And sometimes ……..

[Pattree]

I’m in my arm chair reading and this guy knocked.

It’s obviously young and looks healthy. It didn’t seem to mind me and came closer but moved fast enough when I opened the front door.

In the past I’ve come back to my tent to see squirrels exploring it but never got this close!

Don’t read on if you have a sensitive stomach!!!!

My son has just returned from Bloodstock where he’s been camping with his two sons and a friend of theirs.
He and his wife are very busy right now and don’t have much room so I offered to dry his tents and wash the three bedrolls.
One had a ragged hole in the inner linen sheet and my wife will repair it.

Grandson number 2 was sick in the night. They cleaned up as best they could and left the bedding in the sun to dry where a squirrel found it and chewed the hole. Shy little creatures be damned, they were in the middle of a Metal rock concert!

 

[Toddy]

I have one that has successfully thinned my apple tree for me.
The apple tree is less than 3m from my kitchen window.

Damned thing nips off an apple and bounds joyfully (you know that wee creature in the ice age with the unholy glee with it's nut ? ) along the fence onto the big shed's roof and sits there on the ridge munching it's ill gotten gains while looking at me as though daring me to even try stopping it.

Thankfully the harvest has been bountiful this year and the apples are now too big for the blasted thieving rodent to nick

 

[Broch]

Damned thing nips off an apple and bounds joyfully (you know that wee creature in the ice age with the unholy glee with it's nut ? )

I am convinced they based that character on a grey squirrel

 

[Toddy]

I am convinced they based that character on a grey squirrel

The original primordial blasted thieving rodent !

 

[Wander]

What I like most about grey squirrels, and what I'm most thankful to them for, is that they provide a continued challenge and test for me.
You see, in theory, I believe all animals have their place and niche in the biosphere. I object to terms such as 'pest' and 'non-native' - borders are entirely man-made and artificial and the natural world does not (quite rightly) recognise them. Species, including humans, have been migrating and crossing borders for as long as they have existed. All animals exist, rightly and fairly, in any part of this planet where they can create a place for themselves. No one would dream of saying, for instance, that T Rex is an Asian dinosaur (or whatever) and should never have been found in Europe. You get my point, even if the specifics may be off.
So, anyway.
And then along come grey squirrels and they really challenge that sense of goodwill in me. I really have to work at it to see them fairly and objectively. And well done them for that. Not sure I'd be too upset if they all suddenly disappeared though.

 

[Pattree]

We get some interesting stands-offs between squirrels and magpies around a bird feeder.

 

[Toddy]

My moggie tried to chase the squirrel up the gable wall....ever seen a moggie frantically gripping on when ten foot up a roughcast wall ?
He was an enthusiastic squirrel chaser that cat

The squirrels are cute, but they're destructive thieving rodents. They eat their way through every bird feeder, even have a go at ones with metal mesh.

I quite like seeing them about, but, there's always the but bit about the grey squirrel's predations.
They take out squabs from the wee birds that nest in the hedges here too.

 

[Broch]

It's the damage they do to saplings that's the real problem for me. Winter 21/22 I shot 40 greys just around the house - very few around this year but they'll be back. I don't like shooting them but with land custodianship comes the responsibility for management

 

[Pattree]

We had all the circuitry in the roof void replaced with armoured cable!
Then we thought we needed some roof repairs at the corners.
Then we found a bit more.
Two years after this picture we had the whole roof replaced and they can’t get in anyway (yet)

Yes it was squirrels. We found an electrocuted one. The stink started the whole chain of events!

Just sod legislation I suppose.

 

[bobnewboy]

Ever since I saw a grey with a fledgling songbird in its mouth I have no compunction at all in despatching them - efficiently and cleanly of course. OTOH, the reds are to be revered and enjoyed, but Ive never seen them away from a reserve.

 

[Pattree]

Small birds have managed predation without our help since before we were there to help.
I said the same to a Forester who used to climb up to magpie nests and throw out the chicks for the same reason.
We currently have have five magpies and it’s been a wonderful year for little fledglings.

All a pair of bluetits need to do for the whole of their lives is raise just two chicks to breeding age and those chicks to do the same - and the population stays stable.

 

[Broch]

Because of our winter feeding and nest box habits, birds such as blue tit and great tit numbers are unnaturally high compared with other species that compete for the spring food sources. So, they nest early taking up nest space, and they devour vast numbers of larval stages of moths and butterflies, all before the migrant species (flycatchers and warblers) have arrived. Don't get me wrong, I love all wildlife, but predation is a natural part of life.

 

[Pattree]

Yep! It’s quite possible that a female bluetit could raise 50 chicks in a lifetime and all she needs is two to make it to breeding.
Of it weren’t for predation there’d be an awful lot of them and that’s just bluetits!

Habitat loss is a bigger cause of decline than predation. Humans can see off a species such as passenger pigeon and dodo but predators rarely do (s far as we know)

What eats squirrels?
Does anyone have a recipe?

 

[Broch]

Does anyone have a recipe?

Plenty

I particularly like squirrel tagine (with apricots and honey) and it makes a pretty good curry.
I've also tried squirrel satay. I only use the hind quarters the rest is too fiddly.

Basically, anything you can do with rabbit or chicken thigh, you can do with squirrel - experiment

(Sorry @Toddy)

 

[Pattree]

How do you get an apple in its mouth?

Oops - Toddy has answered that one!

 

[Broch]

 

[Toddy]

Magpies grow in family groups, and last years chicks help feed/rear this years too.....very rapidly you can end up with 40 magpies in a small area and that becomes a problem because they take out every other thing they can.

Plenty

I particularly like squirrel tagine (with apricots and honey) and it makes a pretty good curry.
I've also tried squirrel satay. I only use the hind quarters the rest is too fiddly.

Basically, anything you can do with rabbit or chicken thigh, you can do with squirrel - experiment

(Sorry @Toddy)

No worries, I won't eat it, but I don't mind cooking it. If you strip off the skin (that's an exercise and a half) then there's really only the back legs with any meat, but the rest can be stewed down for stock.....or if you use a pressure cooker it'll pretty much turn it into jelly.....but only worth doing really if you have a few of them.

 

[Broch]

No worries, I won't eat it, but I don't mind cooking it. If you strip off the skin (that's an exercise and a half)

Ah, you need the 20sec squirrel skinning technique - only works on fresh squirrel I found to my cost when I tried demonstrating it to a group on a 2-day dead one

 

[Poacherman]

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View attachment 81672

I’m in my arm chair reading and this guy knocked.

It’s obviously young and looks healthy. It didn’t seem to mind me and came closer but moved fast enough when I opened the front door.

In the past I’ve come back to my tent to see squirrels exploring it but never got this close!

Don’t read on if you have a sensitive stomach!!!!

My son has just returned from Bloodstock where he’s been camping with his two sons and a friend of theirs.
He and his wife are very busy right now and don’t have much room so I offered to dry his tents and wash the three bedrolls.
One had a ragged hole in the inner linen sheet and my wife will repair it.

Grandson number 2 was sick in the night. They cleaned up as best they could and left the bedding in the sun to dry where a squirrel found it and chewed the hole. Shy little creatures be damned, they were in the middle of a Metal rock concert!

Get him in the pot.