I’m afraid my efforts to get squirrels to nest on my office windowsill have failed. After I put out strips of cloth for the nest, they stopped building it, perhaps due to my scent (thought the cloth was clean). What remains is, as you see in the picture below, a circle of twigs with an empty space in the middle. The strips of socks and teeshirts I left out have been gradually removed to another site, so I suspect that there’s a new squirrel nest that contains my clothes.
But I continue to feed the squirrels on my lab windowsill several times a day, proferring them a buffet of sunflower seeds, peanuts, and—on holidays like Easter—peanut butter. The peanuts are immediately removed and sequestered elsewhere; I suspect they’re being buried. The squirrels have learned over the past two weeks to carry away more than one peanut at a time. The record for one mouthful is three, and it’s quite amusing to see a squirrel try to cram three peanuts in its mouth. (They’re not chipmunks, you know!). They will occasionally eat the raw and unsalted peanuts I give them on the spot rather than removing them, and I noticed that when doing this they discard the papery red coating around each nut.
The sunflower seeds are eaten on the spot, and at a furious rate: about one every three seconds. A squirrel can demolish a pile of seeds in just a couple of minutes.
Somewhere, then, there is a squirrel family in statu nascendi that I’m fuelling. In the meantime, though, the incipient nest on my office serves as a bedroom and dining room for one squirrel, who naps there daily and occasionally noms a purloined peanut. I took this picture of her (?) a couple of hours ago, when she was napping. From time to time, when it’s sunny, she covers her head with her tail, using it as an umbrella to shade herself.
There’s something very soothing about working at the computer and knowing that a furry rodent is snoozing in the sun only a yard away.
Taken through a window (h/t to Diane G for cleaning up the original photo):
![squirrel-2[1]i2](https://i0.wp.com/whyevolutionistrue.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/squirrel-21i2.jpg?resize=717%2C496)
Great stuff. Animals are awesome.
As to feeding – I feeld crows and sparrows at three bushes that have just sprung their first buds here in Seattle. Crows, too, are voracios, and manage to stuff their maws with as many bread parts as possible, and then fly off. They, too, devour, sunflower seeds on the spot, instead of collecting them – the seeds are prohibitively small for this procedure.
Does anybody know what the territorial range of your typical squirrel might be.
(I want to know how far away from my bird feeder I have to transport them after – humanely – trapping them. Far enough so they won’t come back.)
AS to the territoriality of squirrels – there are lots of them on the U.W. campus here, which is ten blocks by ten blocks, plus, and judging by the ones I can identify, their range is at least as extensive as that. Placingg your bird feeder – placing? angling? – in such a way, with rat guards, that no squirrel can get to it, would seem a better way.
I / we bought a fix me up hunting lodge in S.E. New Mexico, in the Sacramentoes, Lincoln National Forest, many year ago now, and there was a hutch, it looked perfect for the two goats we were going to get – it was filled chest high with pine cones, Douglas fir. They are great provisioners, especially at elevations where it freezes and snows.http://www.facebook.com/mike.roloff1?ref=name
I don’t think there is any such thing as a birdfeeder that a squirrel can’t get into.
If you have seen the “rat guards” on ropes that ships on dock are tied up with – something along that line, or an inverted collar of the kind that dogs wear so as not to lick their wounds – something along that line ought to do the trick. However, the beasties of course can neary fly! as some in the species actually do. x m.r
You would certainly think that something like that would deter them, but my money is on the squirrel every time.
My feeder pole with a squirrel baffle never has squirrels. I let them use the other poles…
Almmmmost exactly the same as your typical cat. i.e. who knows, and what are you folloing me for [crack] [SPITZ] NO CARRIER …
What is going on with my auto-repeat!?
Maybe you’ve found a great stuff to scare them away if you want to get rid of them: jerrycoinium.
Either that or they’ve learned that if they make a circular collection of sticks on a window ledge soft fluffy permaleaves will appear that can be used to build cozy nests in secret places.
Something else occurred to me about the beasties, and that is when it comes to crossing a road they are all Hamlets or Hamletinas who change their minds midway as soon as they hear/ see a car – which is why s so many of them are splattered.
Awww, she is so cute.
Squirrels are just rats with good PR…
What luck to have a nest of squirrels so close by since they are such good eating.
What kind of comment is this? It’s nasty and rude and trolling. Do you, Mr. Nelson, have any idea of proper behavior on a website?
I’m sorry. People do hunt squirrels to eat, though. Just a bad joke.
When my mother was a girl, the staple meat that they had to eat was squirrel. On special occasions, they would kill a chicken, but mostly it was squirrel. My grandfather hunted squirrels until shortly before he died.
I recall when I was a teenager and my parents and I went to spend the night at my grandparents’ house. My parents heard someone stirring around in the middle of the night, so they got up to check – thinking that they had upset my grandparents’ systems by keeping them up late playing dominoes. But no, my granddad’s dog had treed a squirrel somewhere out in the woods, and he was getting his gun to get it.
And on a tangent, yesterday I came home from work and my son and his two friends had just seen a flying squirrel in the trees right behind my house. This is a Dallas suburb – I didn’t know we had them here, but their description was right on the money.
It’s a pity they moved the nest, but lovely to have a napping squirrelly companion.
I am glad you are at least getting some part-time squirrel enjoyment. From where I did much of my dissertation writing, I was eye-level with a playground of a tree for the neighborhood squirrels. I find squirrels very cute…until I see their teeth. Perhaps, though, all the squirrel teeth I have had the joy to see in real life belonged to squirrels with inadequate gnawing habits. Google image search “squirrel teeth” at your own risk.
What do they get for Passover?
Have you considered that they may be keeping your windowsill for a second home? A pied-a-terre, as it were. Or are they renting out, advertising it as a desirable bachelor pad, great neighborhood, needs some work, fine views, regular peanuts?
If you later put a box out on the ledge they may choose that spot next year.
Well, the nest-lining didn’t work out. Such is life. That it has been taken (hmmmm, button-battery GPS locators ; may be overkill) is a good sign that they’re *generally* comfortable. So, as I’m sure you’ve figured your self, put the scraps out BEFORE the squirrels turn up next year.
Now there is a slew of undergrad 1st-year projects. Given that any particular [environmental] situation may provoke multiple responses (or none!) … it just begs a Latin square. First year, or second year? (I got hit with Latin squares, from the maths side, in late 1st year “your syllabi may vary”.)
Yes, squirrels are cute and fun to watch. But DON’T turn your back on them – they’ll eat your house. (From personal experience!)
It’s a cute gray squirrel, but do you have the bigger (even cuter) Midwestern red squirrels?
Gee, our midwestern Red Squirrels here in Michigan are significantly smaller than the Grays (though not in personality!) I agree they are adorable.
Our red fox squirrels in the SF Bay Area are typically larger than our greys in almost every dimension — at least the urban squirrels are. All of the more rural squirrels are considerably leaner, and the two types are more similar in size. In short, city reds get bigger.
Well, our Fox Squirrels are large, too. We typically don’t call them Red Fox squirrels, though.
I have a great squirrel story. My neighbors in the Adirondacks have a bird feeder hanging from the branch of one of their trees. It seemed quite squirrel-proof: away from the trunk, high off the ground, and with a metal cone to keep critters from climbing down. One day, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a squirrel land on the ground near the feeder. The feeder was swinging, and more vigorously than the wind could cause. Hmm…. I would not have believed it possible if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes the next day. A young squirrel climbed to the underside of the branch and launched itself toward the feeder, about a meter and a half away. The feeder swung wildly from the impact, but the squirrel hung on to claim its reward. Absolutely astonishing!
Aww, such a sweet little companion. Cute photo!
According to the book Systemantics the squirrel is acting under the Harvard Law of Animal Behavior:
Under Precisely Controlled Experimental Conditions, A Test Animal Will Behave As It Damn Well Pleases.
Ha, ha–that sign was on every other lab when I was in grad school… 😀
I like this part of Dr. Coyne’s personality. I like critters too. They make me smile, sometimes grin.
Squirrels also like corn on the cob. Squirrels in Michigan even know how to peel the corn, then they eat the kernels and cobs. My friend puts out a pile of corn on the cob in her backyard every summer, then sits back and watches the squirrels feast.
The have the cleverest hands and mouths! Is there any other rodent that knows how to eat and peel all kinds of things like that and nearly clean up after itself?