Something Downeast

I saw a red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) a few times during the winter in 2017, but it disappeared before spring. Recently a red squirrel has been gleaning on the ground near the bird feeders. The red squirrel is a reddish-orange with a white belly, smaller than the numerous (and greedy) Eastern grey squirrels. In late summer and early fall there’s a dark grey to black stripe between the red squirrel’s red-brown body fur and the white belly. That fades as winter nears, as does the bright orange-red body color of the squirrel.

This has the Eastern Gray squirrel on the left and the Red squirrel on the right. I didn’t realize the Gray squirrel was in the photo when I took the shot. 

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This morning, as soon as the sun rose enough to see, there was a lovely Maine mist filling the trees. I had to wait for enough light to take a picture, but you can still see the mist cloaking the top branches of the trees. You can also see last year’s squirrel nest (sometimes called a dray).

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There are two species of squirrels pillaging the bird feeders. The Eastern Gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis/i>) and the American Red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus). The Red squirrel is generally viewed as a pest by local home owners because they’re notorious for invading homes and feasting on insulation (which they also use for nest materials) and the coating on wires (which often results in destroying home wiring systems).

The Eastern gray is the one that’s particularly greedy about bird seed; there are at least six individuals who regularly patrol, and I’ve seen as many as six at a time attempting to raid the feeders. They can’t really reach the seeds effectively because of the nature of the tube feeders.

But they’re perfectly willing to try. 

There’s also a single American Red squirrel visiting the feeders, though it usually spends most of its time on the ground, gleaning, it’s not above attempting the suet.

There are, by the way, mutated Gray squirrels, that, via a mutation, exhibit melanism and appear black, in other parts of Maine. They have black squirrels in Lincoln county, ME. We have black squirrels in Western Washington too.

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