For the past couple of weeks squirrels have been scarce on my windowsill, though the nuts, seeds, and acorns I leave out mysteriously disappear. Occasionally I’d get a glimpse of Mother Squirrel—who had a litter a while back—with distended teats, implying that there was a second litter in the works. (Grey squirrels typically have two litters per year in the U.S.) Yesterday I finally saw some juveniles: clearly the second litter. They were small and very cute, and were a bit stymied by the food. I think their teeth aren’t fully developed, and they haven’t yet mastered seed-opening skills.
Young grey squirrels stay in the nest for about two months after birth, I’m told, so it’s no surprise that I haven’t seen these, and that they looked pretty well developed when they appeared. There are two, and they like to hang around together, so I’ll call them fraternal twins.
Here are two photos of them (sorry for the reflections), and two SQUIRREL VIDEOS I took showing them not only eating (with difficulty), but nuzzling.
The twins:
This one tried to eat an acorn, and got some of it, but also made a mess, scattering bits of the edible nut all around. An adult squirrel would neatly shell the nut and then consume the entire contents:
It took these juveniles about an entire minute to hull and eat a large sunflower seed; an adult can do it in less than three seconds.
Eating and interacting:
More eating:
It’s nice to get some rodential happiness in a labor-intensive time!
Cute!
What is that noise? Sounds like you are in an airplane!
I was wondering the same thing. It probably comes from some laboratory machine or other.
Awww, how adorable! How they must brighten your life when they show up.
Ohhh I want to kiss them! What’s in the middle of the water bowl?
Two rocks to keep the bowl from overturning or being blown away by the wind. They lap from it like cats, which is very cute.
Squirrel school! They’ll probably never forget their first sunflower seeds, or where they ate them….
b&
Fascinating insight, thanks for posting this.
My mum, who lives in Sussex, has loads of squirrels in her garden. She gave up trying to stop them getting in the bird feeders and set up a special set of feeders outside the kitchen window just for them.
After a while they were so tame, they would come in through the cat flap and she’d find them on the work surface eating the cat food.
Dr Ceiling Cat’s happy helper, Windowsill Rat.
They’re adorable and beautiful! Thanks for posting, Dr. C.
Tvillingar Korre!
(Do any in the Swedish contingent know the reference? This was a children’s book ca. 1983, which I can still recite much of the beginning of, from reading it to my daughter.)
Nej, jag har inte hört talas om det, I left Sweden in 1979 with my young son. 🙂
I see that it’s older than I thought – 1969.
Två små ekorre tvillingar
Bor i ett ihåligt träd
Och var den ena korren går
Så följer den andra med
Fnitt och Fnatt så heter de
Och är så lika så
Att inte ens deras mama vet
Vem som är vem av de två…
Nej men, vad söt det dikt! 🙂
When we arrived in Sweden, my son was six years old and interested in dinosaurs, so I never really came across children’s books and poems as there was no such demand from him.
When I lived in California, many years ago, I saw my beloved Golden Retriever, Chester, carrying something around in his mouth. I told him to drop it and found that it was a baby gray squirrel, terrified and covered in slobber but otherwise unharmed. It must have dropped from the nest. I put the squirrel in a box up on the fence and the mother promptly retrieved it.
D*gs aren’t all bad.
Squirrels can be quite a nuisance and there’s no shortage of them around here despite the roaming/feral kittehs hunting the cute rats with furry tails and the delightful flying dinosaurs as they please.
Not long after Rusty, a big white/orange cat, discovered The Cutest Canine in the World was living next door, he eviscerated a bluejay in the driveway. He had never exhibited that behaviour (at least in front of us) in all the years before, but had left us the odd present from time to time on the front stoop – mouse, frog etc.
Once while cleaning the basement apartment in prep for Mr. Gimp, a rescued large male siamese with a deformed front left paw, and his bipedal servant, we heard a muffled bark at the door. Cookie had a decapitated and gutted bird in her mouth. She had found it while rooting in the bushes. Recently, she dropped a young squirrel of similar condition at the back door.
There was a raptor in the area for a while several years back. Mrs. K saw it sitting on the fence when she arrived home one day. It was staring intently into the backyard next door and didn’t notice or care aboot the car pulling into the driveway or the door thunking shut.
There was a new batch of kittens in the shed over there. Two went missing…