I’ll close today’s posts with three unrelated photos.
First, Randy Schenck from Iowa has taken pity on the cold squirrels, and build a double feeder in his Iowa home. Squirrels readily nom corn on the cob (dried, I think), and if you fasten the cobs vertically, as shown below, you get a cool feeder. (They also have to stay on the spot instead of absconding with the cobs.) Randy got a special treat when two morphs showed up at once:
This is the feeder in action with the Eastern Grey Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) and the Melanistic version as well.
Second, here’s dollar I received from a reader, who sent it to demonstrate the new slogan. I want a stamp like that!
And, speaking of cobs, here’s a tw**t from our own Matthew Cobb detailing the progress of his new kitten, still unnamed. I gather that “Mark Ing” is some kind of British academic joke. After seeing the kitten’s whole body, I think the name “Spot” is appropriate.
Is Matthew’s kitten a Manx?
Looks like an amputated tail to me. Which does happen accidentally, through disease, and even (grinds teeth!) by deliberate docking.
Not that I’d suspect for one second Matthew of being involved in such a heinous practice. But some “people” (I use the term anatomically, not mentally) do that.
Nothing to worry about; the tail’s been photographically amputated only. At least, best I can tell….
b&
The tail is there… it’s grey so it’s doing a good disappearing act.
Look closer. The tail turns black and exits, frame left.
Cool squirrel picture.
Little Milton is going to be a botanist!
Pongo, perhaps?
b&
Back on the farm, the squirrels would visit the corn crib (full of whole ears of corn) and by the end of winter eat off all the kernals on the outside surface. All that the woodpeckers didn’t take, anyway.
Maybe that’s just the light, but that looks like a Fox Squirrel (Sciurus niger), not an Eastern Gray Squirrel, to me.
I am no expert on squirrels, possibly you are correct. I’ve assumed eastern grey because of all the black (Melanistic) squirrels. If you know a way I could tell for sure, let me know.
The backs of the ears of the eastern gray turn white in the winter. Fox squirrel ears stay the same color year round. The squirrels in the picture are also pretty chunky, like fox squirrels.
According to my old mammal field guide, the white backs of the ears work for Eastern Gray Squirrels, but it’s hard to see them in the photo. They have white-tipped hairs fringing the tail. Fox Squirrels have the tail bordered by tawny-tipped hairs. They also have one fewer moral on each side on the upper jaw (not useful here). Black morphs occur in both species. I vote for Fox Squirrels.
Thanks for the additional info. I will check on the many more we have here to confirm. Lots of people refer to the red squirrel and I knew that was not right.
Yep…Fox Squirrel…I used to feed both Grey and Fox Squirrels and they have distinctly different temperaments. Greys are a more nervous and cautious species while Fox are laid back and easier to tame. I would feed peanuts and coaxed them to take them from my hand. The Greys took longer to approach and when they did they would be very leery of me and carried their tails close to their backs. They would kind of do a snatch and grab. The Fox were much tamer and would slowly walk up, tails relaxed and flowing behind them, and ever so gently take the peanut from my hand. One female used to extend her paw and softly touch my hand while taking the nut. I think she was delighted to touch a different, exotic creature. I was her petting zoo!
A dollar bill! Wow, I haven’t seen one of those in years. I thought debit cards made them obsolete.
> I gather that “Mark Ing” is some kind of British academic joke
Is there something beyond the obvious (“marking”) to this alleged joke? Any Britons in the room?
Not necessarily. One of the noted authors of books in the Larry Niven Man-Kzin Wars series is Dean Ing. Ing also wrote Pulling Through, the only SF novel with diagrams of how to build a radioactivity detector from wall gypsum.
So “Ing” is actually a name; who would have thunk it?
I still don’t see how “Mark Ing” qualifies as a joke. As a mild quip, perhaps.
> Ing also wrote Pulling Through, the only SF novel with diagrams of how to build a radioactivity detector from wall gypsum.
Good on him! It was high time someone finally addressed the appalling lack of diagrams of how to build a radioactivity detector from wall gypsum in the literature, I say.
Was Matthew grading papers? Either way, “spending the day with ‘Mark Ing'” would be a clever euphemism for one of the activities that I would not like about being a professor. It would rank even lower than “being underpaid” or “kissing donors’ asses” on my list: I’m used to being underpaid and sucking up! Reading and fairly evaluating 30 essays on the same question, not so much.
How about Patch as a name for the cat?
Plural (Patches, because he has more than one). Or maybe his name should be Mark Ing?
Those squirrels look so cute eating their corn cobs without seeing each other!
If I did that at my place another animal would probably make off with them. Raccoons & possums are good at that!
You are correct on the other animals. We have lots of possums and raccoons as well. A large screw up through the bottom of the board is used here. Then you kind of screw the corn down on the screw. Usually the raccoons don’t take the corn. However, if you put suet out, you need to take it in at night.
Punctum is Latin for spot . . .
“After seeing the kitten’s whole body, I think the name “Spot” is appropriate.”
Or Dice. Or Domino.
(“Cats Domino?”)
Domino is good.
If he’s especially lyrical, “Domingo” might be appropriate…especially if he’s most vocal at night.
(If you don’t know Italian, you might appreciate the Wikipedia article.)
b&
Beautiful aria!
Nessun’ll be dorma-ing with crazy kitten dashing about.
imho Domino is too obvious for a name – Domingo not so much.
The kitten is fighting the evil yucca of doom.
The feeder is a great idea.
Mr. Cutie has a great dotted pattern on his fur. How about ‘Polka’?
Aww, memories. Koalas are a real plus about Australia but no squirrels…