No More Dragon Tails?

Getting settled into a new place took much longer than I expected, but it's finally starting to come together. I miss my squirrels, but I saw them a few times before we were completely out of the old place.

If you might recall, we were worried about a few things, primarily the fate of Preggers' young and Dragon, because his tail was injured. Well, Preggers did in fact have one baby left. She came by with a little squirrel that got so scared when we opened the blinds that it jumped up and over the porch's lower railing. It desperately tried to hang on with its claws to the decking, but it fell (just a foot or so) and ran off. Preggers caught up with it after grabbing a bite to eat.

Dragon also came by, which was a nice surprise. He was getting along okay with his limp tail, but we were worried about how long he would last.

Unfortunately, just like the cat Crazy57bus mentioned in the comment section of my previous post, it appears Dragon's tail fell off because of the injury. We were hoping that it would heal over time because he was getting more and more use out of it, little though it was.

You can see the broken tail bone. Poor little guy.

Now to some old business.

@Daffy - How about naming your two-toned squirrel "Tommy Two-Tone"? That's my husband's idea. I came up with some really stupid names, like... two-tone. :)

@Ratty - I haven't seen very many tame squirrels either. I think some of the squirrels at my new place may be more tame. They at least don't run when they see a human, but I've only seen a couple and they don't know me yet.

It's Raining Squirrels!

Around 9 PM last night, Hubby and I were sitting in our living room, having a quiet conversation when we heard a loud, "Bang!  Bang!"  Something had fallen, or landed very hard, on our roof and then our garbage cans.

We looked at eachother quizzically, and he said, "Raccoon?"

I said, "Maybe, but that's exactly what it sounded like when that baby squirrel fell out of the tree."

I grabbed my coat and flashlight and went outside to see if there was another injured squirrel.  It wasn't windy last night, but it had started to rain lightly.  I opened the door and didn't didn't see anything, but I heard rustling leaves and a squirrel barking.  It was a persistent bark, but I could not tell where it was coming from.  I checked the ground around the tree and the cans but found no animals of any kind.  

I could still hear the barking.  It was constant.  It seemed to be moving away from me.  I went back inside and checked the backyard with a flashlight.  Nothing.  Just on a hunch, I checked the driveway one more time, and that's when I saw a flash of a squirrel and its big, bushy tail streaking across the driveway toward the oak tree.

I don't know if it was a baby or adult that fell, if it was being chased by something or if it was Preggers trying to find a baby that fell.  It was too dark to discern. This morning, there weren't any hurt or injured squirrels around, so I'm hopeful that it was nothing.

On the Preggers front, I saw her while I was out grilling the other day.  I heard a scratching noise and turned to see Preggers heading for a little "V" in one of the tree trunks.  There was another squirrel up at the "rest stop" that I initially thought might be one of her younguns, but upon closer inspection, it was too big.  

I think he was chasing her because she sure seemed to be trying to hide.

I watched her awhile, and she let me get pretty close until she scurried away.

She ended up on one of our trees and started eating the buds.  I have lived in this house for years, and I didn't know this was a flowering tree.  It has not flowered once in the time I've been here.  Now I know why!  I think she's mocking me.  Look at the smrik on her face!  ;)

Here's another little guy reaching for something to eat in our Oak tree.  I knew squirrels relied on trees for homes and food, but I thought the food was limited to nuts and things.  Now, I've seen them eat roots, loose bark, buds and flowers, too!

An Awful Afternoon

Friday started off like any other squirrel day.  I worked during the day, but I was planning on blogging about Preggers and her family playing in our Oak tree.  She also beat up Norman the Doorman, aka Fatty, despite the injury to her right front paw.

She had come by the porch midweek, and she was particularly calm.  She walked right up to me, took a peanut and, instead of turning her back to me, she planted herself next to me and looked at me while she ate.  Then there was a high pitched scream.  It was the familiar scream of a baby squirrel.  She became tense and started eating at a furious pace.  

I grabbed my camera and waited for her to react.  She eventually calmed down again, but she left after a few more nuts.  I tried to follow her and found her climbing up our Oak tree with a baby squirrel following close behind.

If sexing squirrels is anything like sexing rats and mice, this baby may be a girl.

Eventually, they made their way over to a branch over the driveway and reunited with another baby, while the baby that was following Preggers tried to snaggle leftover food from Preggers' mouth, at least so it seemed to me.

Preggers is sprawled on the branch.

Anyway, I was pretty excited to have seen Preggers and her family cavorting in our tree.  I planned on looking for the family over the next few days, but it was cold and windy.

Friday afternoon, she came by the window begging for peanuts.

She wasn't as calm.  She wouldn't eat in front of me, which isn't that unusual, but it usually means she's agitated.  It was probably due to the bad weather.

I gave her some nuts and grabbed my camera, coat and shoes.  She ate for a while longer, so I settled in and watched a little TV.  All of a sudden, there was a huge "thud, thud, thud" right over my head.  It was so loud I thought my husband had accidentally dropped something heavy out the window.

I looked for Preggers and saw her standing on the fence looking down into the driveway.  When I came out on the porch, I spooked her, so she headed for the fence bordering our neighbor and then crawled down to the driveway.  She stopped in front of our oak tree and just sat there eating the nut she had carried in her mouth.

She jumped onto the trunk, and I thought maybe I'd get in some shots of her on a tree, but then she started to act very bizzarre.  She was very agitated and nervous, jumping back and forth from the tree to the ground and back again.

That's when I saw it.  There was a squirrel lying in the leaves underneath the oak tree.  I tried to get a better look.  It looked like a little baby.  It wasn't it's size, but something about its face, shape and fur made me think it was a baby and thus, Preggers' baby.  

Preggers was going back and forth between jumping on the tree and approaching the baby squirrel.  I realized that I was making Preggers incredibly nervous, so I backed away and watched through a slit between the fence and the house.

Preggers kept sniffing and touching the baby.  I know we shouldn't anthropomorphize animals, but I thought she was trying to comfort and acknowledge the baby while assessing its condition.  She could have just been curious, but that's not what I thought at the time.

I didn't think Preggers was going to be able to take care of this in the nest.  I called my husband and told him that a baby squirrel fell out of the tree and was hurt and not moving.  He rushed down with a towel and we picked up the baby.  When we came around the corner, Preggers took off and the baby started to twitch.  I originally thought that maybe it was a seizure, but I think it was probably reacting instinctively to run.

We brought him inside.  Now that we had the baby, we weren't sure what to do with it.  We wanted Preggers to see that we were taking care of it, so hubby took him by the closed porch window where Preggers had returned.  She looked at it through the window and then grabbed a nut and started eating.  

We debated letting Preggers handle it, but after examining the squirrel, we knew for certain that it would need professional attention.  It was bleeding from the mouth and nose, and its breathing was really slow and getting slower.  There were some dents in the side of its chest, too.

We decided to call an urban wildlife rescue organization instead of a vet.  Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue & Education Center is about 20 minutes from our home, so we called and Lila was ready to meet with us.

We jumped in the car.  I was holding the baby.  A couple of blocks from our house, it looked like it took a huge yawn, and then it kicked and struggled.  I was really freaked out and had my husband pull over.  It was dead.

That night, I had nightmares about the squirrel's last moments.  It kept replaying over and over again in my head, and I couldn't sleep thinking about how much pain and horror it must have felt.  I thought that maybe if we had done a, b and c differently, it would have survived.

After having the baby's death replayed in my memory, I think it suffocated to death.  I suspect that it was on a branch above the house.  A strong gust of wind blew it off the branch and the wind threw it across the roof, hitting the roof at least 2 times before hitting the ground.  It may have also hit its head on the gutters on the way down.

Its lungs were filling with blood until they were full.  What I thought was a yawn was its attempt to get a last breath of air.  It kicked in its struggle to breathe before it died.

The towel was so soaked in blood that it had to be thrown away.  We left the baby out there to let Preggers get a look at it before we disposed of it.  We couldn't bring ourselves to throw it in the trash.  We wouldn't throw a dog in the trash if it died, so we buried the squirrel underneath the oak tree.

Squirrels mark good and bad tree limbs with different scents to denote danger.  I was worried that Preggers would think that we put the baby back outside after it had expired as a warning and never come back.  Sort of like the squirrel version of putting heads on pikes at London Bridge.

After a morning of fretting, she came by late Saturday, and she seemed normal.  Her right front paw is healing, too.  She has started to put weight on it again.

Since our squirrels aren't marked or tagged, I'm hoping that maybe we were wrong and it wasn't one of Preggers' babies.  It's more logical that it is one of hers, but we're still looking for visual confirmation that she only has one hanger-on.

I'll keep you posted.

Preggers' Family

I found Preggers' nest by accident.  I was sitting in the backyard watching the woodpeckers, nuthatches and hummingbirds.  There were a few squirrel chases hubby and I were following when I thought I saw a couple of squirrels on our roof.  It turned out there were 3 squirrels!

My thoughts immediately went to Preggers and her litter.  We have a VERY steep A-Frame approximately 35 ft (10.7 meters) high, and they were at the top.  I saw them crawl around to the buttress.  After a short excursion there, they returned to the top of the roof.  This was close to sundown, so the light was fading, but I recognized Preggers immediately.  2 smaller squirrels were with her.

One immediately jumped from the roof to a high, small hanging branch on the Oak tree, about 40 feet (12.2 meters) off the ground.  This squirrel was slightly larger than the other youngster.  (Not the same Youngster from World Photos.)  The branch didn't hang over the roof, but it hung over the driveway.  It's the far left branch in the photo below.  I can easily see a young squirrel falling while attempting to make that jump.

The other smaller squirrel got onto its hind legs to try to make the jump, but it would lose its balance and then run back to Preggers, who was half-asleep, stretched out on her belly with her legs dangling off both sides of the roof.  The little squirrel would promptly walk all over Preggers' head and nudge Preggers with its nose, until finally Preggers got up and watched the little squirrel jump to the Oak tree, Preggers following behind.

From my reading, most squirrels have a litter of 3.  Last year, Preggers had a litter of 3, so I think the squirrel we thought may have died did in fact perish.  I hope not, but it's very possible.

As I said earlier, we discovered Preggers' nest.  It turns out she's nesting underneath the apex of our roof.  Our roof overhangs the house, so we have these beams that extend from the house to just beyond the roof.  We have found squirrels nesting there in the past, and it looks like Preggers is nesting there now.  She's at the very top, so we can't actually see her nest, but if other squirrels' nest is any indication of her homebuilding design, it's a simple pile of leaves and twigs to sleep on.

Long Time No Post!

It's been busy here in California, but I feel like a hamster on a wheel to nowhere.  On the bright side, the weather's been absolutely STUNNING!  The next 7 days are supposed to be sunny and 70-73 F.  I may try to get some hiking in this weekend.

At any rate, we've had some new squirrels come around the porch.  I saw these guys back in January.  They had been around our trees wrestling and such, but they had never stopped by the porch while we were feeding.  You can always tell the new guys because they cautiously sniff everything from the brooms to the welcome mat.

I wish I could tag or mark these little guys so I could easily identify them and know their habits.

Their play fights are always interesting to watch.  They wildly chase eachother around a tree and through the yard.  Then they'll start wrestling until one of them gets tired and starts to hug the other.  Then they rest.

In the sequence below, one of them got an itch after a few paw hits.  At that point, they started to groom eachother before calling it a day.

Buckets of Rain and Playing Tag

It's been raining buckets, and we've had thunder, which is unusual for this area.  Scares the crap out of the squirrels, too!  Hand feeding them has been traumatic.

Spooky had been back and forth all day, putting his muddy paws and mud-caked nose all over my pants.  Later in the afternoon, Preggers came around, but soon, we had Preggers, Norman, Spooky and Scamp on the porch.  So... Norman chases Preggers, who in turn chases Spooky who chases Scamp.  There were squirrels jumping off our sliding glass doors, and a few times, we had 3 squirrels chasing eachother in circles.

Spooky was so agitated he yelled at me because I wasn't feeding him fast enough to escape chase from Preggers.  She would stand behind him and rattle her teeth.  Then a couple of times, Norman would guard the door and posture at any and all squirrel-comers.  Preggers would do the same if Norman wasn't around.

It must be the weather.

Short Post For the Weekend

Sorry for the lack of posts this week.  We got a couple of nibblers willing to eat near eachother a few days ago.

Sometimes we get four or five squirrels at a time sitting in the little "rail boxes".

We also have a new regular. We call him "Norman the Doorman". He likes to stand on his hind legs and help me open the sliding glass door with his little front paws. Very cute! Of course I will try to get a photo of it.

Yesterday, there were a couple of little squirrels facing off on their hind legs on top of a neighbor's A-framed roof. All of a sudden, one jumped into the air and landed on top of the other squirrel causing both squirrels to go rolling down the roof like a tire! I don't have photos of that incident, but I'll post squirrel wrestling photos in a few days.

I have also noticed more squirrel fighting and chasing in general. Preggers is the aggressor most of the time, I suspect. This morning, I found bits of squirrel tail on my porch. :( Spooky, Scamp and Norman don't appear damaged in any way, but I haven't seen Preggers yet today.

Tomorrow is the last dry day before another storm system comes through, so have a great weekend, where ever you live!

By the way, these photos can be embedded onto other personal use sites.  Just click the arrow in the lower right and copy the embed code.  Commercial publications must obtain a license.

The Aptly Named Preggers

As I mentioned in a previous post, we suspected that Preggers might be pregnant again because of her mood.  She had been irritable, aggressive and overly protective of the peanut pile.  She also ate at a furious pace.

Well, she started showing.  She refused to turn her belly toward me for pictures, but she finally relented... a little.

Here's a closeup. She's definitely getting a pooch in her belly and her nipples are starting to show. When female squirrels are not pregnant, it's very difficult to see the nipples.

She wouldn't let Scamp eat on the porch. He acted like a cat burgler trying to get one of the guarded nuts, and then he had to eat in exile, off the dry porch.

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.

Beggars

Anyone home?

I think that's the magic handle...

Maybe if I look a little harder they'll see me.

Paw and nose marks left on the windows from squirrels looking inside.

Happy New Year!

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.