Physical description of location: We live in a wooded area with many trees surrounding our apartment and that surround the school. Perfect place for seeing squirrels and chipmunks run about.
Describe the sighting: I was out walking the block with my boyfriend, we decided how to see how long it would take us to get to the main street from our apartment if we needed to walk home from a night of drinking. It was windy, not very cold out and the grey squirrel scampered in front of us and up a tree that resided in the cemetery. I wanted to get a good picture of him but he was to fast and was gone by the time i had nicks phone camera in my hand. (it's always my luck to not be carrying my camera around when i see wildlife. I hope to have some pictures of the little critter before i have to turn this in.)
Another interesting grey squirrel sighting i had was when i was driving to school. It was along the lake and i was behind some fairly slow people, so i decided to look towards the lake to see if i could spot anything. Sure enough, an all black, grey squirrel was hoping along, gathering food. I was excited. I never saw a black squirrel alive (my dad has one mounted in his game room.) I wanted to pull over and follow him, hoping to get his blackness on film but i didn't want to be late for class so i kept driving.
Ive even heard the call of the grey squirrel. it sounded like almost barking and i knew he was mad or scared because my cat Skeeter was outside exploring ( i don't like to let the cats out but sometimes i do but only for a few moments) around the bushes and trees and i hard this frantic barking sound coming from above. I looked up and noticed a squirrel was hanging out on one of the lower branches, not moving. His bushy tail flickered every time he barked at skeeter though. im sure he was scared and didn't want Skeeter to chase him, but lucky for the squirrel skeeter was just exploring down below and soon bolted inside, not liking the outdoors. I wish it would snow one of these days, it would have been nice to get some tracks on camera.
Natural history: Stokes's book says the grey squirrel's habitats are any place where there are seed or nut producing trees in the cities, country and suburbs. They love to eat flowers, cones, nuts, seeds and buds in a 1-3 acres of land. They mate usually in December to February and June and July. They can have up to 5 young and 2 litters. The young are weaned from their mother at 8 to 9 weeks and are independent by 3-4 months. They also like to live in nests they build in trees and/or tree holes.
For future study: I'm curious about the squirrels chatter. I've only heard it when they were scared or perhaps mad. do they have different sounding calls when mad, scared, happy?
Sources: Stokes, D. and Stokes, L .1986. Guide to Animal tracking and behavior.
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