Squirrels

[OakLeaf]

Burgoo!

[Veronica]

Burgoo!

Thank goodness for Wikipedia.


Veronica

[Possegal]

I had to draw the line when the squirrels took up residence in my house. Pay rent or get out!

[GLC1968]

We got used to feeding both squirrels and birds in our backyard in NC. It was a pain to have to keep filling the feeders, but shooing the squirrels away was a losing battle.

I did contemplate squirrel murder when we discovered that they were stealing all our tomatoes. Yes, you read that right. Squirrels. They waited until they started to turn red and then picked them using our fence as a ladder. It was amazing that they barely disturbed the plants. We humans didn't get a single tomato that year!

[SpinSpinSugar]

You gals aren't going to like this but....

Last summer my BF bought a small animal trap. He managed to catch a couple of squirrels with it and... well... took them out to the park next to our house with our dogs and turned them loose. One squirrel got away... but the other ended up as doggie dessert.

SpinSpinSugar

[Norse]

I had to draw the line when the squirrels took up residence in my house. Pay rent or get out!

A neighbor was home alone one night watching tv when she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. She turned and there, sitting about one foot away from her on the arm of the coach, was a chipmunk, staring intently at the tv. I don't recall what she was watching.

[Veronica]

I had a cat that use to watch "Woody the Woodpecker" with me on Saturday mornings.

Veronica

[Selkie]

Because there are lots of old, big/tall trees in our neighborhood, we are over run w/squirrels and they can be a nuisance. Get in your attic, torment your dogs by standing on the windowsills, steal from bird feeders, etc. I don't advocate killing them. To be fair, they were here first, before the humans infiltrated.

Once the oaks start dropping acorns, the squirrels go nuts (sorry for the pun). They will sit in the trees and throw acorns at you. In a mad scramble to accumulate a good stash of acorns, many of them get even more careless about dodging cars. Lots of smooshed squirrels as a consequence. Darwin rules!

Was it the year before last when the oaks weren't producing many acorns in the DC area? We saw a big drop in the squirrel population as a result. Never fear, they are back in force (interestingly, more black ones than grey).

[salsabike]

You gals aren't going to like this but....

Last summer my BF bought a small animal trap. He managed to catch a couple of squirrels with it and... well... took them out to the park next to our house with our dogs and turned them loose. One squirrel got away... but the other ended up as doggie dessert.

SpinSpinSugar

You're right. That is not likable.

I had a cat that use to watch "Woody the Woodpecker" with me on Saturday mornings.

Veronica

THAT is funny. And now I'm going to hear "Ha ha ha HA ha!" in my head all night.

[Selkie]

You gals aren't going to like this but....

Last summer my BF bought a small animal trap. He managed to catch a couple of squirrels with it and... well... took them out to the park next to our house with our dogs and turned them loose. One squirrel got away... but the other ended up as doggie dessert.

SpinSpinSugar

Charming.

[crazycanuck]

I think Squirrels, Chipmunks & those types of creatures are kinda cool ,. I know i spent quite a bit of time following one whilst in a NYC park..just because..

I wish we had bandicoots and kookaburras in our yard. They're cool

It's a shame that the cool Australian wildlife will either eat you or scare the sheepies out of you whilst driving...

[7rider]

Was it the year before last when the oaks weren't producing many acorns in the DC area? We saw a big drop in the squirrel population as a result. Never fear, they are back in force (interestingly, more black ones than grey).

Drop in the number of crows due to West Nile? Yeah, I've noticed it.
Drop in the number of squirrels due to a lack of acorns? Not in our backyard!
They've been pretty steady in all the years we've been around.
Chipmunks, too.
We have lots of fat happy fauna in our back yard - all the way up and down the food chain (we've found big black snake skins in our wood pile where the chipmunks hunker down in the winter with their stash of bird seed, the hawks patrol the feeder for unwary birds, and the fox will cruise around looking for just about anything.).

[Selkie]

7 -- This was either 2009 or 2008 (acorn shortage). IIRC, there was an article in the Post about it at the time. Noticed it in Arlington, since we are surrounded by big old oaks. Maybe Monty Co was spared? South of the Potomac, well, you know it's got issues.

[badger]

You gals aren't going to like this but....

Last summer my BF bought a small animal trap. He managed to catch a couple of squirrels with it and... well... took them out to the park next to our house with our dogs and turned them loose. One squirrel got away... but the other ended up as doggie dessert.

SpinSpinSugar

wow... how unspeakably cruel. At least shooting is instant and humane. I can say more, but I'll keep them to myself.

[PamNY]

Photos of my all-time favorite squirrel behavior: taunting hawks. There's nothing the hawk can do about it; they usually make a few threatening gestures, then fly away. Scroll down a couple of frames to see the brave squirrel.

Here's a very interesting article about squirrels, including how they are similar to primates in some ways. BTW, it's not true that Manhattanites hate squirrels.