Posted in Animals, Past events

Happy Squirrel Appreciation Day!

You may not have heard of it, but there really is a Squirrel Appreciation Day. Although not officially sanctioned by any government (that I know of), Squirrel Appreciation Day was founded by wildlife rehabilitator Christy Hargrove in 2001, and it falls on January 21st of each year. He believes that a good way to commemorate this winter holiday would be by putting out some extra food for the squirrels in your yard. In the slideshow below, you can see an Eastern gray squirrel helping himself to food Read more ➜
Posted in Animals

Chipmunks eating, planting and stockpiling

Squirrels and chipmunks both stockpile acorns, but it matters whether the acorns fell from a white oak or a red oak. The acorns dropped by white oaks sprout soon after landing on the ground, but the acorns of the red oak lie dormant all winter and sprout in the spring. Since the sprout consumes the energy that was stored in the acorn, rapid sprouting makes the acorns of the white oak a poor choice for stockpiling. So squirrels and chipmunks typically eat the acorns produced by white oak as soon as Read more ➜
Posted in Animals

Squirrels of unusual color

All the squirrels that I am featuring today are Eastern Gray Squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis).  Although my focus is going to be on unusually colored squirrels, lets start by taking a look at some normally colored ones. I believe that these squirrels look gray because their fur includes a random mixture of black and white hairs. There are brown hairs, too, but the amount of brown varies greatly among individuals. Nonetheless you can count on the underside of a gray squirrel being Read more ➜
Posted in Animals

Ninja Squirrel at Johnson Woods

The squirrels that I see in our yard and in municipal parks are so accustomed to people that they don't pay us much mind. But when we venture into more remote settings, squirrels soon remind us that we are big, scary creatures.  While my daughter and I were exploring Johnson Woods State Nature Preserve, we caught the attention of the squirrel below. When he had first noticed us, he tried scurrying up the trunk and clinging to the tree. However after holding that position briefly he apparently Read more ➜