Hey That's My Tree!

[Ed in Tampa]

If the tree has no hollows, the squirrels will build a large nest in forks of the tree. The outside is usually made of sticks and leaves very much like a bird nest and inside will be lined with leaves and soft grasses. Back about 40 years ago or so, would go hunting about daylight. You could shoot into the nest and then your partner could shoot the squirrel as it tried to escape. Yum! Fried squirrel and gravy with biscuits.

I was raised in PA and if you shot a squirrels nest up there no one would hunt with you again. The idea was the baby squirrels were next years stew.
I don't know how many squirrel I shot or ate but it was more an a few. Over the years I got picky I would only shoot squirrels that lived in hickory nut trees. I didn't like the flavor of the meat of squirrels that ate oak acorns.

We never shot or ate a squirrel or rabbit up north until after the first hard freeze. Not sure why but that was how we did. So I don't eat any southern squirrel, no freeze. Today I view them not as game but as fuzzy tail rats and I hate them. Very destructive if they get into your house attic. I cheer the hawk when I see one with a squirrel.

If you want to see something interesting is watching a Hawk hunt morning doves. The doves hunker down close to the ground if they see a hawk. The hawk will fly back and forth screaming until one of the doves take off. Then at about 10 feet off the ground the Hawk hits it. When the hawk hits dove feathers literally explode off the dove. It looks like a firework went off. Feathers everywhere. Both Hawk and dove hit the ground and the hawk readjusts it hold on the dove and off it flies.

I have one Hawk that loves to hunt by our bird feeder and eats the dove up in the pine tree. They tear off the dove wings and throw them down. Everytime I find two dove wings I know a hawk had a meal.

[swampgator]

Ed, I think the reason for waiting until the first freeze to kill squirrels is that sometimes, they have a worm right under the skin. My folks in Tennessee called them wolves or something like that. And, if a squirrel had them, we didn't eat that one. The dogs enjoyed a good meal.

And, I don't remember any more the mating season. After a certain time, we would go hunting and the babies were grown enough to survive without the rest of the family, so no problems with shooting the nest. The last I remember of that delicacy was in the late 50's.

[Gene Howe]

Steve,
Did you boil the heads?

[reible]

Hi dusty,

I have been studying gray squirrels for a while now. I have made squirrel houses to hang in the back yard which put them quite close by, in addition they have added nests of there own to both the front and back yard.

Where I grew up we had fox squirrels and flying squirrel and black squirrels, we also had problems with the getting in the attic of the two cabins that we rented out on our property. It is very hard to keep them out and even harder to get them out once they are in an attic.

I also hunted them, well fox squirrels anyway, flying squirrels were protected so you would not want to be caught shooting them. They were quite the escape artists in the dense pine forest around our house. It was also good protection from hawks and owls, once they were up in the trees they could be gone in moments no mater what was after them.

Here we are more to the leafy side and no real dense areas so I would guess that hunting here would be easier, not that I would do that at this point in my life. Now I like to shoot them with a camera and enjoy there antics either out my windows or in the field.

The gray squirrels pictured are a good size animal, not like the other squirrels I've know in the past. They are also very much into walnuts and acorns along with buds on branches in the spring and of course what they can get out of local farmers corn crops. In my yard then find the sunflowers in the garden to be a favorite, clipping off the head and taking it with them. Add apples and from are apple trees and this is a pretty good place to live near.

The bird feeder is also a great place to watch them figuring out how to defeat my tricks to keep them from eating too much. I once used a thin cord to suspend a feeder to a plastic wire covered close line rope that was around a branch. The squirrel slid down the close line and chewed the thin cord off letting the feeder fall on the ground where it was easier to get at the seeds. Lots more tail like that.

So on to the where do squirrels around here live.

Here are pictures of typical nests, close up via the camera zoom. The first two are two different nests. The last one is the same one as in the second picture but more of what it looks like from a distance.

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They will live in holes in trees but for the most part they make nests. They only stay in the nests for a while then move on when the lice and other pests get too bad. And yes often after a group of young have been raised there. They will return to abandoned nests often waiting for the cold weather to set in and kill off what might have remained of their pests.

When I had a nest box up I would never attempt to clean it out until we had some below freezing temperatures. Bagged in in the tree then took it down. They are destructive to the opening and insides of the box so they only last a couple of years at best. The young ones have the need to chew so that is part of the issue and then they scratch the sides of the box to increase the size so when they breach the walls the house is about done. They are also not that clean and all the rotting leaves and stuff does a job on the floor of the box. Best to change that when you clean it out and yes they do require drain holes in the bottom.

The young squirrels need to have a few tries to get a nest right so they will do practice nests to develop the skill. They don't hold up and we find the cut branches scattered from the nest as well as those that were cut but never made it to the nest...

OK, I'll stop now. I could go on for pages and pages but by now most of you have probably went on to another post. Thanks to those that made it all the way to the end.

Ed


[quote="dusty"]I have never lived where there were tree dwelling squirrels and hawks that might prey upon them.

Question: When squirrels develop a residence within the hollows of a tree, does the hollow tend to weaken the tree?

Is the hollow natural or does the squirrel do some excavating?

Don't laugh! These are honest questions from a desert dweller. The squirrel like critters here are "ground squirrels" and the hawks here...I don't know what they go after other than small house pets.

I STAND RIGHTLY CORRECTED. It has been pointed out to me by a very well respected member of this community that I have told an "untruth". I have lived in both the plains and the mountain country in Montana and there certainly are hawks (and eagles) there and with all that pine forest there are squirrels]

[fjimp]

I first encountered the aggressive squirrels in Virginia. Our home there was deep in the woods. When we moved in we mounted a bird feeder off the end of our deck. The squirrels had that feeder empty in less than an hour. So we devised a method to suspend it 15' feet away from the deck about 20 feet above the ground. The next morning my bride looked out the bedroom window and suggested I look out as well. We counted 15 squirrels working as a team to empty that feeder. They are smarter than most believe. However when we had a huge oak tree removed from the yard we discovered several hoards of nuts they had put away for winter. The man cutting the tree explained that squirrels are great at creating food stashes for winter but once the snow falls can't seem to find them again. Fjimp

[swampgator]

Steve,
Did you boil the heads?

Gene, I don't remember how my grandmother cooked them but she served them on the table. Grandpaw would always eat them. When he started with them, it was time to excuse myself from the table. Ugh!

[reible]

I should mention if you see a squirrels nest that looks like this stay away....

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cause it isn't a squirrels nest and the residents might bee a bit upset with you and get you in a sting operation if you know what I mean.

Ed

[dforeman]

Since there is a thread on Squirrels, I thought I'd share an article I read the other day.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/02/us/dr ... ml?_r=3&hp


I used to hunt Squirrels a fair amount when I was in college. These days I usually just go for more popular types of game. I've never had Squirrel Gravey. I might just have to give that a try. I've tried roasting but often found them to be very tough. If you check out their muscular structure while butchering, you can see they are very muscular little critters from climbing through the trees. So, as they start getting a little older they become very tough. Therefore, I've always kind of fancied slow cooked Squirrel Stew myself. We always waited until after the first frost here as well. Like previously mentioned, they do get lots of parasites (tickes, lice, etc). So, we often wait until after the first frost when a lot of the parasites die off.

[dforeman]

Oooops. Wait a minute. I posted the wrong link. Try this one.
http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpps/news/acorn- ... c_16239996

[swampgator]

Ed, very nice pix of nest and great explanation. I have those dear critters in my 3 pecan trees and they always get all my nuts. Pun intended.