03 Tuesday Jan 2023
It probably comes as no surprise that the first mammal I spotted this year was a Grey squirrel – it’s certainly the mammal I see most often.
And that wee beastie was followed closely by the second mammal of 2023, a Rabbit, this one enjoying a snooze in some very welcome sunshine yesterday.
23 Tuesday Nov 2021
This must be the strangest thing I’ve found when out leafmining: part of a Grey squirrel’s tail. There was no sign of the rest of the squirrel and the tail was lying right next to a busy road, so I’m guessing the creature narrowly escaped death by car but is now looking much less bushy!
11 Thursday Feb 2021
Despite the Grey squirrel being an invasive non-native pest, as a non-native myself I have some sympathy for these much-maligned beasties. Today, though, rather than get into a discussion about the presence of Grey squirrels in the environment, I’d like to focus on their claws and nails, if only because I hadn’t really noticed how long their nails can get until I took this photo.
Of course, having long nails makes perfect sense for these furry acrobats. You only have to look at them leaping nimbly from branch to branch or running headfirst down a tree to realise that they need very strong powerful claws to help them perform these amazingly agile and gravity-defying feats. And, presumably, having strong long curved nails helps the Grey squirrel grip tree bark in the same way that a mountain climber uses crampons and an ice axe.
05 Thursday Dec 2019
It’s not just the birds that are consuming winter berries at the moment.
When I’m out walking, I often hear scurrying noises in the tree branches above my head and look up to see Grey squirrels, their cheeks stuffed with berries, their paws reaching out for the next delicious morsels.
And it’s not just a berry dessert they crave, of course, as they’re also well known for their liking for nuts. In the photo, right, the squirrel is holding Alder cones, which it has just been munching on.
30 Wednesday Oct 2019
It’s that time of year when the Grey squirrels prepare for the colder months both by stashing away as many non-perishable titbits of food as they can and by eating fit to burst, fattening themselves up to help cope with the cold months of winter. If only we could all use that excuse!
06 Monday Nov 2017
Tags
burying acorns, food cache, grey squirrel, Jay, nut caching, nut hoarding, scatter hoarding, stashing nuts, storing food for winter
Winter is coming!
The squirrels know it; the jays know it; and they and many other small critters are busy storing food away for the cold lean days to come. The nut is one such food, the acorn a particular favourite of many.
Creatures create two different types of winter food supply. Some have just the one larder where they hide away all their precious finds of nuts and seeds, but the Grey squirrel is a scatter hoarder, secreting food in many different places. You’ve probably seen them dashing madly about the ground, burying nuts in seemingly random locations. Other creatures, like wood mice, coal tits, nuthatches and jays are also scatter hoarders, stashing their winter stores in a variety of different caches. But, I wonder, do they always remember where they’ve put their secret stashes? Somehow I doubt it.
30 Monday Jan 2017
Grey squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) are constantly vilified for their adverse effect on the local environment here in Britain because they are not native creatures. Their ancestors were North American immigrants, first introduced to the British Isles in the late 1870s by local landowners who considered them ‘exotic’ (what were they thinking?). Not only did the Greys bring with them the squirrelpox virus (SQPV), which doesn’t harm them but kills the native Red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris), the Greys also compete with the Reds for food. And as the Greys have a broader food range – they’re able to eat nuts with high tannin contents, like acorns, which the Reds cannot digest – they have a better chance of survival when winters are hard and food resources scarce.
Luckily, there are plenty of folks out there trying to save the Reds – and you can too, by supporting organisations like the Red Squirrel Survival Trust http://rsst.org.uk/ Let’s hope they’re successful in their efforts as I’d hate to see the locals overcome by the brash interlopers from across the Atlantic.
All that being said, there is something incredibly cute about Grey squirrels, about the way they sit back on their hind legs, nibbling on the nuts they’re clutching in their front paws. There’s something about those big doe eyes, and the way they quiver and shake their bushy tails. Though I understand all the arguments against them I can’t help but enjoy their antics.
02 Tuesday Aug 2016
Posted in 'Dedicated Naturalist' Project, animals, nature
A snippet from my volunteer work on the ‘Dedicated Naturalist’ Project, helping to decipher and digitise, record and publicise the life’s work of naturalist extraordinaire, Dr Mary Gillham. This is an extract from a piece called ‘Oak trees and rabbits helped by those crafty grey squirrels’, written by Mary for the Cardiff Naturalists’ Society newsletter, June 1997:
We hear a lot about the squirrels’ intelligence in overcoming man’s best efforts to deter them from appropriating victuals put out for others. Recent work … has revealed their native wisdom in dealing with more natural foods.
Many acorns are invaded by weevils, which are as acceptable as squirrel food as is the surrounding nut, but which shorten the life and viability of the fruit. Acorns collected are assessed for longevity by the squirrels, the infected ones eaten and the sound ones buried for another day. This guarantees them a surer food supply for winter and benefits the oak population by giving a higher than average viability of the acorns left to germinate and provide tender shoots for rabbits, rodents and sheep.
The squirrels’ ability … [is] from a high level of intellect evolved to better their own lot and – as part of the general wider plan governing the complex web of nature – to benefit others. Natural mechanisms of behaviour have more repercussions than are at first apparent!
For the full story about the Mary Gillham Archive Project, check out our website, and follow our progress on Facebook and on Twitter.
earthstar 
You must be logged in to post a comment.