I finally got him! This beautiful guy has been around for two years, but today was the first time I got some pictures of him. He is truly amazing, only one I've ever seen. His back and tail are the colors of a grey squirrel with red tail, but his face and entire front that would normally be a lighter color, reddish - are pure black, including his paws. Here he is on the bird feeder, from the side. Looks mostly normal, just seems like a dark picture -
Now, this one is directly from front -
And here's another from the side as he steals the sunflower seeds -
He was running away during this pic, but you can still see how black the underside of his legs are -
just had to share - have any of you seen this type of squirrel before? Dax
very cool dax!!
what a wildlife haven you must have.
I've only seen pure black... you must have some inbreeding goin' on over there.
fabulous that you got a few pics of him/her.
Couldn't resist one more directly from the front -
Thanks, tcs - I've waited a long time for these - he's very shy. And I've never seen a pure black squirrel around here, so I don't know HOW he happened - It would seem somebody is hiding out somewhere - COOL! - Dax
He must have immigrated from Canada. Black squirrels are, or were, common in Toronto, and we see quite a few where I live, out in the countryside north of the city . Our local squirrel population is an assortment of gray, brown, and black. I have been trying to photograph them as they scavenge underneath the bird feeder, but they move around too fast for me to focus on!
Finally, I caught the black squirrels on camera, but I am still waiting for a grey with red ears to pose for me.
How cool! I've never seen one of those in this midwest area. They must be fascinating to watch - and so pretty! Are they as entertaining, and yet "Pains in the you know what" when it comes to stealing the bird's food? Dax
Dax, our black squirrel also has a red tail and red tips on his ears. The rest of him is all black though. Some of our gray squirrels also have red tails.
They would certainly eat all the bird food, if we let them! However, we have squirrel-proofed two of our bird feeders, using a metal pole with a "skirt" for one, and suspending the other from the washing line.
Hi, goldfinch and June_Ontario - Yep - looks like their basic personalities are pretty much the same no matter how they look on the outside. Sounds like we may have the same kind, goldfinch - even though it is sometimes hard to catch on a picture. Gotta love em - I've squirrel proofed a couple also, the only way to live with em - Dax
I give the squirrels their own feeders and they have never ever bothered the bird feeders. And it's not uncommon to have 8 squirrels here at one time. They fight over the squirrel feeders though :)
A few weeks ago i added my first bird feeder.
where i live, i really dont have any trees - though the property behind my house (which i've talked about a lot) has a few small trees.
I put a cheapo bird feeder and a suet cage thing in that tree.
The first day, i could see a squirrel on the bird house, eating the seeds -- which really doesn't bother me -- but at one point, he'she was literally swinging on it to spill the seeds onto the ground -- then he'd jump down and eat the seeds.... though the birds didnt mind either - they all were munching away at the seeds too.
But I am thinking of getting a squirrel feeder too -- just not sure what to do with it (where to put it)
I was thinking of a wooden house type that i could just nail to the wall. (One of those highway sounds barrier walls)
I do have other foods, like bigger nuts and rabbit foods, that i just toss on the ground -- but i'm finding my dog likes to eat that too... he likes nuts and the dried veggies. (weirdo)
goldfinch do you happen to have a photo of your squirrel feeder?
here's an image of the area i just took out my back window
since it's so far away, i did an 'inset' of the feeder in the corner.
needless to say -- i have a lot of wall space where i could attach a squirrel feeder.
Hi - here's a pic of mine, and it works well, but they also climb up the flat bird feeder. Unfortunately, the feeder that the birds like the best, the squirrels do also! I've got to replace the squirrel feeder this year as it's pretty chewed up now. Goldfinch, what do you feed them? Dax
tcs and dax, I'll post some pics this weekend. I have 2 ground feeders that I put a mix in - mostly black oil sunflower seeds, a few peanuts in the shell, a small handful of fruit/nut mix, and in really cold weather a few small chunks of suet. Sometimes the blue jays get the nuts first though. I have a metal feeder I mounted on a tree that I usually just put black oil sunflower seeds in, maybe a few peanuts. I also have a wire tube feeder I made that just has black oil sunflower seeds. And a short log with holes in it for peanut butter, but this is also for birds.
Thanks goldfinch - looking forward to the pictures, and the recipes sound great - I've just been putting out corn and peanuts for them, but adding the sunflower seeds must do the trick! I'm on it! - Dax
We have too much field corn that gets planted around our area so if I put it in the feeders the squirrels won't eat it. Spoiled brats!
Here are pictures of my squirrel feeders. I have two like this, one with a roof and one without.
This is the tube feeder. They can eat from the ground or climb on it.
Log with peanut butter.
Metal feeder on tree. The squirrels have to open the top to get the food. I used to make these out of wood, but the squirrels that weren't very smart and couldn't open it just chewed the feeder to pieces, so I finally bought a metal one.
very cool... thanks for the images.
terese
Great pictures, and now I can see how I can improve on mine! Did you make that ground squirrel feeder? It's very NICE! Plus, I'm at the place you were with replacing a wooden feeder - where did you find that metal one? I haven't seen one like it around here - Dax
Dax, yes, I made the ground feeder. If you want I'd be happy to send you the dimensions, etc. I used. I also made the wire tube feeder. I found the metal feeder in the Duncraft catalog. Not the cheapest thing in the world but it should last a long time.
Yes, goldfinch - please do - it's a very nice feeder - a good project for my son - he likes to make stuff, construction interest is in the genes. Could you send the specs for the wire feeder too? Thanks!! Dax
Here's a black squirrel up in a tree. I'm looking for my picture of the white squirrel.
This message was edited Mar 13, 2007 8:38 AM
Here is a picture of the white (not albino) grey squirrel. I've seen him a few times on my walks, but can't ever get a really clear picture. If you enlarge it, you can see his tail pretty clearly. Cute!
Neat muddbear! I've never seen that white/grey type before - do you have many of them?
And thanks, goldfinch4, again - I see that I promised my son he could do them - DANG! Well, I can help a little, can't I? Nope, better not, don't want to cause a war -
Dax
Wow, that's pretty cool!
No DAX, the white squirrel is the first I've ever seen. The neat thing is, he isn't albino -- no pink eyes or pink skin. He's just pure white with normal colored eyes, skin, etc.
The black coloration on the grey squirrels is quite common up here in Northern Wisconsin, maybe 1 in every 100 I see are pure black; some are almost black.
I have a grey squirrel in my yard that must have had a red squirrel mother or father. He is slightly smaller than the greys, with red haunches and a reddish tail.
I love the squirrels!
Becki: How cool. I just caught this thread. We have his TWIN at our house. Looks like a normal squirrel, but his underside and his legs are black. We call him Blackie. He comes to our feeders. We also have no other squirrels in the area except the normal reddish ones. Weird, huh? I'll try to catch some photos of him, but he is shy too. Linda
Yes, COOL! And they seem twice as shy as other squirrels, don't they - I think that's so neat that you have one too - don't they look amazing? Hope you can get a pic - Becki
Cool. The only place I've ever seen black squirrels was Hastings, Nebraska. They were solid black and lot of the in the park there. People used to tell me I was crazy when I'd say I'd seen black squirrels. Glad to here there are more.
