Squirrel Tales; 3 photos

14 years ago

We have a variety of squirrels, little red squirrels, big fox squirrels, and huge grey squirrels, in our yard and neighborhood.

I have baffles for the bird feeders. They can dine on the dropped seed under the feeders. Since noticing I have two nursing "mamas", I've been giving them a bit of puppy chow and dollop of peanut butter daily. They get a treat and I get to "visit" with them. Win-Win for everyone.

Now the downside. One persistent squirrel was trying to nest in the neighbors' storage shed. Ms. M was very concerned about the damage, but she didn't want me to trap the squirrel. She knew more would just move in.

We decided to try building a "squirrel nest box" to see if we could lure them from the shed into the box which is hung in one of our maple trees. We didn't see a squirrel come near it all last summer, or winter.

But today, (!) DH was busy empting the compost bin and something "growled" at him! Mama Squirrel poked her head out of the box and blessed him out for being too close to her nest.

Of course I didn't get a picture and I don't want to risk opening the box to get photos of the kittens, but I'll try to photograph her tomorrow.

We built the squirrel box to specs we found on the Internet. We placed the entry hole on the south-facing side of the box. They can supposedly use it for a winter sleeping nest, too.

I filled it about half-full of cedar shavings and added a bit of Sevin dust for flea and ant control.

This shows Ms. M's storage shed, on left. Mama Squirrel has abandoned it, party due to M's heavy concrete, metal flashing, and hardware cloth reinforcements to the shed, and partly because of the comfort and style of her new, appropriate, digs.

You can see she's took a nibble out of the entry hole. I'll add a slate squirrel guard, as soon as the kittens leave, to prevent further squirrely shenanigans.

This shows the type of slate squirrel guards I've been slowly adding to all my nest boxes.

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Comments (12)

nanny98
14 years ago
Thank you, thank you for sharing your "life" with us. I love your efforts to help out our small friends, feathered and furred, and envy your success with their habitat. I don't post often, but I always look at your posts and am amply rewarded with the photo's you lovingly share with me. You are greatly appreciated. Nanny
redcurls
14 years ago
You're amazing. I love all your stories and pics....whether it's PMs or squirrels...or whatever...

Thanks.
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ronm80
14 years ago
add my name to Nanny's post.
Thanks, Ronnie
Linda Wayman
14 years ago
I agree with the others Caroline. I wish there were more people like you.

Thanks for the pictures and the information. I didn't know there were nesting boxes for squirrels.

Linda
FlamingO in AR
14 years ago
Those are great photos, Caroline! It's so nice of you to want to provide shelter for all the creatures. I can understand even more now why you're so protective of your "babies". It makes perfect sense!

And guess what? That fabric you sent me last week? I've already used some of it in a new quilt I'm making- the yellow with the tiny flamingos will be immortalized forever! Thanks again for the wonderful gift of fabrics!
caroline94535
Original Author
14 years ago
Well Flamey, you know I like birds, even giant pink birds with huge feet! LOL That fabric simply screamed "Send me to Flamey!"

Linda, I found "squirrel boxes" for sale on line, (They want how much for a wood box?) which lead me to a Google search for the "correct" dimensions, which lead DH to the garage with a "honey-do" project sheet.

The man does suffer; just ask him! LOL
kim_okla
14 years ago
Cool box. Cool husband too.
lindaohnowga
14 years ago
Could I borrow your hubby? I've been after mine to make squirrel boxes and finally gave up. We feed and love all of our birds and squirrels too.

Loved the pictures. TFS
caroline94535
Original Author
14 years ago
Linda, here are links to some squirrel nestbox plans. The first one is much nicer than the simple box we built, but our box is a little bigger.

These two links go to nest box plans...

http://www.agfc.com/!userfiles/pdfs/free/squirrel_boxes.pdf

http://www.squirrels.org/nestbox.html

Here is a link that might be useful: A cool squirrel site
bee0hio
14 years ago
Your squirrels are very lucky critters!

Is that a blue tick hound in the first pic? DH had several blue ticks over the years, but none since Belle died about 4-5 years ago.
marilyn_c
14 years ago
Caroline, thank you for working with wildlife, instead of resorting to other means. God will bless you for it.
caroline94535
Original Author
14 years ago
BeeOhio, Harry is a Deutsch Drahthaar, similar to a German Wirehair, but also very different and bred to the German organizations hunting standards. They can be big or small, wiry or not, bearded or not, black or brown, as long as they pass all four very stringent field tests.

He's a versatile hunting dog, and will point, retrieve, and blood tract any game, furred or feathered, from a quail to a bear. We now have his six-month-old great-nephew living with us too.

Here's Harry, 6 years old and 78 lbs. on the left, and Sam, 54 lbs. at 6 months, together.

Harry is my heart. He's the best dog in the world. He's gentle, sweet, always wanting to please, loves everyone, doesn't know a stranger, loves babies, loves tiny puppies, and is as gentle as a lamb.

Sam is...well Sam is Sam. LOL I love him too, but he'll never fill Harry's pawprints. Sam is sweet and doesn't know a stranger, either. He's just so "Sam."

Squirrel Tales; 3 photos

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nanny98

redcurls

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Squirrel Tales; 3 photos

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