Enjoying the squirrel circus over breakfast
January 21 was National Squirrel Appreciation Day, but we really should appreciate these rascals every day, no matter how annoying they can be. After all, they’re smart, focused, athletic, often greedy and devious, persistent and downright entertaining. If you doubt their persistence, watch the amazing ( and hilarious) YouTube video (rappnews.link/zz2) by engineer, inventor and educator Mark B. Rober to see how four backyard gray squirrels measured up against the daunting obstacle course he created to test them.
I overcame my reservations about feeding birds this winter in the hopes of seeing which birds are wintering here at the new house in Shenandoah County. Our dining-room table is next to a big window that faces out onto a deck, and my housemate and I also decided watching birds would also be a good respite from our seemingly endless unpacking after a brutal move. We usually opt for the morning matinée of the squirrel circus while we have our own breakfasts.
A northern gray squirrel ( Sciurus carolinensis pennsylvanicus) mom had raised her three kittens ( baby squirrels) in a nesting cavity of towering, aging white oak a few yards from the deck. Ever since the young squirrels were old enough to venture out of their nest, they had been putting on their own Olympics. They’d race after each other, often ending in a filial embrace, leap and swing on tree limbs like tiny gymnasts and hang upside down by their back toes to pick an appetizing bud from a tiny branch.
After I put out a few feeders and scattered a bit of feed on the deck and front patio, the young squirrels began to realize a buffet had opened up in their neighborhood and slowly moved their circus closer to the house. They especially enjoyed showing off their prowess in the small eastern hemlock right next to the deck, racing around and jumping from branch to branch. I’d placed an improvised feeder, a concrete planter base in the shape of a pelican, on the railing next to the tree.
While the mom had been visiting the feeding stations on and off since I put food out late in the fall, she made no attempt to guide her youngsters there. Instead, their curiosity did, and the three would come close, then skitter off. They weren’t afraid of me, often staying within a few feet of me when I came out to either fill the feeders and were soon lured in by the smell of food.
Soon, they settled in, often sitting next to a feeder, hoovering down the sunflower and other seeds in it. They mostly ignored feeders with suet (mainly for woodpeckers) and Nyger seed (for finches) hanging from a bush next to the deck.
I’d also placed feeders on the patio in front of the house and scattered a bit of seed in various locations on the ground for birds that like to feed there, such as mourning doves, juncos, finches and white- throated sparrows. While the squirrels occasionally tried to figure out how to crack the hanging feeders, they apparently found the feed in the open feeders and on the ground sufficient and easier to get. ( See sidebar for more on the northern gray squirrel’s diet and reproduction.)
While my monitoring of the squirrel family’s behavior has been casual, at best, I think I’ve worked out the scenario for what unfolded before me. Ever since the young squirrels ventured out of their nest, they’ve been chasing each other around, play- fighting, hugging and generally convivial with each other. But as winter closed in, their play turned toward a more- serious goal: mating. The mom moved to new quarters in another tree in front of the house, as adult females often do once the youngsters (and perhaps the mom) are ready to breed.
Judging by the youngsters’ behavior at this point, I guessed that the smallest of the litter was a female, the other two, her male siblings. Mating within the family is common, and in mid-January, one of the boys began trying to chase o the other one — along with a neighboring male who also came a-courting. At the same time, this dominant brother was trying to mate with his sister. Female squirrels come into estrous twice a year, and for only a few hours each time, so the young males really need to come up to speed quickly or lose out in the mating game. Whether or not he was successful, the mating game came to an end and the female returned to stuffing herself at the pelican feeder while the boys disappeared, probably looking for other mating opportunities in the area.
As Bill Adler Jr. describes in his book “Outwitting Squirrels,” “squirrels are land sharks, living eating machines.” They spend only 2 percent of their time reproducing; the rest is divided almost entirely between sleeping and eating.
Hoping the young squirrel couple was successful, my housemate and I look forward to seeing a new generation of kittens join the breakfast circus in the spring.
On another note, I encourage anyone interested in wildlife, especially wildlife photography, to check out the stunning photos from two recent photography contests: the Natural History Museum in London’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year Contest People’s Choice Award (rappnews.link/imu) and the National Wildlife Federation’s national 2022 photo contest (rappnews.link/se6).