Cyril in love - head over heels.

All together - Aaaaah! Young love in the sun!

I love the way the two birds are turning their backs - are they embarrassed do you think? LOL.

Aye Spritz or perhaps disgusted their apple crop being disturbed ! Thats my Coprosma in the background having survived all this ice and snow .

YES!!! We see them together. I trust Cyril is in the foreground and slim Twiggy behind. They look very happy BB, I suppose they had to leave the love nest to feed.

awwww im so happy for Cyril

Yes Dawn shes slimmer at the moment not for long I fear ! Has distinctive white ear tips.Not having got that close I m assuming Cyril the man and Twiggy the lady - could be in for shock Eileen x

Isn't nature wonderful. Wonder how they met. Bet Cyril chatted her up and told her he has a great restaurant next door, lol.

How sweet, they look good together....

Think they met over a pint of Guinness in the Flying Squirrel - eh Eileen? Have a pic but might infringe copyright .lol

awww that picture you have of the Guinness is brilliant BB, i wish you could put it on here and show everyone

Aye but happy to send to special guests - esp you living in Dublin , the home of Guinness ( OMG is that advertising ? lol )

Ahhh i,m so pleased for Cyril it,s lovely to see them together , hello Twiggy ............
Something odd is going on we normally have several squirrels here , we haven,t seen one for ages !

All busy now Amy - dont worry once they ve finished you ll soon see more of them ! lol

well BB dont know if you heard but Guinness might be moving from the city centre and goin back to where it originally began , a place called Leixlip

Where Eileen sounds like I d need a few to pronounce that?

lol nawwwwwwww ,, its pronounced like LEEKS LIP lol.
handy for me tho cos its the next village down from where i stay

How come your Coprosma looks fine, and mine have barely survived? I fleeced them, as well! Did Cyril sit by it and keep it warm with his tail?

You treat them too well Spritz - I talk to mine and tell them - Now then lad thees getting nah special treatment oop 'ere . Survival o' fittest. x

Leeks lip ? Eileen how appropriate had that trouble for years.lol

Dawn..theyre eating us out of house and home !lol

~is that right about Guinness moving Eileen? They have acres of land where they are~is it getting too expensive or what?
Lovely pic of Cyril and friend BB!

aye same as everyone Arlene, cutting back . they have loads of land in the city centre so they will prob sell off some of that .
they still own loads of other places over here, pal of mine lives in one of the Guinness owned cottages

lol Leixlip sounds like your kinda place BB aye

Thanks Arlene . Shame about the cottages Eileen - used to live in York and Rowntrees built a whole village for employees real social conscience.

Trouble was they were Quakers so no pubs - no chance of a Guinness anywhere.

Wonderful that you have a pair now BB......just imagine in the Spring! :o)

Cant wait Janey !

That's wonderful BB. I'm glad to see Cyril has found the love of his life. Can't wait to see the little squirrelets (what do you call baby squirrels????).

Hi Gilli,,great isnt it ! Dont know official name but yours sounds good to me !

Hi BB
~baby squirrels called kitts or kittens!~
~just reading article about culling greys in Northumberland~apparently 17.000 culled last year~tell Cyril how lucky he is!

Hiiii BB, when will the babies appear out of the drey with Cyril and Twiggy? We'll have to raise a glass of guinness to celebrate their arrival, lol.

Thanks Arlene...that probably because that area is one of the few remaining strongholds of the red.Yes ours are so lucky....and spoilt lol

Dawn,squirrels produce young twice a year,December to January ,or August to September,and have between two and six kits ! Think ours will be the later one as theyve only just got together !

Oh right, thanks BB. It could all happen soon then. Blimey, you'll have hundreds to feed at that rate of production!

~ yes that is right BB
~apparently this guy has a house miles from civilization and the reds will come down and be hand fed by him~he has been doing it for years!

I know Arlene but in parks all around the country people are pleased if a squirrel is tame enough to eat out of therhands,whatever their colour ,so whats the answer ?

We took our daughter to London one weekend and in Hyde Park, she handed a squirrel a treat and he came along and took it from her hand and off he went! Bless.

How do you explain to a child that its supposed to be a pest ? To them its a magical moment and makes you wonder how some of us lose this fascination in later life .

If Twiggy has babies think I ll call them twiglets !

That is so true BB. Why is it that we lose that sense of wonder and magic? As we get older a lot of simple things are just taken for granted. We seem to be unable to "stop and smell the roses". It's such a shame.

Too beautiful to be pests! It's nature after all and they're all God's creatures. He, he Twiglets, brilliant!

I agree Gilli - The Best Things In Life Are Free!

~I don't know what the answer is BB~ except it would have been a good idea not to introduce them into the UK in the first place~bringing in something which carries a virus that kills the local population seems to be such a sad thing wherever it occurs! In areas where there are only greys I suppose there isn't a problem but they are spreading northwards.
The old survival of the fittest will probably mean that the reds will be wiped out sooner or later without help though.

They have spent years and loads of money getting rid of rats and hedgehogs off islands where they never were in the first place but were introduced by man~ even accidentally~ and decimated the bird population by eating their eggs.However I believe one of the Scottish islands recently achieved this by taking every rat off?

Hi Gilli when read some comments on other sites of what should be done to certain animals it saddens me - think we as adults have a responsibility to ensure our children respect whats around them and most will given the right direction.

How can anyone travel through this site and not be enthralled by the diverse beauty members able to capture from around the world ?

Perhaps the only good thing to emerge from this world recession may be the opportunity for people to step back and say do I really need all these things - I know but can live in hope cant I ?

Agree Dawn but you dont have to look far to find suggestions for badgers , foxes ,squirrels etc.

Arlene they get a bad press and those happy to see them eridicated express many opinions.Wont go into tonight but take your point I love red squirrels too ! Dont think the answer is killing all the greys .

~No I don't either BB~
~it's not their fault! We are guilty as charged!as we have been for the dwindling and extinction of lots of animals. I'm not in favour of killing foxes or badgers either!
Maybe the only answer will be island reserves in the lake District and Scotland and enforce a strict removal and repatriation to any greys which threaten their survival!

Agree Arlene - at some stage will post a blog about the grey how it was introduced how this poxvirus originated and mans implication in it .We created this situation and now trying to blame the poor animal for it.x

~on a lighter note BB have you seen the article about this Canadian who stumped up £150.000. to buy and extend this forest area in Derry on my Woodland blog?
Apparently they have areas where there are quite a number of reds over there too!

AAAAAAAAAAWwwwwww True Love Hey :) how did i miss this Fab pic ? Great Shot as Norm Guys :)XXX

Looking forward to seeing the babies running around in spring Jacque !!!

OOOOOOOooooooo yes Little Baby Squirrels how cute theyl be Jane/Ray :) x

Twiggy is the one on the right Jacque..she s got white ears lol.x

Ooooohhh, how delightful ! Can't wait to see Twiggy and Cyril trying to get their Twiglets to stay out of trouble ! Cyril's children are destined to be veryadventurous, much to his future dismay...lol

Thanks Flower and probably to dismay of some neighbours too ! ( bit like your beavers I suppose either love or hate them ) very divided opinions on them but happy to have them in my garden .Parents move them on very quickly due to food competition so not likely to be here long !

I'd be happy to have them in my garden too BB!

Can t wait for spring Dawn...will have camera at the ready.

Awww, so exciting, they will be booootiful! Let's hope Cyril comes up Trumps!

Dawn by the way did you see Clarices blog about insect boxes ? Lots of ideas there We bought a ladybird box from a craft fair but,like Jacque,are going to have a go at making them.Credit crunch insect boxes !

I'll have a look at Clarice's blog BB thanks. Good luck with your ladybird box but yes, the credit crunch is biting so let's have a go. I've got pile of rotting railway sleepers, may get John to strategically place them for the bugs, after he's made my robin and sparrow boxes lol.

Poor John lol.By the way a rotting sleeper near the pond would also help...dragonfly would lay their eggs on it too !!

Good idea BB, we get lots of dragon flies so they would love that. I'll get John to carry one over, lol. Only joking, but what would be do without a sack barrow!

Again Dawn poor John..what we do for wildlife Lol

...and the female/male blackbirds names? :-)

Yep, poor John, he hee. I've told him the dragon flies NEED the sleepers by the pond, lol, he said OK.!

Bless him........

Oh The N...any ideas ?

I know, I know .... joking apart, don't know what I would do without him :0

: )

they are so cute!

From about one year we put out nuts for the sqirrels, a few of them visit reagularly but I didn't see young ones yet.

Thes two are nesting in tree in churchyard next door Ualda....baby ones due out sometime in April if calculated correctly !

Cute picture, I like it. Squirrels and birds happy together lol.

Yes Louis...a rare thing Lol!