Maybe because I'm Nuts!!
I like squirrels, don’t ask me why I just do. I know some people call them tree rats and others just think of them as a nuisance, but I find them cute and entertaining. Here at our place in Des Moines, we have a lot of wildlife for being in the middle of a fairly large city. There are a lot of birds; Sparrows, Cardinals, Turtle Doves, Hawks and I have even seen a Bald Eagle fly over. We have seen, Possums, Raccoons, and several rabbits, (My wife's favorite.) but I enjoy watching the squirrels.
In our last home back in Indiana, it was in the country, but we never had any squirrels. I would stop in Murphy Park while I was patrolling in New Harmony, Indiana just to watch the squirrels play.
One day I was driving through the park and saw some of my little furry friends playing around a tree, or playing tag as I called it. I stopped my car to sit and watch, and on further examination, I noticed that there were two trees that just full of squirrels. I had never seen so many in one place. As I watched them play, court, or whatever they were doing one of the squirrels got knocked off of a branch. Now, this little fellow was probably thirty feet up and was freefalling to the ground, as he fell he spread eagle. I guess that slowed his fall or he was just tough because as soon as he hit the ground, he popped right back up and ran back up the tree.
As I continued watching the games, all of a sudden they all just kind of stopped moving and started barking. The barking or talking amongst them lasted about a minute, then suddenly they all ran down the trees and across the park to a different set of trees. This was a herd of squirrels, at least 50 of them, I tried to get my phone out to get a picture, but it happened to quick. It was incredible, I think if I had been in front of them it might have scared me to see this many little fuzzy creatures charging me.
Here in Des Moine, we have at least five squirrels that visit out ash tree in the front yard and the maple in the back, but I think they are really interested in the neighbor walnut tree that hangs over our property. I said five, but I think the new babies are just coming out, so we probably have more. We do have a corn ear feeder on the ash tree along with to bird feeders, so they like it there, and they bury the walnuts in our yard.
We have named two of our regulars, one Fatty because he is so much bigger than the others and bullies them away from the corn. I say he in a general term for all the squirrels, but fatty is a boy, I can tell when he sets on the corn perch, it pretty hard to tell the difference but if you can get a good look at their bellies you can figure it out. He will sit and stare at me while feeding his face with corn until his cheeks almost burst. I talk to him in the morning, and he barks back at me.
Then there is Stripe, he has a black head and stripe going down his back. Stripe is small and nervous, if he hears the slightest sound, he will run off or up the tree. He actually lives in the maple tree across the street, but goes back and forth all day. I hope, after naming him Stripe, that if he gets wet, he doesn’t turn into a gremlin.
There is another one I call Ninja. This little guy is live an acrobat, he is always spinning around, running up trees and doing a back flip off of the trunk. Not only is he limber but he is fast, is always zoom, zoom, zoom, for him. He doesn’t have any distinct marking, but I can pick him out when he moves.
Can somebody answer for me if a squirrel is crossing the road and get three-quarters the way across and a car comes, they will run back to the side they came from, instead of just go on to where they were headed in the first place?
Anyway, they are so fun to watch and have their own personalities. I am sitting watching them now out the window where my computer sits. I guess if they were ugly like possums or just nocturnal like raccoons they would be so interesting. They have that cute little face that is funnier looking when their cheeks are full of food. Their coloring is beautiful, and when they are sitting in the sunlight with their tail curved up over their heads, the fine hairs on the end of their tail create a brown halo above their head.
Squirrels seem to work hard storing and hiding food to make it through the winter, But they also are playful. However, generally, if you see squirrels chasing each other it is usually a male chasing a female. Squirrels do not have a steady partner, and a female is in heat only a few hours at a time, but this doesn’t stop the make from pursuing her. A while back I watched this ritual, and the make tried several times, and she would run off, after several attempts he caught her, I felt bad about watching, but it was just nature and fascinating to watch. If you want to see it, you can find a video of squirrels mating at YouTube.com if you are into Squirrel porn. Hehehehe!
Squirrels see really well and have a good field of view with their eyes on both sides of their head. Their sense of touch is very acute also and can feel vibrations of something approaching.
Sturdy claw help squirrels climb but have you ever noticed that cats, raccoons, bears and other mammals that climb trees, have to back down whatever they climb, and squirrels go down head first. They do this by rotating their ankles 180 degrees, or backward so they can hold onto or even hang upside down from the tree.
The teeth of a squirrel follow the typical rodent pattern, with large gnawing incisors that grow throughout life, they won’t wear out and grinding cheek teeth set back behind a wide gap.
Many young squirrels die at birth, they are blind and helpless, or in the first year of life. Some squirrels can live 5 to 10 years in the wild.
Squirrels breed once or twice a year and give birth to three to six kittens. The young are born naked, toothless, and blind. Usually only the female looks after the young, which are ready to leave the nest at around six to ten weeks, and become sexually mature at the end of their first year. Ground-living species are social animals, often living in well-developed groups or colonies, but the tree-dwelling species are more solitary. If you look into a tree in the winter and see a squirrels nest the bigger more secure nests are the females and the ones higher up in the tree, and small are males.
Squirrels cannot digest cellulose like from growing plants, so they must rely on foods rich in protein, carbohydrates, and fats. In temperate regions, early spring is the hardest time of year for squirrels, because buried nuts begin to sprout and are no longer available for the squirrel to eat, and new food sources have not become available yet.
Squirrels have remarkable little bodies. For example, a squirrel has padded feet that cushions jump from up to 20 feet long. They are also fantastic runners. Squirrels can run 20 mph. Remember the herd of squirrels? Imagine 50 crazed squirrels coming after you at 20 MPH.
Well, I think that is enough Squirrelly information for today, but if you have time, relax and sit back and just watch these little furry friends. I think you will enjoy it!!!
Thanks to: Wikipedia and www.learnaboutnature.com for some info.