Red squirrels

High up in the trees of broadleaf woodlands, red squirrels tuck their winter breeding nests (dreys) in the forks of branches in early February. Each football-sized drey consists of twigs and branches interwoven with grasses, feathers, mosses, fur and soft bark. Red squirrels tend to make more than one of these leafy abodes, and a mother will carefully carry her babies in her mouth, one at a time, to another drey if hers is damaged or disturbed. The first litter of two or three kits (also known as kittens) arrives in early spring, and in a good year, another round of young may be born come summertime.