I went out and refilled the bird feeders this morning (between the birds and the tree rats, they were pretty well depleted) and wasn’t inside more than a few minutes when two squirrels were on the front deck after the sunflower seeds. Usually, if they are on the deck, it’s because the area around the feeders on the side of the house is crowded with their relatives, so I went to take a look. Sure enough, there were seven or eight of the gray thieves over there helping themselves. Then I saw a black nose stick out from behind the telephone pole (I’ve got a couple extra in the yard from past wiring) and a little tuft of black tail sticking out the other side. Immediately I started looking for any white stripes and was relieved and delighted to see none. What I had, instead, was a black squirrel.
The Black Squirrel is a melanastic version of the Eastern Gray Squirrel and is more common in the upper Midwest. I’ve seen them in Canada (Ottawa) and in the Thousand Islands but this is the first I’ve seen in PA. (Although Pittsburgh is supposed to have a goodly number.)
Quite a handsome little devil. I believe I shall spare him (her/it) when I decide to thin the population of his/her gray cousins. Later I spied eleven gray’s out there feeding on the sunflower seed.
More about black squirrels
here here.General information about gray squirrels can be found
here and
here.
4 comments:
By golly, I've seen one of those myself at one of my birdfeeders when I lived in Ohio. They're not rare, but they are certainly not all that common, either.
Black squirrels are everywhere whenever I spend the Jooish holidays in Mount Vernon [right next to Yonkers] with my cousins in September/October.
We usually walk a mile each way to and from the synagogue and I see, on average, about 3-5 black squirrels each time.
I know tree rats are somewhat unpopular, especially for the damage they are capable of, but I find them kind of cute. If they f**k with my stuff, though, I'll kick their fluffy heineys.
There ya go with that "colorful language" again! ;-)
As to the rarity of the black squirrel, I guess they aren't that rare to judge by the number of towns that host the buggers. (Funny that I didn't spot Mount Vernon on the list.) It's just that in the many years I hunted the oak woods of NJ and saw (and shot) squirrels and after having over 20 of the gray variety in the freezer form around the Aerie last year and another 12-15 gray ones under the feeders this fall, this was the first black one I've seen outside of Niagra Falls and Ottawa.
I have a couple of dozen of the Florida Greys all fattened up at any given time just in case I want tree rat dumplins..but so far I ain't got the urge.
I have got a couple of my bird feeders tree rat proof..so far anyway. I need to get one more up to feed suet I reckon.
Today there was maybe 100 various finches on the feeders..everything from gold to green and even some purples..beautiful critters but tiny and spooky...I can't get close enough to get a decent picture of them yet.
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