Squirrel Gone Wild

Another post about squirrels, I know. I'm sorry to those who aren't fired up about them. I have been trying to mix it up a little but I have so much footage of them... bear with me.

One day I heard an insistent, ongoing noise of some kind. I located the direction it was coming from and realized it was a squirrel in a tree, who was NOT happy about a cat that was coming his way. The cat, in usual feline form, was so nonchalant, he looked like he didn't even hear the squirrel, let alone was scared off by it. But whether or not the cat revealed any emotion, it indeed walked on by. At which point, the squirrel directed it's displeasure at ME for filming her too.



Probably much to her continued dismay I got a different angle and continued filming, for my own education. It seems like an eternity to re-watch it but it passed pretty quickly in real time. I quit as quickly as I could when I saw she was not going to calm down.
But I'd never seen one doing this before... Never hear squirrels making much noise, because I haven't lived outside a city apartment building since I was 18. And for all the work I've done with them in the last few years, it hasn't been a time that I've heard them talking to each other or expressing anger. I've seen a little chasing but no vocalizing. In rehabbing I occasionally hear the baby cry for attention or call for mom, and when we introduce juveniles who are new to each other, about 10% of the time you hear a moment's spat until they decide to get along. Watch where this sound comes from in the body, and how the effort to make this sound propelled the body forward, like a little leap. In the first video the tail was twitching, in this one it's not.

I could not believe it when I was walking out of the Rothko Chapel after some kind of mediation meeting there, and I saw a squirrel in a tree actually pulling the newly forming, probably tender and succulent acorns off the branches and having a little snack while balanced within the branches! I whipped out my still camera and took some little movies -- very excited about this first little snippet of footage... He goes to another branch and hopefully you can see his little hands actually grab a pair of acorns, rip them off the branch and clear away the remaining leaves before popping it in his mouth to scurry away. The screen becomes so little on blogger that it might be hard to make out.

As you can see, this was end of Sept or early October, as the branches are still full of leaves. The acorns mature and drop in late October or so; there are many still on the ground everywhere, so it's an extensive Thanksgiving bounty.

And here the little guy pauses at the base of the tree to secure the two nuts in his mouth before heading off with an adorable little hop to bury them....



Sorry about the focus problems... I am always caught with just my little digital still camera and whatever it will capture. Focus in moving pictures is not it's strong point.

I love how thorough they are, little paws covering the thing up with dirt from each side of the hole then patting it down hard with both little paws and all their shoulder muscle put into it... making sure there will be no acorn recession in 2010!!

Cute Pic of the Day

Been so busy over at my gift blog, I am just posting a pic today. It's of BIG AL taking a sunbath when he was finally getting a little bit bigger. I hoped that putting him in the sun to sleep after his morning milk would give him vitamins and help make the bones he was developing get a little stronger. If nothing more, it was warm, and that's how squirrels like things to be -- warm. cozy and cuddly. Here, I made his little bed of a scrap of fleece fabric and a cereal bowl. The magazine in the back ground and candle stick holder should give you an idea of his size.

His little tail was finally beginning to fill out and his forearms were getting fur. You can read about big Al by clicking HERE and HERE-- and I encourage you to do so if you have any kind of holiday blues, his little squirrel story is only one of the things you'll find to lift you right out of that. You've come to the right place...

Another Miracle of Life

Today I added to the mounting list of once in a lifetime experiences I've racked up since moving to Houston (whoda thunk it): I fed two tiny baby flying squirrels. Now, we've had humming bird babies and baby rats, both of which are very small (and fascinating, not to mention cute), but these are the tiniest things I've ever held in my hand. And boy, they are eager to eat and grow.

We got them in the other day and before closing, D, the same woman who brought the pregnant dog over (see post below), asked if I'd feed the little ones before we all left. I went over to the tank and could not believe what I saw when I lifted the lid. I slipped my hand in there so when you view the video below you can get a sense of their size. I had no idea how I was going to hold something so small. It feels like you are holding nothing at all, and they seem terribly delicate. It's a miracle that they have life in them, but they do.

A drop of milk seems the size of a kiddie pool compared their little mouths, and one slip up from me and they could suffer dire concequences... but it all went fine.

LOOK at that tiny puss! And those feet! It is not an insect, or a little leaf that'd blown in the door. Nope, there is a nose, a little bit of whiskers, fur, ears and eyes, albeit closed.. and little paws and even littler nails. Check it this teeny weeny fella. When you are involved with nature, and all the creatures we share the planet with, the stunning miracle of it all becomes apparent. Incomprehensible really. All I know is... I'm grateful to be a part of it.

Prepare to Melt

Or should I have titled this "Prepare to Replay"?

Because that is what you are going to want to do with this video. It beings new meaning to the term short, but oh so very very sweet.

Early in November, someone found a young, little white dog wandering around terribly matted and very very pregnant. It was brought to the SPCA but one of the soft-hearted women who runs The Center spotted her and decided to bring her over where we are. Since it's slow season (baby squirrel time was just about over and baby opossum and bird time is a long way off), we could keep an eye on her -- while giving her tons of love and affection, which I have to say she soaked right up without hesitation.

The dog was cleaned and all that horrible fur was cut away. She seemed so grateful to be somewhere warm and safe, with plenty of food and love. She looked at everyone with huge saucer eyes -- a candidate for those collectible figurines you find in the back of magazines.

We thought she was going to have those puppies day one, but two weeks later she was still trotting around, quite content, demanding our constant attention. Just around Thanksgiving she put forth her own bounty in the form of 5 tiny puppies... most were all white and either one or two had a little caramel coloring. When I came in today they were nursing and had their eyes open. I had to scrape myself off the floor. I'd lost consciousness due to cuteness overload.

After doing some work I came back to where the little play pen with the babies were. I heard a little lapping --quite distinct from nursing sounds -- and spotted the caramel one tentatively licking at some real food. I whipped out my camera and caught a moment of it.



OMaGeeeeee! LOOK AT THAT FACE!!!

You replayed it, right?

Marvels and Ingenuity

I've begun to look in trees now that I have raised baby squirrels. I wonder how they possibly survive out in the wind and the rain when they are so little and fragile. I have seen a few squirrels peeking out of a rare cubbyhole in a tree trunk, though they probably had to fight a pileated woodpecker for the real estate. But I learned that squirrels usually make a nest (called a drey) of leaves and twigs positioned between two sturdy branches... high enough to be safe from predators but not so high that they will fall victim to high winds, pelting rain and such. The nests are lined with soft things like feathers and moss. I would love to see one up close someday, or find a film of babies nursing from their mother in the nest. Having fed them myself, and watched them sleep and grow, I have wondered many times how it occurs in the wild.

Back to nests---

I thought this was a squirrel nest when I took it... though it's pretty big. This is what it looks like from the ground:

Then closer:

And closer.


This looks so big that it may be some kind of larger bird's nest. It's a marvel in any case... how is it balancing? While it may be in the fork of two branches, it's extended so far out into space, so far from the trunk of the tree. Considering whatever made this has to carry the materials in their mouth or beak, to get something this big had to be made of many many small deposits of found stuff. How does that first little pile of leaves or twigs stay in place while the critter scurries or flies to find more?

Do any of you know? Have you seen a nest being built by any species? Any related stories or tidbits on the topic? Oh please, do tell!

Sunbath

This is a photo I'd print large and frame --one of my favorite for all the blurry, poorly cropped snaps I've taken of animals, because I am more focused on feeding them or am in some crazy situation or only have one hand free, etc...

This was my first rehab baby, Rocky a.k.a. Mouse. To me it says everything innocent, soft and sweet. Look at that little curled up foot... those tiny nails extended on that little hand behind his head. The soft pink tummy, the teeny whiskers starting to sprout. This is one to click on to enlarge! It will bring a little aaaaah to your day.

(I know, I have conspicuously left out mention of his little weenie. Even his tiny bits are cute)


Every day, after I'd fed a baby squirrel and it was nice and sleepy (the only guarantee they will stay somewhat still for about 20 minutes), I'd put it in a bowl lined with a fuzzy piece of cloth in the sun on my table. Besides that it was pleasantly warm and cozy, the way squirrels like life, I hoped each would absorb vitamin D to strengthen their growing bones.

You think he looks big here until you realize I have him in a fairly small cereal bowl... with all that room to spare. Only way you can tell this is a movie at first is by watching his breathing (if you ignore my swift camera moves).



A week or so later, when Rocky had finally opened his eyes and doubled in size (still tiny as you can see below), I caught him looking out the window at the world he would be a part of in all too short a time.

A cold front blew in last night. Lots of rain and in the mid 40's. I was driving home from Christmas shopping in a chilly downpour and wondered where he was right then. I hoped it was in a warm squirrel box in some kind rehabber's back yard, since he is only about 4 months old now. It's not as cold or snowy as squirrels in other parts of the country endure this time of year, I know. Maybe he is curled up, shielded by his now-bushy tail, dreaming of these blissful naps taken in the Indian summer's morning sun.