Wild Critters

Red Squirrel in the Snow #1

cheeseflavor — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 03:29:33 GMT

Red Squirrel in the Snow #1

Say "ahhhhhh". Here's a shot of a red squirrel foraging for seeds in the snow underneath our feeders.

Red Squirrel in the Snow #2

cheeseflavor — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 03:29:37 GMT

Red Squirrel in the Snow #2

Here's another one of the little guy underneath the feeder. The snow is about 8" or so deep at this time. He would tunnel under the snow and pop up every now and then.

Red Squirrel in the Snow #3

cheeseflavor — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 03:29:43 GMT

Red Squirrel in the Snow #3

Here's another shot of the little guy. It's such a big world when you're a little guy, and it's important to keep a watchful eye when you're a tasty live snack running around on bright white snow. We also see hawks and the occasional owl in these woods.

Red Squirrel Again

cheeseflavor — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 23:30:58 GMT

Red Squirrel Again

The red squirrel is a rather small-sized tree squirrel, only about half the size of the more common gray squirrel. It's bushy tail is somewhat slender and almost as long as the length of its head and body combined. The coat of the red squirrel is a rusty, reddish-brown in summer, turning slightly grayer in winter, and the underside is white. In summer, a black stripe is pronounced along its sides, separating the white underside from the reddish, upper body. Both males and females are about equal in size. Red squirrels are active year-round but will take shelter during harsh weather. In the fall, red squirrels will store their food for the winter in large underground caches. Sometimes they will bury their food at random just as the gray squirrel does. Red squirrels are also known to tap sugar maple trees to harvest the sugar in the sap. They actually bite into the tree trunk to puncture the sap-carrying "vessel" (xylem), leave the tree to allow time for the water in the sap to evaporate, and come back to harvest the syrup remaining on the trunk and branches. Red squirrels are unsociable, highly territorial, and aggressive. They will not tolerate their own or other squirrel species in their territories. They can also be very noisy and are sometimes nicknamed "chatter boxes."

Red Squirrel Under the Feeder

cheeseflavor — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 23:30:40 GMT

Red Squirrel Under the Feeder

Here's a little Red Squirrel that stopped by under our feeder to see what he could find to eat. Though not as numerous as Grey's, we get a half dozen or more of these at times in the woods out back.

Another Red Squirrel pic

cheeseflavor — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 06:06:54 GMT

Another Red Squirrel pic

Here's another of the same squirrell. It was a very good spring for reds. We counted multiple pairs of them.

Red Squirrel up a tree

cheeseflavor — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 06:06:51 GMT

Red Squirrel up a tree

Staring down at us from a tree about 6 feet above the feeders.

Red Squirrel in the snow

cheeseflavor — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 06:06:46 GMT

Red Squirrel in the snow

Red Squirrel eating bird food spilled from one of our feeders. On 3/25/2006, you can see there was still snow on the ground here.

Lazy bunny 2

cheeseflavor — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 06:06:43 GMT

Lazy bunny 2

As you can see, he doesn't even have to move to grab some whole corn. I guess no one told him he's at the bottom of the food chain!

Lazy Bunny

cheeseflavor — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 06:06:37 GMT

Lazy Bunny

Corn fed, content and too lazy to move. He was under our feeders the whole time I was barbequeing tonight. This was taken while the steaks were still on the grill. Ahhh... what a life, eh bunny?

Your run of the mill Gray Squirrel

cheeseflavor — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 06:06:32 GMT

Your run of the mill Gray Squirrel

Taken out back under our feeder on 3/25/2006. Still snow on the ground here in MN.