The squirrel whisperer
Animal lover’s bushy-tailed friends perch on his shoulder at feeding time
THEY are a rare sight for most of us. But for David Lacey, red squirrels are everyday visitors.
The usually timid rodents eat from his hand and one will even scamper into his bedroom, run up his arm and perch on his shoulder – as long as he’s wearing his striped dressing gown.
It has led to the retired chartered surveyor earning the nickname The Squirrel Whisperer.
It helps that Mr Lacey, 67, lives on Anglesey, North Wales, one of only four areas in Britain – along with Scotland, Cumbria/Northumberland and the Isle of Wight – where reds still thrive.
Key, too, is the feeder box which his wife Ann, 65, gave him as a Christmas present in 2014.
They put it in a tree in their garden in Menai Bridge and were pleased when squirrels began using it. ‘Then, out of laziness really, we put the feeder box on the garage roof instead because I can fill it there from our bedroom window,’ said Mr Lacey.
‘One Sunday morning I left the window open and to our great surprise a squirrel came inside.
‘We keep the nuts for the feeder in a bowl on the windowsill, so they started helping themselves.
‘As time went on, I realised they would take a nut from my hands too. I fill the feeder box in the morning and they got used to seeing me in my dressing gown. One day one of them couldn’t wait to be fed and ran up my arm. He only does it if I’m in my dressing gown.’
Mr Lacey, who was recently featured on BBC1’ s Countryfile, avoids feeding them by hand too often or interacting too much in case they become overly tame.
And he does not recommend trying to hand-feed squirrels, as you could be bitten or pass on a human infection to them.