Thursday, April 10, 2008
Fourteen years ago, when I first moved into this house, there were two populations of squirrels in the back yard. The grays lived on the south side, and the reds lived on the north.
Then I started stocking the bird feeder. The gray squirrels, being more aggressive than the reds, decided they owned the feeder, and they started pushing the reds out. Within a few years, there were no reds left.
I haven't stocked a feeder since Jay died, so I didn't really notice when the change started, but I've noticed this past year or so that there are NO squirrels in the back yard. It was sort a subliminal awareness that popped to the surface today, when I noticed that the ground under a neighbor's pines was heavily littered with cones. Usually the squirrels take them. Is the whole neighborhood short on squirrels?
I thought a bit about that as I rounded the curve, and by durn right then a black squirrel ran across the road, right in front of my mailbox.
Mystery solved.
The black squirrels have moved in.
They're even more aggressive than the grays, and will chase them out wherever they find them. (Actually, the local blacks are just a color phase of the grays, but increased aggression seems to go along with the color gene.)
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3 comments:
The little gray bastards have completely commandeered all the bird feeders in my yard. Still, the birds manage to get in from time to time, so I'll keep stocking the feeders.
I think squirrels are adorable, generally, but not when they're hogging up a year's supply of bird seed. Rats with fuzzy tails.
Funny, the black squirrels in my yard have disappeared and the greys are still here. Never seen reds over here.
We put out "critter food". We attract squirrels, birds of all sorts and cats. Of course, the cats are waiting to catch the birds who are eating the feed we put out. I love to sit at my kitchen window when we've put feed out. We get birds of all types and squirrels all eating merrily together at one time under our apple tree.
A little minor (wiki)research turned up the fact that Catskill, NY, considers itself one of the origins of black-phase squirrels.
Christine, you're even more "in the woods" than I. Our feeders also attracted raccoons, mice, opossums, and chipmunks, and they in turn attracted hawks, owls, foxes, and coyotes. After Jay died, I stopped stocking the feeders because I was afraid of attracting bears.
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