When I was in college (in upstate New York), the, shall I say dump, I lived
in had flying squirrels in the walls and if you went to the kitchen in the
middle of the night, the squirrels would be in there eating the dog food of
one of the tenets pets. I've liked them ever since. My more intimate
encounter was when I was in grad school studying cavity-nesting birds.
Flying squirrels would sometimes flush out of the cavities I was going to
measure. On one occasion, the squirrel strattled the tree above me and
proceeded to urinate rather profusely. Combined with the bug spray, sun tan
lotion and sweat from hot Florida sun, I was hardly fazed.
Mark
-----Original Message-----
From: Maryland Birds & Birding [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Mary Ann Todd
Sent: Monday, December 06, 2004 6:29 PM
To:
Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] Odd creature in my window feeder
Years ago we lived in an apartment in DC, about 5 stories up, that faced the
forest in Rock Creek at treetop level. We had a feeder outside our bedroom
window, and we kept the seed in a bag below the window. It was very
entertaining
to watch the Flying Squirrels visit at night. They would hit the window
screen
with a loud "twanging" sound, then crawl over to the feeder. One warm autumn
night we left the window up and the screen off. We were awakened by a
munching
sound coming from the seed bag. We turned on the light and saw a startled
Flying Squirrel leap from the bag and scurry under the dresser. We debated
trying
to herd it out the window, but decided to stay in bed and turn off the
light.
After an appropriate period of silence we again heard munching sounds coming
from the bag. Eventually, the satisfied squirrel left without any help.
Dave Czaplak
Mary Ann Todd |