How About A Kiss?

The flu knocked me out for a few weeks, but just in time for Valentine's week, it's mating season! Actually, this was taken shortly before the New Year.

The female squirrel was way out on the end of a very small limb. She was playing hard to get, and she also acted like she was scared, but she had no trouble getting away when she wanted.

They were vocalizing like crazy. He was making short grunt-like calls and she would scream at him every now and then. There were actually two males chasing her initally until she got out on that small limb. At that point, only one continued to chase her while the other waited at the trunk of the tree. The aggressive male then secured his position / pathway on the limb and chased away the other male.

This is the face she'd make when she screamed at him. Somtimes it was just because she felt like screaming, but sometimes he'd grab her tail and she wasn't having any of that!

This female isn't Preggers, but we definitely think Preggers is expecting. She's showing just the tiniest bit. I'll get pictures as weather allows.

Midnight Visitors

These cute guys stopped by around midnight for a little snack.  We usually hear them around our garbage cans and rooting around at the base of our 100 year old Oak tree for acorns, but they rarely come up on the porch.  Sorry about the poor quality, but there was only one small flourescent bulb lighting the entire scene.

Eating squirrel food.

They have a lot more trouble with peanuts than squirrels. They sort of crush and bite the peanut shells off. Then they roll the peanuts around on the ground to get the skins off.

He notices us watching.

On his hind legs trying to look big.

2 butts.

A Rainy Christmas

A squirrel shakes off the rain during a downpour.

Scamp (formerly "The Brave One") grabbing some nuts. A squirrel's still gotta eat!

Cast of Characters

We've been watching the squirrels in our backyard for a few months.  We have a lot of trees and thought they were just funny.  Then we started feeding them and naming them.  

It appears that there are several groups of squirrels that live in the trees in our yard.  Other squirrels come by now and again from neighboring yards, but these are the folks that seem to "own" our yard.

This is Preggers.

Well, this was her about 6 months ago. She's since had her litter of 3, but she still comes around and she's one of our favorites.

This is Preggers today. Her tail fur grew back, her nipples receded underneath fur on her belly that eventually grew back after being chewed off, but now she's got a notch in her ear.

Goliath just started coming around recently, and we think he has a litter mate that he still hangs out with that looks just like him in every way we've been able to tell.

We call him Goliath for obvious reasons. :) Also, he's just huge compared to all the other squirrels.

These are the "Little Ones". We think they're maybe just a few months old.

Yes, they're play humping eachother. We think that adult may be their mother, but we're not sure. She doesn't come around anymore.

This little one is "Spooky".

This little one is "The Brave One" because he lets us touch him... sort of.

Spooky's much more aggressive toward other squirrels though. He's always the one doing the humping and chasing.

Last but not least, Chucky, the scrub jay.

That's the major group. We can hand feed every one in this group, including the bird.