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A squirrel yelled at me today

#63
bholder said:
Yeah, they'll alarm for any predator, but they've got a special level of freak-out for us two-legged types...
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In the UK I either see them in parks, when they run up to me expecting stuff or in the nearby woods (which start 200m from my house) but then I'm with at least one German Shepherd and they stay away. The dogs have been told they are special tree kitties so wouldn't actually be a threat, but the squirrels I've not had the chance to explain this to.

(And yes, the dogs really are gentle - when a pigeon fell out a nest into the garden a day or so before it was ready to fly they just gently nuzzled it. When it could fly it came back for weeks afterwards to hang out on the fence with them. The magpies bring them trinkets, and one of the blackbirds roots in the leaves with them)
 
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#66
There is a martial artist/self defense influencer who specifically has a number of reels about going up against squirrels. Search Instagram for Larry Dickham and look through his vids for some squirrel episodes, could save your life.
 
#67
hbarcat said:
Personal anecdote about squirrels:

Some years ago, my friend bought an old house and he spent a lot of time and money over the summer refurbishing it himself, as he was a contractor by trade. He paid particular attention to the insulation because the winters are long and brutal in the Northwoods.

A few weeks after it was finished, I visited him for the afternoon and we got to playing cards at the kitchen table. It was November and it was below freezing outside.

I mentioned to him that it seemed awfully drafty where I was sitting and I asked him why the furnace kept kicking on every two minutes.

We stopped playing cards while he investigated. Sure enough, there was a definite draft of cool air that seemed to be emanating from the walls and the furnace was running way more often than it shoukd have been.

He got out his tools and began removing the wood paneling from the walls in the kitchen. After he pulled out a few boards, he started hollering "What the **** is going on here? My insulation is gone!"

He pulled more boards out from several different spots which revealed some areas with insulation, but other sections with no insulstion. He kept saying, "Am I going nuts? Did I lose my mind and forget to put insulation in some areas?"

He suddenly stopped jumping around and looked at me and said, "Nuts, eh? Wait a minute . . . "

He opened the front door and went outside. I followed.

He was looking up at the trees in his yard. He lived in the woods and he had a lot of trees. He pointed at the top of one tree and shouted, "Look right there! Do you see that?" He pointed to other trees, yelling "There, and there, and there. Look at all that!

There was pink fiberglass insulation in several of the trees. He said "Those ******* squirrels got into my walls and stole the insulation out of my house to build their nests!"

He ran back into his house and came back out with his shotgun, which he used to blast every pink nest he could see, while I stood there with my mouth hanging open.
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I've seen more than a few mice occupied cars, engine bays...but the best ever was a engine that would not run because of the dense mouse nest packed
air cleaner. He had found someone's yarn supply and built the most beautiful 4 color nest I ever saw. It was very tasteful to look at.
Real Martha Stewart (if she designed mouse nests).
 
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#69
The Golden Boy said:
Well, this is interesting... The other day I was leaving for work around 0530, and I hear this bird making a racket- I get to my car and realize it's a squirrel... OK... I start driving down the road and I see a white mothershaging squirrel prancing across the road.

Every few years we get a white squirrel or 2 in our neighborhood. Sometimes it's consecutive years, sometimes there's a year or 2 break between appearances... It's been 3 or 4 years since we've had a white squirrel. And there he was.

BTW- these are white squirrels- not albinos- their eyes are still black.



View attachment 7279407
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Yes, there used to be a small population of these in Lexington and Arlington, Mass. Not albinos! Also, as they bred with the normal grey squirrels, mottled offspring would be seen.
 
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#70
We have millions in Toronto.....and yes, my boss had a Jaguar sedan ...squirrels completely destroyed all the electrical wiring under the hood ....$$$$$$$ Ka-Ching!!!!

They do shout if you come near their nest or stash.
I like feeding them, but we have no benches to sit on around here.
Billions of Pigeons!!!!!!
 
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#72
we used to live right on san francisco bay and there was a little feral open space between our place and the water.

it was apparently idyllic for ground squirrels, they would set up sentinels when I would walk along the jettys they would cheep warnings at my presence.

one day a pair of red tailed hawks came. after two weeks there were no more ground squirrels and the hawks moved on.
 
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#74
The Golden Boy said:
Every few years we get a white squirrel or 2 in our neighborhood. Sometimes it's consecutive years, sometimes there's a year or 2 break between appearances... It's been 3 or 4 years since we've had a white squirrel. And there he was.

BTW- these are white squirrels- not albinos- their eyes are still black.
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I see lots of squirrels. There's a large Shumard oak just outside my music room window that drops lots of acorns in the fall. Some years, the acorns are huge and numerous. Outside, it can sound almost as loud as gunshots when they hit my roof.

One summer, there was a mutant almost-hairless juvenile squirrel running around. It looked almost like a cross between a squirrel and a rat. But one time it paused for a long time just outside my window and I got a good look. It was a totally a squirrel, but with no fur on its body and only a little very wispy hair on its tail. Its skin without fur was loose and wrinkled and completely black.

Saw it around a number of times, but not after the first cool night when it got down to the lower 40s.
 
#75
BassBrass said:
I have a squirrel defeating bird feeder, (long plexiglass cylinder with break-away bird perches) it's a lot of fun seeing them fall off over and over. However the baby squirrels can defeat it in the Spring hanging from their hind feet, when they grow up, they fall off. This time of year they are all falling off.
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I had two squirrel-proof bird feeders that were rectangular plexiglass tubes surrounded by metal mesh with a spring. When a squirrel or large bird like a jay or a dove tried to get sunflower seeds, their weight pulled the mesh down and cut off access to the feeding ports in the tube. Had it suspended from a tree branch, a 12' length of rope and it was high enough to require a ladder to refill. It WAS kinda funny to watch squirrels or large birds chase away the small birds and then be unable to get a bite. You could see the frustration in their body language.

I think it was raccoons that destroyed the feeders. Best I can figure, one climbed down the rope, partially chewed through the rope, then stood on the feeder and used their weight to break the rope and drop the feeder on the ground.

After they destroyed the second one, I gave up. Thought seriously about buying 4' of barbed wire, doubling it over multiple times so there was no unbarbed area where a small paw could fit, then putting that 'leader' between the rope and the feeder. Oh, and replacing the rope with a sturdy chain - that'll show 'em!!
Finally decided that was maybe going a bit too far. :unsure:
 
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#76
MoireBass said:
I had two squirrel-proof bird feeders that were rectangular plexiglass tubes surrounded by metal mesh with a spring. When a squirrel or large bird like a jay or a dove tried to get sunflower seeds, their weight pulled the mesh down and cut off access to the feeding ports in the tube. Had it suspended from a tree branch, a 12' length of rope and it was high enough to require a ladder to refill. It WAS kinda funny to watch squirrels or large birds chase away the small birds and then be unable to get a bite. You could see the frustration in their body language.

I think it was raccoons that destroyed the feeders. Best I can figure, one climbed down the rope, partially chewed through the rope, then stood on the feeder and used their weight to break the rope and drop the feeder on the ground.

After they destroyed the second one, I gave up. Thought seriously about buying 4' of barbed wire, doubling it over multiple times so there was no unbarbed area where a small paw could fit, then putting that 'leader' between the rope and the feeder. Oh, and replacing the rope with a sturdy chain - that'll show 'em!!
Finally decided that was maybe going a bit too far. :unsure:
Click to expand...

Yankee flipper

 
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#77
Never thought twice about a squirrel chattering at me in the yard. Pretty commonplace. We can't have bird feeders because we have bears in the area and they'll take down a feeder multiple times a week, so we don't see them as often anymore in our yard. I rescued a Box Turtle out of the road last week and when I picked it up to move it over to the side of the road, it hissed at me. Never been hissed at by a turtle until that day! haha,
 
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