Squirrel Business

We have a couple of little lodgers in the corner of our roof. The tufty eared, fluffy tailed red variety of squirrels, Sciurus vulgaris.  They have been surprisingly active all winter. Instead of longer periods of hibernation they have been raiding the neighbours and our bird feeding stations. The easy availability of food must be the reason for their activity and our pair of red acrobats have located their ideal home a few meters above my new bird table.

In September, I constructed a large bird table, it is a rectangular weatherproof board measuring 120 x 85cm with edging, and it’s designed to hang underneath the bird feeders.  The idea is to catch the feed as the birds messily eat and scatter seeds everywhere. So far it has been effective at preventing rats feeding but has created an ideal platform for the squirrels.  At the start of the bird feeding season, we were apprehensive about putting out food because there were warnings about the virulent Bird Influenza in the local sea birds. That was very sad with pictures in the news of people in full protective gear picking up hundreds of dead sea birds along the coast. The authorities gave the all clear for winter bird feeding and for the first few weeks I was surprised to have to fill the nuts up daily. Greedy Squirrels were stocking up their own stores for the winter and the neighbours had yet to put out their own bird offerings. Over the colder parts of this winter the top-ups have been running at once a week.

My bird table is hung underneath our balcony, a couple of feet outside the living room window. This position is ideal for us to watch the bird and squirrel activity. It is half under cover and misses the worst of the weather. However, it has one big disadvantage.  Our dogs tolerate the birds, but they can’t help wanting to chase the squirrels.  There is a lot of barking and over excitement, not ideal for those of us trying to work from home. It is very unlikely that the dogs are ever going to catch one. Slowly they are being acclimatised and trained to accept that squirrels jump about, but progress is slow.

The larger squirrel has kept his red fur but his little friend has gone a shade of grey with a winter coat.  I have seen very dark red, almost black furred squirrels in the summer and over winter they can go almost white. There is quite a colour variation in the squirrel population and it makes it easier to recognise different individuals.  February is the month that the squirrels get much more active. They are out frantically chasing each other around finding a mate. It’s very distracting and interesting to stand quietly and watch a pair of squirrels chasing each other around and around, up and down a tree trunk. The resulting youngsters appear from the nest sometime in May.  One year we were pleasantly surprised by a group of eight cute youngsters sheltering on our doorstep. They darted backwards and forwards unsure what to do, totally unafraid of humans. The following day they had dispersed into the neighbouring trees.

The city squirrels have the dangers of some wild predators and vehicles. There are Goshawks and Pine Martens that will pick them out in a tree. Being coloured rusty red is excellent camouflage when many forest trees are Scots Pine with orange bark. There are a tiny number of domestic cats roaming free, the ones who have owners that ignore the city’s regulations about keeping cats indoors to protect the wildlife.  Other than that, there are lots of Squirrels that have no road sense and the casualties are all too obvious over the summer months when they are most active. Many years ago in Finland, Squirrel pelts were widely traded and became a currency. At least these days that pressure is off the Squirrel population and they are a protected species across most of Europe.

The Reds are smaller than their Grey American cousins.  We used to see the Reds commonly all over Britain before the introduction of the invasive import. Tufty the Squirrel was even used as a mascot to promote road safety when I was a child. In Norse mythology, Ratatoskr is a red squirrel who runs up and down with messages in the World Tree spreading gossip. Squirrel Nutkin a red, appeared in the popular book by Beatrix Potter.  Kauniainen a neighbouring town here in Finland has a Red Squirrel holding a nut in its coat of arms.  The Grey doesn’t have the same appeal as the Reds.  The Greys appear to be able to out compete the Reds in deciduous woodland and the coniferous forests in Scotland and the North of England have become the UKs Red Squirrel areas, apart from islands such as the Isle of Wight and Brownsea in the South.  The Grey Squirrel has now been included in the European Union list of invasive species because of a few escapees gaining a foothold in Italy. There is the worry that they will be a threat to continental Reds.

For the moment our little lodgers don’t appear to have access to the rest of the roof space which is reassuring for our electricity cables. If the noises get louder and are more widespread, we have access to some live traps for use in the loft. A forced Squirrel house move may happen but let’s hope that won’t be necessary because they are so much more fun to watch than their Grey cousins.