squirrel

[plexi50]

Remember the conductive foam Steve?

I do. Some things are priceless!    ;)

Did you forget to feed that squirel?

[sluckey]

Slucky were you ever in the Boston area?

I spent 7 months in the PMEL lab at Hanscom Field in '74. Lived in Bedford and Chelmsford.

[sluckey]

Did you forget to feed that squirel?

Nagh. That's Stinky. She was a T-totaller but loved to sniff cheap wine.  ;D

Stinky was a hurricane rescued baby that we raised. My wife and I have been raising/releasing orphans for 4 years now.

[plexi50]

Thats great. Our daughters red eared slider turtle is getting huge. Its virtually outgrowing the aquarium it's in

[Animatic]

Slucky were you ever in the Boston area?

I spent 7 months in the PMEL lab at Hanscom Field in '74. Lived in Bedford and Chelmsford.

Ah, well I played with a guitar picker with your same name,
around that time, but a bit later. A fine picker singer too.
Though you might be him.

In '74 I was in Sudbury 2 towns over from Bedford.
And working in the big studio in Maynard for a time.
I did get out to Hanscom a few times but much earlier.

[EL34]

We got white ones here.
I have 3 white ones that show up everyday and get free peanut handouts from me while I work.

They are not albinos, they still have dark eyes and some are whiter than others.

[EL34]

I like Squirrels and Chipmunks.
I have 3 chipmunks I trained to take peanuts from my hand.
I don't trust the squirrels enough to hand feed them, they have big teeth.
If I leave my shop door open, a couple of my chipmunks will come up to me and wait for their peanut. I'll be sitting in my office chair, hear something behind me and there's a beggar sitting there waiting for the goods.

Here's a white baby

[EL34]

I also have bunches of flying squirrels here.
I built a box and put a camera in to film them.
They are pretty cool.
here's a movie with 4 flyers jumping around like a bunch of weasels.

They are about the size of a chipmunk.
http://www.el34world.com/Misc/Movies/D120206T184319.avi

BTW: They are not humping in this video. They play that conga line game all the time. Females and males all do it. They seem to like forming a conga line.
I have seen up to seven flyers in that box at one time.

[sluckey]

We got flying squirrels too. And they occasionally take up residence in my blue bird boxes. When we sit on the deck in the evening we enjoy watching them come to the regular squirrel feeding platforms near the deck. They're pretty bold until you shine a flashlight on them.

Squirrels really are cool to watch. Very playful at times. The juveniles are really a hoot to play with! And always acrobatic. Good problem solvers too! As common as they are, it's surprising how few people really see them as more than a pesky nuisance. Thanks for sharing Doug. Now that comcast has given me 1GB web space, I may put up some pics. If I do, I'll put a link here.

...Steve

[EL34]

Cool, another squirrel fan!

I think most people see them as Rats with nicer outfits.

Each one actually has it's own personality and they are unbelievable smart.
I have about 10 or so that show up every morning for hand outs and I can tell most all of them apart, unless a new one shows up.

Squirrels are smart but I tell you, the chipmunks can outfox them and steal the peanuts right from under their nose every time.

post some of your pics and I'll dig up some more of mine a couple videos I made.

[EL34]

Here's pic of Mohawk and his babe.

The white one is a big male. He is king stud muffin around here.
He's so big that he sits up for a peanut and his package drags on the ground.  ;D

I built a couple of those boxes and put them up in the trees about 20+ feet. A few females raised young in them.

In one of the boxes, a swarm of honey bees moved into and stayed for two years.

[EL34]

Here's another one of Mohawk when he was a pup on my porch.

[Animatic]

Very nostalgic for me.
I haven't seen a squirrel in 4 years!

Cute lil guys for sure.

[PRR]

> few people really see them as more than a pesky nuisance.

Bah, tree-rats. I know this is their world and I'm just a squatter, but what an attitude!

True, they do far less damage to car and yard than road/garden rats (AKA deer).

And they do us one favor. We (they?) have an enormous Tulip Tree. You almost need binoculars to see the flowers. The squirrels chew the ends of the branches off and drop them to the ground for easy eating of Tulip Tree nuts. We get an ample number of Tulip Tree flowers for the house that way.

> Each one actually has its own personality..

For sure.

> and they are unbelievable smart.

Sharp as a tack. All semester they lurk, hitting the trash only between class periods. The DAY that the semester is over and most people leave, they are all over the trash and unafraid of the few people stuck on campus.

My Corgis believe their job is to keep our yard free from squirrels. Yap-yap-yap-yap-yap with tiny legs spinning like Formula One car pistons. Squirrel hops on the fence and chuckles. He can read them like a script. He's often back on the ground before the Corgis get inside again.

I like chipmunks. But they are ground-dwellers, and Suburban ground is too neat to leave them much habitat, and the squirrels in our over-healthy trees scold them incessantly. You say your chipmunks out-fox your squirrels; my chipmunks (2 in 20 years) have an inferiority complex.

Groundhog lives under my porch. Hardly ever see that guy. He has a tunnel into the back, the Corgis know it, but never find him.

Bear and coyote are coming back in the NorthEast. If we stay on our couches enough, nature will return and we won't notice.

> They are not albinos, they still have dark eyes and some are whiter than others.

There are degrees of albinism. I had a friend with severe lack of pigment. It isn't just color, the pigments serve many functions throughout the body. His body was messed-up more than skin-deep. Most European-stock people are mild albinos, but there are so many of us that "Albino" is defined lighter than us. Your Mohawk is more Viking than Nubian, and not near what we call "albino" in people. The gene for hair-color is fickle, and if you don't have a lot of eagles Mohawk will do fine. The gene for retina pigment is less changeable, because without pigment you are blind, and that usually gets you dead before you have pups. He may have liver issues but obviously not enough to stunt his appetite.

[DummyLoad]

i love squirrels... i hate squirrels... i live in austin, tx. and work for a larger state university. we share a considerable amount of aerial/buried fiber optic cable made up into several smaller metro rings within the city and outlying metro areas. we share that fiber with other state, educational, city, and county agencies... those animals have cost us literally thousands of dollars in maintenance/repairs. it seems as though they like to chew through the outer sheath and lick up the gel-coat.  :-/ folks on the poorer sides of town like to shoot at it... drunks take out phone poles and take down a segment(s) almost monthly it seems...  :-/

like PRR says, nothin' but a bushy tailed rat!  ;D

they love my pecan trees and i have no problem sharing... plus they keep the dog entertained...  ummmm... pecan pie...  8-)

lastly, they seem to be allergic to pole pigs and electricity... but that's another story...  :o

[jhadhar65]

Squirrel Attacks Deer

[sluckey]

Funny! I just saw that on tv last night.

Wish I had some video of Woody chasing my wife around the yard. Woody is almost 2 years old and he was raised alone, so he has a tighter bond to us than most of the orphans. He still runs to us anytime we're out and loves to climb an play under your shirt or coat or whatever. He also bites! Hard!! He always draws blood too. You can never tell if he's in a playful mood or a biting mood until it's too late. Once was enough for Carol. Now she runs from him. I've seen her run to the other side of the pool and also into the house to get away. All Woody wants to do is climb up your back. And sometimes bite! It's funny seeing an adult run from a squirrel.

I gotta put some pics on the net.

[EL34]

Man, squirrel teeth are huge and powerfull. It would scare the crap outa me too!

One time one of my chipmunks accidentaly nipped my finger as she was taking a peanut from me. It didn't hurt cause she realized that my finger was not the peanut and then went for the peanut.

That was enough to give me respect for rodent teeth.

I can only imagine a  big yellow set of rodent teeth piercing my flesh.  :o

We also have vandal white squirrels here. A couple of them stole my Nova one time.

[sluckey]

We also have vandal white squirrels here. A couple of them stole my Nova one time.

Hey that's better than blocking it up in the front yard!    ;D ;D ;D

Wish I could get'em to steal some of my crap!

[EL34]

Yeah, well they caught the two thieving bastards that stole my Nova.

They locked em up for a few days, but they are back on the street now.

When I got the car back, the back seat and the trunk was full of walnut shells.

[Dynaflow]

 This is after they been on the yard on the weight bench in general population. They gotta bulk up or they end up being somebody's bitch.




Regards,

Dyna

[sluckey]

...the back seat and the trunk was full of walnut shells.

I bet they pissed on it a bunch too!

I feed about 100lbs of 50/50 corn and sunflower seeds per month. I keep it in a steel garbage can under the gazebo for convenience. The lid to that can always has fresh piss on it from the squirrels marking their territory. It's mine! No, it's mine!  ;D

I've had 2 calls this week about baby squirrels. The fall and first part of winter was so mild that the squirrels continued breeding. One pinky died before I could return the call and another hairy one with unopened eyes, but the people just wanted info. They want to try to raise it themselves. We're working thru the local Enviromental Center and they say it's been crazy like that since Christmas. Same thing happening with the deer population down here.

[EL34]

This guy was here last week looking for Mohawk.
Said he was from out west and had a score to settle???

[sluckey]

This guy was here last week looking for Mohawk.
Said he was from out west and had a score to settle???

I forsee a good movie.... The Last of the Mohawkians! Maybe they will meet up over at Chimney Rock.  ;D  ;D  ;D

[EL34]

Do they fall out of trees?
Is that how you get them?

[sluckey]

Yes. It was very windy yesterday. There are not many hollow trees around here so the squirrels build nests from sticks and leaves and patio furniture stuffing.  ;D Very few nests survive a big blow. Almost none can hold up to a hurricane.

A young lady noticed her dogs acting funny in her back yard yesterday. They had found the nest and babies scattered on the ground. She called the local Environmental Center, which takes in orphans and crippled wildlife, but not squirrels. They would have to add 4 more staff just to handle the squirrel requests. So the EC maintains a list of people sorted by locality who will take in orphans. They passed on our phone number and here we are.

This is the first year I ever remember baby squirrels in the winter. And I saw a spotted fawn after Thanksgiving! My brother said the late fawn is the result of an over population of does in the area. Could be something similar with the squirrels too, but I think it's a small sign of global warming. I know Big Al would agree!

I've gotta do some ebay shopping this morning. We feed the squirrels Esbilac, a puppy milk formula recommended by our vet. It's expensive over the vet counter. You can find anything on ebay though!

[EL34]

I thought they bred when the food supply was good or bad.
Seems that way around here anyway.

On years that have tons of acorns, I see lots of young uns.

Last couple years, not too many acorns on the trees and very few babies running around here.

[sluckey]

On years that have tons of acorns, I see lots of young uns.

You may just have something there! '06 was dry around here and pecans, hickory nuts and acorns were scarce. We only took in one squirrel, Woody. Last year was a bumper nut crop and we took in 9. Hmmm...

[EL34]

That's usually the way animals and nature do it.
Mice, rats, etc all breed heavy when there's lots of food.

Al Gore only breeds once every 17 years. He's in sync with the locust or Cycadia's I think.

[sluckey]

There's really got to be something to your food supply/breeding theory. Yesterday Sissy, a 3 year old female that we raised, brought her babies to one of the juvenile boxes we have under the gazebo. And since you first mentioned it, I've seen 2 other wild squirrels that are definitely suckling.

Update on the 4 orphans we got last Friday... Eyes are open and they have adjusted to drinking puppy formula with a syringe. Unfortunately, two had injuries and didn't survive.

[EL34]

That's too bad.

By the way, that's not my knarly hand holding that white baby up above.
I got that photo from a lady who takes in wild life, the same as you.

[Dynaflow]

That's usually the way animals and nature do it.
Mice, rats, etc all breed heavy when there's lots of food.

Al Gore only breeds once every 17 years. He's in sync with the locust or Cycadia's I think.

 Well he was busy inventing the Internet I think... :D

Regards,

Dyna

[sluckey]

Here's an update on the squirrels. The big one is 'Lil Bit'. She is the lone survivor of the four orphans we took in two weeks ago. The other three had injuries and just couldn't pull through. The new little one is 'Patty'. We got her on St. Patrick's Day. She's healthy and has a good appetite. When her eyes open we'll begin socializing them more. Hopefully they'll soon be able to move in together. Makes it easier to care for them and they don't imprint so strongly on us when they're not raised alone. They also seem to learn how to be squirrels faster.

[EL34]

Wow, they are tiny.

[Hemi526]

  Cool, I love critters like that and have had many over the years. Never had a squirrel though. the squirrels up here in Michigan are mostly black, every now and then there will be a black one with a white tail or a streaked black and white tail like a skunk. My wife loves to raise small critters like that.

[sluckey]

Well, we just got 2 more Friday afternoon! These came from our neighborhood. They're maybe a week older than 'Lil Bit' and already eating solid food. They may be too old to bottle feed. They're in the big cage. My dining room is beginning to look and smell squirrelly!

[Hemi526]

  How many squirrels do you have hanging around outside you house? When you turn them loose do they hang around or do they end up moving away?

[sluckey]

I have a 1 acre lot with lot's of live oak trees. Most days you can easily count 10 to 20 squirrels whenever you walk outside It can be confusing to count the moving targets! There are six squirrels that we have released over the past 3 years that we see regularly and can still hand feed. There are a couple wild ones that have learned they can get a handout from us also. Sissy is the oldest that we released that's still around. She's going on 3 years old and has had 3 litters. We've see two of the litters, but they are wild. Just last week, Sissy brought 2 of her juveniles to our gazebo and they stayed in a squirrel box for 2 days. She's still nursing them but I don't know where they are.

Some of the released squirrels slowly spread out over the neighborhood. We also lose some to hawks, cats, and cars. It's about 50/50 survival rate after we release them. I don't mean that half of them die. Some just revert back to the wild and blend into the population and we lose track.

Last fall we raised and released 9. None had their eyes open when we got them. I regularly see 5 of those and 4 of them will still come to me and eat from my hand. One is just a little wild but will just go around to the opposite side of a tree. You can get close, but no touchy.

I feed 100lbs of 50/50 whole shelled corn and black sunflower seeds per month. That's my secret to keeping the squirrels out of the bird feeders!  ;D

[Hemi526]

  Thats a lot of food! It's cool that you can still hand feed some of them, I would imagine it gives you some satisfaction, after you saved their lives. Its cool what you do with them Sluckey, I respect you for it.

[sluckey]

I do get a lot of satisfaction from doing this. They're totally helpless when we get them. It's neat to see them gradually trust you and then grow up to live in the back yard, or wherever. I know it's just a squirrel, but they are each unique. And I have a lot of 'payback' to do. I grew up in rural lower Alabama and hunting was just a way of life, whether you 'needed' to put food on the table or not. As a kid and young adult I killed a lot of wild game, big and small. It was a big rush. I killed my last deer in the fall of '86. As soon as I pulled the trigger something inside told me it was not right for me. I haven't harmed a critter since. And recently I've begun my payback.

This is such a bigger rush! Kinda like electronics.

[Hemi526]

  WOW, I had the same thing happen but it was in 98. Hunting in Michigan is a way of life too, mostly deer, duck and squirrel. I had the same thoughts. Its good to know how to hunt, we may need it someday, maybe sooner than we think but why do it when you dont have to have it to live.

[RicharD]

Looks like I'm fixing to have a litter of squirrels in my Elm tree.  There's this hole which has played nest to 2 litters of owls in the past.  I just saw a pair of squirrels lurking in and out of the hole.  1 is either a bulimic or fixing to give birth.  My Border Collie hates squirrels.  He's blasted through the screen twice now in hot pursuit of squirrels.  I hope he isn't a problem.  I also hope the owls aren't watching their old nest.  Last summer there were 3 babies.  The mama owl looked smaller than the babies.

[Hemi526]

  My daughter had a baby duck once, it was in our fenced in back yard, she came in screaming that it was gone. I went out and found the body laying with out a head and was wondering what had happened. All of a sudden a huge owl swooped down in front of me and snatched up the body. I figured out where the head went real fast. The thing was so big it could have knocked me over.

[sluckey]

I bet the owls will gladly share their den with some young tender squirrels!  ;D

[billcreller]

The only wild things around my place are rabbits.  Although I had a skunk under my yard barn last summer.  Used a gas bomb to get him out, and now it's just wild rabbits.  My cat is strictly a house cat, so the rabbits are safe.  There's not much cover around here for wild life, there is worked up farmland all around this area.
    I'm not capable of killing anything in my old age. My last hunting was in 1957, for deer.

[Dynaflow]

 My step son is a falconer. He has the federal license all that bit, currently has a Harris Hawk (3.5 foot wing span 1.5-2.5 lbs). Anyway he does a apprenticeship when the Renaissance Fair is in town. They have a Redtail  hawk that they fly as part of the birds of prey show. One day during its flight out to the handler during the show, he got a sight of one of the chickens in the petting zoo on the property. Well, WHAM he makes a fast dive and hits this chicken which was dead before it hit the ground with a whole bunch of kids standing around. My stepson was horrified that the kids had seen it, but the parents were cool about and the kids were like 'Dude, that was COOOOOL' (sick little kids these days, desensitized from video games haha). Sorry to get off track, but with the mention of the owl I was reminded of the story.

Regards,

Dyna

[billcreller]

A 3.5 ft wing span is a BIG bird!!

[Hemi526]

Falconing would be cool, my license would probably get pulled for teaching it to attack my exwife  ;D  Now that would be COOOL

[EL34]

It would be great if you get them to swoop down and remove hairpieces, wigs and stupid looking hats.

[Dynaflow]

A 3.5 ft wing span is a BIG bird!!

 Definitely, its a impressive bird. Hawks (raptors) have amazing strength in they're talons too. About 250 lbs per square inch. Obviously good sight too. They can see clearly from something like 2 miles away.

Regards,

Dyna