• Tuesday-What'sUP March 7 - 10:18 am

A trio of squirrel shots from Ken Scheibach with a wintry theme. That first little critter all covered in snow, seems to be saying, "What are you looking at?" Kind of reminds me of my grandson when he comes in from an afternoon playing on the hills and banks behind our house in Lake Linden. The only difference is, his cheeks are usually beet red and he doesn't have whiskers! That second squirrel looks quite content munching on the well preserved fruit of a crabapple tree perhaps? The last photo, Ken tells me is a natural snow sculpture of a squirrel, with its nose and little paws hanging over the branch and its body clinging to the other side. I'm thinking maybe Ken has had too many visits from these little guys at his bird feeder and now he's even seeing them when they aren't really there! :->

Wow - you're up so early! Cute pics - I guess that 3rd one could be a squirrel..........

Pictures are all kind of neat looking. The squirrel is having a good time eating those berries for sure. Then that is all that is left after the squirrel eats those berries in the 3rd picture? Have a good day everyone.

The first one looks like some mischief at hand. Head all covered with sneaky flakes. Great shots.

They're so cute!!!!

The tree looks like a flowering crabapple to me. Had one in the front yard before it became diseased. It was a "fast-food bonanza" for birds. In the third photo, I believe Ken captured the elusive Arctic Squirrel, known for its unique ability to camouflage itself as clumps of snow.
;-)

That first squirrel has the look on its face that I see on my cat's face when he falls off of something or does something silly...his face says "Hey, whaddya looking at, I meant to do that..."

That third photo looks more like a ferret hanging on for dear life to that branch!

Speaking of fast food, out in front of our house when I was younger, we had a chokecherry tree that always produced. Anyways one afternoon we heard a bunch of screaming outside and went out to take a look. A pileated woodpecker had eaten a bunch of the cherries and got stone drunk off them and was hanging upside-down from a branch screaming. He finally fell out of the tree onto the ground and just layed there for a while, then flew off. A few days later a group of cedar waxwings did the same thing, except many of them hit our front windows but luckily none of them died; they too just layed on the ground for a while sleeping off their buzz, then flew away!!

We always like watching squirrels, they are never boring. Great pictures.

Capt Paul, I have to admit that my first thought was that the squirrel in the second picture would get drunk on the fruit. When I was little, we had a hedge that had berries. When the fruit would ripen, the birds would eat it, get drunk, & fly into the picture windows of our house, thinking it was just part of the outside. Gee, that could be a Windex commercial story line.

Those are cute pictures of squirrels. At least they are apparently still ok in the UP, unlike Calif. California seems to have an over-population of squirrels, to the point that squirrels are attacking children playing in parks because the squirrels want the kids' junk food. Authorities there are now contemplating giving the squirrels in the affected areas, birth control shots. They didn't mention how they planned to catch the squirrels & hold them still long enough to inject them?

They could just open singles bars for the squirrels and dispense birth control in the restrooms.

Gone2long has been gone2long.

They could spike the twinkies with little pills and set them out. sort of like doggie cookies, peanut butter and heartworm pills.

Where's your profile, Rowdy? (I know you'll find a joke in the preceding sentence!) Maybe you don't really exist?

Oh that first picture is sooooo cute. I never knew birds got drunk....!!! (city girl) I would love to see that......guess I better get a bush or two ........ birds drunk, how funny.

I learn so much on this sight.......Thanks

Blessings........

something else for you guys to laugh about at the break table blue eyes........

hummmmmmm Ken were you nipping at those berries then took the third shot...????? lol

This may not be California, but the squirrels are still a
problem. The rabbits, chipmunks, and squirrels here in
Calumet do serious damage to trees and plants around
our yards. They can also get into your homes and live
in the walls and attics. They are only "cute" in the wild,
not when they try to share our house. I set traps in my
yard and eliminate at least one a day during the
summer months. We still have find major damage in
the Spring when the snow melts..... about May or so.

Helen, I think the squirrels, this winter, are going to drive me to nipping. Actually Mary got it right. I'm beginning to see the little critters everywhere. I've put out 6 lbs of peanuts this winter and it's squirrels 5 birds 1. Going to make another peanut run this afternoon. When the squirrels empty the peanut feeder they go and start gnawing on the "squirrel proof suet". I've already chased them away twice this morning. One is now sitting in the maple tree looking through the window just waiting for me to make that peanut run.

Music teacher is quite right. Squirrels can cause havoc. My daughter had an awful odor in her furnace room and called Dad to investigate. I took apart the vent to her gas hot water heater and found a squirrel that had expired there. We were very lucky that we didn't have a carbon monoxide problem. Good reason for having a carbon monoxide detector.

If you are trying to make a bird feeder squirrel-proof, you might try putting the feeder on top of a metal pole in the middle of the yard, away from trees & other ways for them to swoop down or jump over to it. Then you put a heavy layer of a fairly thick grease on the pole, especially towards the top of the pole. My dad used to do that, & it worked to keep the squirrels out of the bird feeder where they lived. Without doing that, the crazy squirrels would crawl into the bird feeders & eat all of the bird seed. That might protect your squirrel-proof suet, Kscheibach. :-)

Rodents!!

When I lived in Michingan. I had what I thought was a "squirrel proof" bird feeder setup.
A 2nd story balcony with the feeder hanging out over the balcony by about 4' from a steel (as advertised) squirrel proof feeder hanger. I watched in total amazement as a squirrel jumped from a tree about 10' away landed on top of the feeder, then chewed through the cord suspending the feeding and rode the feeder to the ground to enjoy his reward.They also tried to eat through a plastic cooler sitting on that deck and ruined our pumpkins before we had a chance to carve them. I finally decided that if I was going to feed the birds that winter I would have to feed the squirrels also. That was an expensive winter.

Our kids had a real nice basketball backboard in the
middle of the yard. Now that they have no interest in
BBall, the hoop serves as a real good place to hang a
bird feeder away from the rodents. The squirrels
cannot get around the backboard to reach the feeder.

The squirrels are great fun to watch, but they will clean the birdfeeder out, leaving very little to nothing for the birds.
So, we made our birdfeeder which hangs from the eave squirrel-proof by adding a dome - then covering the dome with vaseline. When the squirrels jumped on the dome, they would raise their paws slowly one by one, and then jump off. They HATED it! But then they found new access by jumping from the windowsill. So my husband secured a piece of plastic on the windowsill and smeared it with vaseline. The squirrels still play all over our backyard but they don't bother the birdfeeder any more!
grannymim from Memphis

I have trouble with the squirrels chewing thru my garbage can lids have tried all kinds of deterents but will try vasoline next, moth balls didn't do any thing but make a toy for them.

You might want to try a heavier grease than Vasoline, at least in the summer here. If I remember correctly, my dad used to use a heavy black grease like you would use to pack wheel bearings in a trailer wheel or something. I'm not sure, but that one might work better in summer, while a lighter-weight grease might work better until it warms up some. :-)

I loved watching the squirrels in Michigan but down here in the mid-keys I never see any. I like the pictures.

Great pics Ken! Only 2 weeks til Spring, it doesn't feel like it.

I hear that red pepper mixed with vaseline is a good squirrel repellant, tho the .410 still works best on red squirrels.

I vote for the .410............

Are we in the movie Ground Hog Day? Are we doing Tuesday all over again? What happened to Wednesday? Helluuuuuuuw....where are you Wednesday?