Squirrels

[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.

[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.