Date: Tue, 29 Feb 2000 20:18:56 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: rob gibbs Subject: Re: Flying Squirrel nest boxes MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I've monitored a dozen or more flying squirrel nest boxes for about six years in Wheaton, Park. They do indeed use them primarily in the winter and early spring. We have regularly found groups of up to 13 squirrels sharing one box in winter. They use the boxes very sparingly in summer. My guess is that they are too hot and the squirrels choose either a hollow in a live tree that would be kept cool due to the sap flow or a leaf nest - although these are evidently rare for flying squirrels. The boxes we use are like oversized bluebird boxes from 7 to 9 inches square on the bottom and 13 - 17 inches tall. The hole should be one and one-half inches in diameter and most important of all it should have a metal ring around it to prevent gray squirrels from chewing the hole larger and taking over the box. I use the top of a soup can and drill the hole w/ a metal cutting hole saw. The boxes are very attractive to tufted titmice and especially white-breasted nuthatches as nesting locations. For anyone interested I did a quick scan and paste webpage of the plans for the box at: http://www.digizen.net/members/robgibbs/flysquirrel/flysquirrel.htm Anyone who has birdfeeders set up in the woods should check them after dusk for flying squirrels. A platform feeder on a treetrunk w/ sunflower seeds will attract them readily if they are around - and they usually are their quite common if you have hickories around. Sorry for the long-winded reply but these guys are cool!! Rob Gibbs Damascus, MD robgibbs@digizen.net ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Colleen and Matt Troxler wrote: > >From what I have seen, they do indeed spend winters in deeper cavities (or > man-made screech boxes), and congregate in decent-sized groups. We had at > least 4 flying squirrels at a time in our screech owl box last year; and > they all left by mid-May. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Bob Mumford > To: > Sent: Tuesday, February 29, 2000 2:33 PM > Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] Flying Squirrel nest boxes > > > Any who care - flying squirrels have nested and roosted in my standard > > bluebird boxes for years. They shred up bark and pretty much fill up a > box > > and bury themselves in it. > > > > For whatever reason, they are not in there all year. I think they must > > hibernate in deeper cavities. > > > > BTW, I live in the woods and the BB houses are not ideally located for > those > > birds. Chickadees and Titmice are the usual occupants. > > > > Bob Mumford > > > > ======================================================================= > > To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com > > with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey > > ======================================================================= > > > > ======================================================================= > To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com > with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey > ======================================================================= ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================