fairychick
04-17-2009, 11:24 AM
First, hello.
Saw something I hadn't seen before today. A squirrel ran across my yard that looked like a monster squirrel. I finally figured out she had a baby in her mouth. They have had a nest in our front yard Oak Tree for as long as I can remember. For whatever reason (and I may know what it is) she decided to move them. She successfully moved the first (?) one, but is having a lot of trouble trying to move the second one. She has tugged on, pulled it's tail, done everything, but it just keeps getting away. She actually got it to follow her down the tree 4 times, but something would always scare it, and it was back up the tree in a flash.
As I'm writing this I saw her head across the yard with a baby in mouth. I guess this is the one she was trying to get.
My question is: Is this fairly normal? We do have hawks in the neighborhood but as I mentioned earlier, the nest has been there for ages. The only really different thing about the yard is that there are a large number of goldfinches visiting.
The "I think I know" reason is that I can see what looks like a dead squirrel tangled in the nest. This neighborhood was full of wonderful trees for so long but now development has pushed all the wildlife into a smaller area. So we have raccoons and hawks a lot closer than they used to be, plus several cats that are outdoors all the time.
Haven't seen her come back yet so I'm gonna make a trip outside and check things out. Just wondered if this is normal behavior and if they ever drop the baby? These are tiny babies.
Thanks
tara
Saw something I hadn't seen before today. A squirrel ran across my yard that looked like a monster squirrel. I finally figured out she had a baby in her mouth. They have had a nest in our front yard Oak Tree for as long as I can remember. For whatever reason (and I may know what it is) she decided to move them. She successfully moved the first (?) one, but is having a lot of trouble trying to move the second one. She has tugged on, pulled it's tail, done everything, but it just keeps getting away. She actually got it to follow her down the tree 4 times, but something would always scare it, and it was back up the tree in a flash.
As I'm writing this I saw her head across the yard with a baby in mouth. I guess this is the one she was trying to get.
My question is: Is this fairly normal? We do have hawks in the neighborhood but as I mentioned earlier, the nest has been there for ages. The only really different thing about the yard is that there are a large number of goldfinches visiting.
The "I think I know" reason is that I can see what looks like a dead squirrel tangled in the nest. This neighborhood was full of wonderful trees for so long but now development has pushed all the wildlife into a smaller area. So we have raccoons and hawks a lot closer than they used to be, plus several cats that are outdoors all the time.
Haven't seen her come back yet so I'm gonna make a trip outside and check things out. Just wondered if this is normal behavior and if they ever drop the baby? These are tiny babies.
Thanks
tara