Squirrel, Eastern Gray

My hort teacher called these "rats with bushy tails & good PR"...He got in trouble for molesting them with a bb gun, after they had eaten all his nuts & ruined the fruit on all his trees just for the seeds.

Out here by the ocean people call sea gulls beach rats....poor rats get all the blame!

Great shot, very clear and details. They've been tagged the name rats here as well, always getting into mischief, sometimes with a lot of damage. But I like them still, such clever and industrious things.

When we first got to this property there were no squirrels or birds here, not even accidental visitors. We now have squirrels nesting here, and an occasional bird visitor. It shows us just how much we are making things better with our small attempts here. You can not imagine how excited I was to see the first tree "rat"........now my goal is to improve the numbers of birds coming here, maybe even nesting here!

By the by ...the above little guy is nesting here and as you can see in the photo, eating here!

Wonderful. I will train in the birds but our red squirrels are so territorial, they are far to noisy to invite. This guy sounds like a good neighbor.

Mr. Squiz ! I love them and have lots visiting my garden. Lovely shot HW :-))

Hurrah for you Healerwitch.... He's a beauty... for a long time all we saw were the black squirrels...but recently grays have been spotted... we have so many that they are car fodder on the streets!... they do ditzy stuff like run out in front of your car...stop in the middle of the street and dither..then,.they dart off sometimes back the way they came; but sometimes under your wheels! My poor hubby just about put me thro the windshield trying to avoid hitting a squirrel!. I'm concerned about the bird population as we used to have hundreds of sparrows and other song birds in our backyard...but this season...their numbers are drastically reduced.

Lori....I may have found out why some of our bird population has reduced here....on Halloween evening, just as the sun was setting, a Bald Eagle came and landed in our yard, all the way to the back and in the highest pine tree. I ran for the camera....took a load of pics as he posed for me, but alas the flash killed me! The exposure is all wrong and it is hard to see him in the pics. (hoping my son can fiddle with it some and give me a better pic)

Little birds become dinner for guys like him!

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The decline of the bird population appears to be a world wide problem. In England the number of sparrows has drastically reduced.

Hope your son can do something with the pictures HW. Look forward to seeing that one ... wow !! :-)

Sue...I have pics I took last Christmas Day...of 4 bald eagles sitting in a farmers field disagreeing on who would eat one rabbit....but never have I had one land in my yard! It was so amazing!

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I am in awe HW !! Magnificent creatures ! Their wingspan is about 6ft plus isn't it ?
Would love to see the ones from last Christmas ....... please ? :-))))

I have wild rabbits in my backyard...and regularly see sharp shinned hawks, and sparrow hawks...this past summer, I watched in horror as one descended like a bullet into the cedar hedge and made off with some poor little bird. sad. Have seen osprey but never a bald eagle...lucky you Hw.

Sparrow Hawks !! Females thereof ! I've had one of those in MY back garden !l You watch in horror Lori. I'm sorry, but it's life ... they've got to feed their babies xx

Okay ladies...I am going to add some photos of wild birds...go check them out

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