Squirrels

Red Squirrel, Anchorage, Alaska.

Lovely picture! How did you get such a good close-up? I love the way reds sit with their paws to their chests. They look so cute, but they are aggressive! Even the turkeys give them plenty of room at our feeder.

Today I had an encounter with a red squirrel. I have bird feeders hanging from a plant hangar on the deck and a bowl of seed there, also. Today a gray squirrel was in the bowl eating seed when a red squirrel approached. AS the bowl was already taken, it climbed the post, pulled the bird feeder over to it and started eating out of the feeder. I decided to go out to the porch and squirt it with a water bottle. I did, it ran down off the porch. Next thing I know, it's head popped up and it started to come back up--I squirted it again. It left. Again, it reappeared, I was standing there with the water bottle in my hand and it started to come in my direction (very small porch)--the look in his eye was not very friendly. I thought he might actually be going to attack me, all I had to defend myself was the squirt bottle, so I let him have it again, and again, until he turned around and finally left the area. Phew. Has anyone actually been attacked by one? Thanks, Karen (aka liebran)

Hi Liebran. I'm afraid I had a bit of a giggle imagining you frantically fighting off the tiny attack-squirrel with a water bottle. Personally, I have never been molested by a squirrel, but I do recall someone once posted a video that showed a squirrel at a feeder biting a deer on the nose! I guess the moral is "Never get between a hungry squirrel and its food".

the only instance i've heard of someone getting bitten is the squirrel was actually being fed (hand fed mind you) by a neighbor.... so this lil squirrel was expecting some food, and a poor soul got nipped.

actually, from what i heard (it was in the local paper... but this area is about 6 blocks from me)
the lil squirrel was terrorizing the neighborhood.

don't recall what they did with it though.
I think it was trapped and moved to the nature center property.

Hey, this was a BIG red squirrel (LOL). We do have smaller red squirrels that don't seem to have grown at all over the last few months. My husband thought he read somewhere that some red squirrels stay smaller till the spring when feed is more plentiful and then they grow. But I haven't seen them grow yet. I'll look for a picture of one. Has anyone heard of this before? We are in Western PA. Karen

Red squirrels are much smaller here and but are known to be quite fierce. There are several ugly stories about the red squirrel, but watching them, they appear to be the same as any other squirrel.
We usually see one or two a year. This year I have seen 5 in the feeder at once, and all are full sized. We are really having a red squirrel boom here.
Here is the picture from the back, but it shows his color. He is on an old stump waiting his turn clean up on birdseed. Fat little guy already.

Here is my favorite chippy picture.

Here is one of the little red squirrels I mentioned above. Karen

Here is one of the gray squirrels at the porch feeding bowl (which they just knocked over onto the porch, so I have to clean it up before the dogs get to it). The picture is through the window, so is hazy. It looks like he's saying "Whatz you lookin at?" Karen

Little red was back on the stump posing this time. I too am taking through the window. It makes it tough to see, but still fun pictures I think.

Yes. That is exactly what my little red squirrels look like. Do yours ever grow into big red squirrels? Thanks, Karen

No, that is as big as they get, a little larger than a chipmunk. We have gray squirrels, black, and fox squirrels, the fox are the big red ones. One fall I saw one with a hunter's orange tail. It was something.

Interesting, do you know what they call the little ones? Karen

Just red squirrels is all I know. Boy, there is a bunch of the buggers this year. Never seen them this bad.

Duh. Well, I went to the Penna. Game Commission and checked on squirrels. It seems that what we all have been calling red squirrels are really the fox squirrels and the little ones are actually the red squirrels. Going to take me awhile to get used to calling them that. Even my husband didn't know that. Learn something new everyday. Karen

Squirrels can be brassy little critters. My hubby and I love to hunt. We've both had the experience of unwittingly putting our stand in a tree that has a squirrels nest way up in the top. Boy, do they ever get mad when they come home late in the evening and find someone sitting in their tree! We've both had times when the little bugger will come down the tree and get within two or three feet of our head and fuss up a storm at us. It's really funny to watch but doesn't do much for our deer hunting efforts, lol.

Nature lover
You are right. Those things are crazy during deer season, what fights they have. I start naming them. And let's not forget the noise they make! They can sure can sound like a deer walking in, it can sure put you on alert!
liebran
I was thinking that maybe you were calling the fox squirrels, red. Glad you figured it out. I learn new things about the wildlife every day. It is hard to change a name of something after years of use. My grandmother called a hawk weed, indian paint. I had been calling it wrong for years. Then some things are local. We call ruffled grouse, in this area, partridge or pats, even though we know better. No wonder we get confused!

The little dears are driving me crazy. We have about 12 gray squirrels, 3-4 fox and about 3 reds. They are eating the birds seed like crazy. I have to put out extra food for them to keep them away from the feeders. They prefer the bird seed to squirrel food, except the shelled peanuts in the squirrel feeder. They go for those. I would hate to add up the cost of the seed we go through each month. I'll have to get out some of the pictures. (Also, the raccoons like the bird seed as we all know!) Karen

I do not like squirrels. They are cute, but when there are too many there is trouble. I found there are some great feeders that have a spring-type perch on them. This not only keeps out the squirrels and coons, but you can set it so that a rose-breasted grosebeak can eat, but not a blackbird. We saved so much money in a month it paid for the expensive feeder. We have too many trees and bushes where we feed and this makes baffles and such not work.

cpartschick,
You are right about those squirrels being noisy! Do you hunt? Guess so if you know they sound like a deer walking through the woods. They are funny to watch. I was sitting in a stand one time and saw some very young ones playing together. One lost it's grip on a limb and went about 30 feet to the ground. It quickly recovered, looked around with a look that seemed to say, "Did anyone see that?" and then took off running back up the tree. Too many of them would be a pain at the bird feeders but, fortunately, I only have one and I enjoy watching it. It's brassy enough that it actually runs the crows off!

Yes I do hunt. During bow season I have a spin feeder. This one squirrel I called "fatty 2X4" could run up the leg and reach way out and grab the mechanical spinner and spin it to get even more corn on the ground. Then another squirrel a black one with a white tail "skunky" used to chase all the other squirrels out of the feed, while skunky was busy, "smarty" would come in and eat. At least for a month they were out of the bird feed, but they can sure clean up that corn. "fatty" had a little white spot on one side and this spring I saw him at the bird feeder. It was amazing, after all winter he was normal sized.

LOL! I love it that you name them! I'd do that, but all my grey dudes look alike, lol.

~Kris

They are all still here. I think we have more than 3 red ones this year, and less fox ones. But tons of gray squirrels. I even asked the local meat dealer if any of his customers ever ask for squirrel! He said, no. Well, I said, if they ever do, you know where to come. We have at least 14, some smaller, probably last years kids. Sigh. Karen

I have squirrels going into my garden and stealing tomatoes right off the plant any idea what to do to keep squirrels away from garden

Buy one of those plastic owls and post it near your tomatoes. Squirrels are deathly afraid of owls since owls will eat them for lunch.