Rocky's nest

[jakid709]

The last couple of weeks my yard has been squirrels chasing squirrels. Yeah, but they seem to be bossing my girl Rocky around. Today at sunset I see Rocky in her tree but another squirrel chases her from nest. She then climbs into a 3 hole bird house(tight fit) switching between the bottom hole and the middle hole. I think she was just looking for a safe place to spend the night, I tried to get her to go back to her old nest box, but she wouldn't stay there. I thinking her old nest box hole is too big and it was our first attempt at the time. I think she will be OK tonight,but my worry is that the top hole is a flyer nest with at least 2 babies. She stuck her head in and jumped back ,but she was really fascinated with the hole. Told George , he will be building a new box tomorrow to give her alternative, but is any danger for for them , how do wild flyer and released grey do?

[Kristal]

The chasing behaviour is a part of courtship. One of the things that girl squirrels look for is agility and speed. The male has to prove that he can keep up with her before she will mate with him. She may lead him on a chase for many hours or even days, and he is expected to keep his nose pretty much on her tail the whole time. The female is just making sure that the boy she likes is strong and free of birth defects before she agrees to have his kids.

Anyway, the point is that Rocky may have a family soon. If everyone is chasing, then that is just spring, not aggression against Rocky, and almost surely nothing to worry about.

Re: the flyer colony, I don't know how they get along, but they live in opposite ends of the day. Certainly they are going to be curious about eachother, but they probably don't interact much :dono

[Kristal]

Oh, and it is good to put out a house or two because I hear (from others) that the females like to commandeer them for childrearing. That way Rocky will hve more options in the event of pregnacy and/or getting evicted by another pregnant mom.

[Jackie in Tampa]

Tack a small board across the TOO BIG hole...to make it smaller..:thumbsup

[jakid709]

Thanks everyone, she seemed to be just fine, but Geo is making a new box right now, we are going to move it further away from the feeding area.