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Old 03-25-2015, 08:16 AM
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mrsD mrsD is offline
Wisest Elder Ever
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Great Lakes
Posts: 33,508
15 yr Member
mrsD mrsD is offline
Wisest Elder Ever
mrsD's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Great Lakes
Posts: 33,508
15 yr Member
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Heheheh... I find this season's squirrels very entertaining.

That view is right behind my monitor and the bench is my seedling bench( I grow some flowers from seeds each spring). I decided to put food out this winter as we had such a drastic winter...and I take photos thru the window.

I discovered we have FOUR varieties of squirrel which I had not realized before. In my profile album labeled "gardens" I have a photo of 3 of the squirrel types together. The little red squirrel I haven't put a photo up of, since I already have one there from upNorth of that type (a ground squirrel , it is often called).

I looked them up and learned that the black and gray are the same strain...only color variants of fur color. The large brown ones which are being displaced by the black/gray are called fox squirrels and appear tamer and less aggressive to us.

The gray ones we have do possess a wonderful bushy tail as well as being heavier and fatter looking. The blacks are smaller and more agile IMO and have much more modest tails.
This is a link to my album showing the 3 types:

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The little red ones can fit into the jar completely. And some of them are moving the jar all around-- carrying it. There were only dregs left in it, so they have to work to get the peanut butter out. UpNorth, the shrews will clean out a jar like this
in about 2 days. The pigmy shrews which are the smallest mammals are not mice...they are insectavores, and eat slugs, worms and insects mostly. But they LOVE peanut butter, and an
interesting kids science/naturalist activity up there has been to put peanut butter out on something, pull up a chair, be very quiet, and watch them come out of their little burrows to feast on it. They love the jars because they can fit inside them and feel safer. They are very very quick and require patience to observe.

We used to have a feeding board up there, in view of our dining table window, and watch them while we were inside at the table.
They are about the size of your first thumb joint to the tip of your thumb (not counting the little short tail). We only have the larger gray shrews here in the southern part of the state. Those can reach 4-5 inches long.
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Weezie looking at petunias 8.25.2017


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Lara (03-25-2015)