Squirrel Appreciation Day

January 21, 2016 • 3:15 pm

I should have asked readers to furnish pictures that they took of squirrels (perhaps offering a prize), but it’s too late. Fortunately, two readers sent in photos, and I have one of my own. Remember that it’s officially Squirrel Appreciation Day, and if you have photos on hand, send them to me and I’ll add them to this thread.

Here’s one of mine, fed on the windowsill. He’s eaten all his sunflower seeds and is asking for more.

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From reader Chris B.

In honor of squirrel appreciation day.  This is from a few weeks ago when we had not gotten much snow yet here in upstate NY.  The flagpole arrangement for the feeder was not specifically intended to exclude squirrels but you can see it takes some effort for them to get to it.  Have seen a few squirrels there, including this frazzle-tailed guy:

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And from reader Randy Schenck:

Since this is Squirrel Day, let’s have some photos taken on this day.  The Fox Squirrel (Sciurus niger).
21 Jan. 2016, wild life 009

Melanistic squirrel watched by melanistic cat:

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Additions:
From reader Simon Hayward, a shy squirrel:
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From reader Victoria P.:
I did not imagine I could get into the house for my camera and come back to find this squirrel still enjoying a backyard mango. But there she was, waiting for her closeup.
2007 squirrel eating mango
From reader Phil F.:
A South African squirrel for you. This guy is from Cape Town. He seems to have an enormous head of hair, but that is his tail wrapped up his back. Mouth wide open – I seem to recall he was making a lot of noise.
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Diana MacPherson contributes a link from Bored Panda: 20+ Adorable Pics to Celebrate Squirrel Appreciation Day. Go look at them all; they’re great. Here’s one:
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From Vitally Bondar

And Grania sent the vital Twi**er link: #SquirrelAppreciationDay. The photos and gifs include Squirrel with Horse Head:

 

17 thoughts on “Squirrel Appreciation Day”

  1. I don’t have any squirrels where I live now, but where I used to live in Hailey, ID there was a red squirrel that delighted in tormenting Deets, who would go out of his mind for what seemed like hours. Drove me crazy. I wouldn’t say that’s why I moved, but it was a factor.

    1. Just a suggestion, after the fact. If you get one of these small wire animal traps, I think ours is called Have a Heart animal trap, you can catch the squirrel and move the guy to a new location. Just put some food inside and they will come. If you catch something you did not intend, just let it go.

      That is how we got the melanistic squirrels. A guy in town caught one or two and released them at our place.

      1. I have two Haveaheart traps. I used them to trap the diseased feral cats when I moved here. (It was a pretty bad situation.) They’re very effective for catching magpies. I haven’t used them for quite a while.

      1. My Theory – If rats had furry tails like Squirrels, people would love them. It’s that thin naked tail that puts them off.

  4. This is a second year in a row my library (I work for a university) has celebrated Squirrel Appreciation Day, with chocolate-covered nuts, coloring, and squirrel facts. I’m enjoying the confused-but-happy looks I’ve been getting.

  5. Professor,
    I have seen your squirrel on a t-shirt with the legend: Excuse me – your birdfeeder is empty.

  7. Where I live in Central Illinois there’s snow on the ground and the temps have been pretty cold- the squirrels are out frantically foraging all day, as the ground froze hard before the snow, making it difficult to dig up their Fall-buried acorns. I’ve avoided feeding them until the other day when I saw a particularly forlorn-looking one sitting in a big Sycamore tree outside my 2nd floor apt.’s outer door, which opens onto a porch roof. I tossed down a slice of whole-wheat bread and he immediately ran down the trunk and dashed back up with it, folded in half. He ate the whole thing while I watched. The next day, when I opened that door, he ran out onto a branch as close as he could get to the porch and gave me such a hopeful look that I just had to toss him another slice. He was so excited that he almost dropped it several times in fumbling around with it.

  8. For the benefit of antipodians (man and animal) would you accept possums as honorary squirrels?

  9. True squirrel story:

    I liked to feed the birds in my backyard in the Seattle area, especially in winter.*

    I wanted to prevent the squirrels from raiding the feed — because they would hog all of it (and they had PLENTY of natural food). As anyone who has tried to do this knows: It’s hard to do.

    The feeder has to be far enough from the ground that they can’t jump up to it. You have to prevent them climbing to it (if it’s on a pole, etc.). You have to place it so that they can’t jump from above or to the side onto it (or provide a feature that sheds them when they try).

    My solution was to choose a feeder they couldn’t leap onto (no landing place) and suspend the feeder on a very thin, long line from a tree limb.

    The first time, I used nylon line. The squirrels chewed through it. Not where it would seem obvious — out at the part where it descended to the feeder. They consistently chewed it at the trunk, where the free end was tied off. This, it seems to me, speaks to a significant intelligence in those little furry heads.

    I then changed the line to a 1/16 inch (1.5 mm) stainless steel cable. That fixed them. They still tried to chew it at the trunk.

    (* The local birds became so familiar with me and my bringing food to the feeder that, when I would bring out the pitcher with the feed in it, they would flutter around me as I walked and then filled the feeder. They didn’t quite land on me; but just short of it. Very charming.)

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