January 21st is National Squirrel Appreciation Day

RubyK

RubyK

Well-known Member
Location
Minnesota USA
Do you have a resident squirrel in your yard?

Squirrels belong to a large family of small or medium-sized rodents called the Sciuridae. The family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels, chipmunks, marmots (including woodchucks), flying squirrels, and prairie dogs. Squirrels are indigenous to the Americas, Eurasia, and Africa and have been introduced to Australia.

Squirrels breed once or twice a year and give birth to a varying number of young after three to six weeks, depending on species. The young are born naked, toothless, and blind. In most species of squirrel, only the female looks after the young, which are weaned at around six to ten weeks of age and become sexually mature at the end of their first year. Ground dwelling species are generally social animals, often living in well-developed colonies, but the tree-dwelling species are more solitary.

Give your squirrel an extra treat tomorrow.
 

They're certainly entertaining to watch but get some in your attic and .........

I had a long enclosed place under my eaves that had only one entrance and they were building a regular city in there. I didn't want to close off the end until I made sure all of them were out, so because I had heard that squirrels didn't like moth balls, I threw two boxes of them up into the area, actually shooting some in with a sling shot to make sure they got far back. Came home from work the next day and my side yard was littered with moth balls. The little buggers had thrown them all out. I threw them back in, they threw them back out, on and on. Finally...finally....they gave up first and I was able to put up a piece of wood over the opening.

Final score: Jujube 1, Bushy Tailed Rodents 0.
 

I agree they are entertaining but they can also be destructive.

A couple of years ago I had the kitchen window up, I heard a noise and went to investigate. A gray squirrel had chewed through the window screen, jumped from the window ledge to the stove and onto the counter. I had a half bag of chocolate chips on the counter with the top twisted shut, the squirrel had grabbed the bag in his mouth and made it back to the window but the bag was too big for him to drag it through the hole in the screen. The squirrel saw me come into the kitchen and tugged on the bag until I got close to the window then he gave up and left. I sort of felt sorry for him and wished he had gotten the chocolate chips, he probably needed them more than I did!
 
The gray squirrels in my region are cute and entertaining to watch, especially from a hammock. But they are rodents and when they become a problem they are more like rats on steroids. They are amazing problem solvers but they over-think dodging cars when they are on the roadway.
 
jujube said:
They're certainly entertaining to watch but get some in your attic and .........

I had a long enclosed place under my eaves that had only one entrance and they were building a regular city in there. I didn't want to close off the end until I made sure all of them were out, so because I had heard that squirrels didn't like moth balls, I threw two boxes of them up into the area, actually shooting some in with a sling shot to make sure they got far back. Came home from work the next day and my side yard was littered with moth balls. The little buggers had thrown them all out. I threw them back in, they threw them back out, on and on. Finally...finally....they gave up first and I was able to put up a piece of wood over the opening.

Final score: Jujube 1, Bushy Tailed Rodents 0.
Click to expand...

That's a great/funny story jujube!! :D


I was working, screening gravel in a creek bed. When we took lunch, the brown squirrels would come up and beg for goodies. We started bringing a little extra in our lunchbox for them to eat. We called them, da bums.

Think I'll celebrate Squirrel day today by having a beer and watching some Rocky & Bullwinkle.
 
I surely appreciate squirrels. Many many of them have graced my plate over the years. They are the perfect animal to start a young person hunting on. They provide enough of a challenge,are easy to clean and cook.
 
No squirrels (or rabbits) here on the Big Island. I wonder, how many of you have ever had fried squirrel? When I was a kid, my oldest brother would go hunting in the early morning before school, and, depending upon what was in season, we would have fried squirrel or rabbit for dinner. This was back in the Stone Age, of course.
 
The grey squirrel is a pest here. It is an alien species that has drastically reduced the population of the native red squirrel by spreading disease. As such, the red squirrel is protected in the UK while measures are being taken to reduce and control the grey squirrel numbers.

Red squirrels are the only species found this far north in Scotland and are quite common in the pine forests.
 
What interesting stories you all have about squirrels, especially jujubee (can't believe they actually threw the mothballs out) and Aunt Bea.

They are very smart and figure out how to get into bird feeders or anyplace they see food. (Aunt Bea's kitchen.) They have teased every dog I ever owned by chattering down to them from the trees and jumping overhead from one tree to the next. The dogs are mesmerized and will sit there for a long time just staring up at those acrobats. We mainly have the grey squirrels in our yards in the midwest.

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My front and back yard is overrun with squirrels, they eat the pine cones and things like that from my trees, they also bring in shelled peanuts to enjoy in my yard even though they got them from somewhere else. I won't feed the squirrels and they have gotten into my eaves where my husband had to put up some wire screening to keep them out, they're always running across the roof and making the birds squawk. My dog is young, but he already caught and killed one in the back yard. I do appreciate squirrels, I'd appreciate it if they stayed on the neighbor's property who feed them. :playful:

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I do like to watch them though, here's my cat watching one through our front window.

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Dear Jujube - thank you so much - you started my day with a GOOD LAUGH! I've lived in "squirelly" areas in the past and they are certainly clever little devils and are fun to watch. Trying to keep them out of your birdfeeders was a daily challenge by practically everyone in town.
They can really be a nuisance but I couldn't help enjoying their antics. My husband (against all good advice) started leaving a peanut (still in the shell) just outside the kitchen door on the porch step. He would do this first thing in the morning just after he got up...and if he happened to forget the squirrel would come up to the door and scratch on the screen to let him know ! good memories.
 
I've had them come right up on the patio and carefully take a peanut out of my fingers.

My grandmother fed them but one day she tried to pet one and it bit her hand right down to the bone.
 
My grandma loved her squirrels and fed them every day. If she didn't take their peanuts out at the same time every day, one or more of them would hang from the gutters by their hind legs and "knock" on the storm door. The kids in the neighborhood called her the "Squirrel Lady" because there would usually be one...or five...of them following her down the sidewalk when she went to catch a bus.

The funniest squirrel video I ever saw was of one pulling Kleenex out of a box and stuffing it into its cheeks. I guess he (she?) was gathering the Kleenex to feather a nest? He'd stuff and stuff and stuff and his cheeks would get bigger and bigger and bigger.

And if you want to laugh your head off, look up Ray Steven's "The Mississippi Squirrel Revival".
 
Buggers keep on digging up the lawn. They hide stuff and/or when they think they've found something the paw a small hole. A pain when trying to get grass seed to grow.

When they're not fleeing a predator they are interesting to watch. It's like they stop and think after every few steps or so.
 
They are cute to watch but they can be so destructive!!! I have wood porch railings with wood columns and they are chewing them up! I didn't know they did this until just a few years ago I was reading about how they sharpen their teeth by gnawing or chewing on trees and other wood. I have tried so many things and it will work for a little while and then they get used to it and start back where they left off. There is one I see on my porch sometimes and I have chased it off more times than I can remember but it keeps coming back. I am about ready to start target practicing with this squirrel because if I don't, I won't have a porch railing left!!!!
 
Don't have a cute story. I had a squirrel in the woods next to me. I'd let out my three cats and it wouldn't bother him. I'd step out and he'd jump up and down, and make a high pitch "chee chee" sound. I don't know why. Never had an encounter or anything. But every time he was out and I came out he'd do that.
 
We've got hordes of squirrels on our property. With hundreds of oak, walnut, and hickory trees in our forest, they have plenty to eat year round. When I see one digging a hole in the yard to bury some nuts, I usually chase them off, but other than that we pretty much "co-exist". They pretty much stay away from the house and workshop, so that's all I care about. In the Fall, when the walnut trees drop huge amounts of walnuts in the yard, I collect them, and dump them back in the woods, for the squirrels and deers to gobble up. About the only critters I "dispose" of are the armadillos that are increasingly becoming a local pest as the climate warms and they migrate further North.
 
More squirrel stories. Seems like everybody has lived around some type of squirrel in their lifetime.
I'm sure we can agree that they are interesting creatures.
 
I have had squirrels living in the evergreen in my side yard for almost as long as I have lived here. I often put out peanuts, corn and snacks for them. Especially in the winter. The tree is outside our bedroom window, and many mornings I see a squirrel sitting on one of the branches looking in the window.
 

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