirrel to eat that, it’s gonna…y’know you’ve got to share that kind of thing. The crow’s…very carefully watching the squirrel [licks lips] not moving hardly. The squirrel is moving because it’s eating, and you can see its heart beating very, very fast. I don’t know if they do that normally—they must—but it had to have been faster than normal. I see that…after about five minutes, the squirrel decides to run across the street to escape the crow.
1:48 | And, y’know, before this is all happening, the crow kind of flies between the trees, kind of intimidating the squirrel so that it might do something in its favour. But the squirrel runs across the street—busy, busy road. …And of course, the crow follows it by wing, into the tree above. Looks like they’re fighting. I can hardly see it across the street. The squirrel holds onto it, I can’t see the squirrel anymore. The crow is, y’know, up in the air, the crow’s back down, the crow’s on a, on a railing. I don’t see the squirrel, so, oh my goodness, what happened to the squirrel? I don’t see the croissant in the crow’s mouth, but something could have happened. So, I go over, I cross the street a minute later, and…for an instant I see the squirrel on top of a rock past the wall that was blocking my sight, still holding the croissant. And when the crow sees me it flies over to the tree behind us, [clears throat] y’know, of course, the fight isn’t over. So, the squirrel runs forward into this, y’know, covered terrace (not covered, but protected by buildings) lowered terrace below the street (only slightly below). And the crow’s watching. The crow’s in a tree above…of course. It flies back from kind of where the street is into this…terrace, to a tree closer to the squirrel.
3:16 | The squirrel is still eating the croissant at this point. [in a French accent] Croissant. More than halfway through. And then another squirrel comes down from a tree right by me, and the two of them, y’know, the, the one empty-handed is interacting with the one with the croissant, obviously wanting some of it. And, y’know, Squirrel #1 is not laying up [sic] so. They keep talking, and eventually, Squirrel #2 runs away, because it’s, y’know, not getting its food today. But really, how much, how much of that stuff-how much pastry can one squirrel eat on its own? Anyway, the crow makes a noise. Not a full CAW! but more like a ca! or like a coh!, y’know? Obviously, y’know, ca-maybe calling out in anger that it can’t get to what it wants, but probably also calling for help, seeing if anybody’s right nearby. Then about a minute later [licks lips], the crow leaves. The crow flies away, over the buildings, away from the street where I can’t see it.
4:15 | And, it’s been about three minutes since then, and the squirrel is just munching away! I’m about 20 metres away from it. And it’s just, y’know, having at it. Squirrel won. No injuries, by the looks of it, and nothing taken off its meal. From the garbage can, very far away for a squirrel, to where it is right now. Yeah, this may be the end of the story. I don’t see any more crows, or bigger birds. Or cats, or raccoons, or small men [sic] to take that away from it, so [licks lips]. This could be it. Well done.
5:02 | The squirrel has now climbed on top of a bike, attached to a rack, in order to finish its croissant in safety. I’m watching this from a much farther distance. Couple of people have passed by, I don’t know what it’s doing, it may be actually done by now, I don’t think so. But, I can no longer see the squirrel. It was on top of a bike rack. No other squirrels or crow in sight. I don’t know where the second squirrel went, but I do know-oh! There it is. But I do know where the crow went, which is that way, and it hasn’t returned with company. Oh, I can see squirrel running away even farther…away from this terrace, off to some other buildings. Looking for a safe space to finish its meal [licks lips]. That may be all for now.
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