New here - with questions

[NeOrKathy]

Hi - my name is Kathy and I live in NE Oregon. I found this forum while trying to identify a squirrel that moved into my yard last year. She is pretty much all black and has a thin tail. I'll try and post a picture soon.

A few days ago, I noticed she was on top of one of my birdhouses and was trying to get in it. When I grabbed my binoculars, I found that she a wad of nesting material in her mouth. She kept trying to get it into the hole in the birdhouse. Finally she managed to (I noticed the hole had been chewed to make it larger). Since she did that, I haven't seen her so I'm wondering if maybe she went in to have her babies and then stays with them for awhile without leaving.

Tonight, my husband opened our BBQ for the first time this year and we found her "winter home" - a large nest inside the BBQ. We moved it out since I did see her at the other nest in the birdhouse. I'll post a picture of that as well. I was surprised at how big it is.

[kastillo]

Not the first I've heard of squirrels building nest in BBQ's.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohx0S_sUhU8

[Shewhosweptforest]

Wow that is crazy:dono no wonder they can live anywhere:thumbsup

[NeOrKathy]

Oh, wow, I hope I didn't make a mistake by moving the nest out of the BBQ! But, I know for sure that she is in the birdhouse because the wad of nesting material that she uses to plug the hole keeps moving.

[Monipenny]

I assume you inspected the nest to make sure there are no babies in it. Baby squirrels are burrowed deep inside nest, not on top. :Welcome

[Rhapsody]

Oh, wow, I hope I didn't make a mistake by moving the nest out of the BBQ! But, I know for sure that she is in the birdhouse because the wad of nesting material that she uses to plug the hole keeps moving.Please make a mental note for future reference...... mother squirrels make a few nest before they have babies, so if any thing goes wrong or if they feel threatened, they will just pick the babies up and move them to one of the other nest that are near by.

[NeOrKathy]

Well, darn, I hope I didn't mess things up for her. We did look at the nest closely and didn't see any sign of life in it. I guess that explains why both of the birdhouses have nests.

However, I saw her moving a big wad of nesting material into one of the birdhouses, then use it to plug the hole. That was last Thursday and until just a few minutes ago, I had not seen her since she went in. Usually, she is running back and forth all day on our deck and patio.

Here is the birdhouse. The other one with a nest is the same - down to having the hole chewed up to make it larger.
http://i1170.photobucket.com/albums/r533/NeOrKate/e9156181-d321-4559-8474-526bf4cdd6dc_zpsb0b0e81b.jpg (http://s1170.photobucket.com/user/NeOrKate/media/e9156181-d321-4559-8474-526bf4cdd6dc_zpsb0b0e81b.jpg.html)

[farrelli]

I think that its common for a mom to not leave her babies in the first few days.

[NeOrKathy]

That's what I figured. When I first saw her a little bit ago, she was sitting on top of the birdhouse just cleaning herself. She stayed there for about 1/2 an hour and finally scrambled down and resumed her usually run across my back deck.

I have a large walnut tree and I think she stashed a bunch of walnuts last fall under the deck and that is why she is always running across it. But, just in case, I threw a handful of walnuts out there for her.

She is so much fun to watch - I hope I get to see the babies. Do you know when they might emerge from the nest?

[farrelli]

They usually don't start exploring until 6-8 weeks, though you might see them peaking out before then.

Is there water nearby? If not, you might want to put some out. Having easy food and water will allow her to spend as much time with her babies as she likes.

[NeOrKathy]

I put some more walnuts out. What else might she eat? It's been raining off and on, so there is no problem with her finding water.

[SammysMom]

Maybe a cut up apple or other fruits and veggies. You can look at the nutrition section here and see what she might like.
Thank-you for helping this new mommy!:Love_Icon :Love_Icon :Love_Icon

[NeOrKathy]

Thanks - I really enjoy watching wildlife and help them when needed. There are a lot of wild turkeys where I live and in the winter I liked to leave corn out for them - until their numbers swelled to almost 100 and my neighbor asked me to stop feeding them (they were making a mess of her yard). So, now I only feed them when there is crusty snow on the ground.

The momma squirrel is getting used to finding food in a tray on my deck. In the morning, I'll put some apple and carrot out for her and see what happens.

I still can't believe she is nesting in that birdhouse - it has to be pretty tight quarters!

[farrelli]

Did you ever watch the squirrel cam? Take a look at the following:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/gray-squirrel-nest

There was a mom in there with SIX babies. They eventually moved out at about 6 weeks because it was too crowded.

[NeOrKathy]

I haven't seen the squirrel camera before. I just looked at it and the momma is sleeping. Are there still babies in the nest?

I gave my momma some apples and carrots today. She immediately came and picked up some of the apple and then placed the pieces along the deck rail. Seemed like a strange thing to do.

[farrelli]

That's not mom. They all moved out because it was too crowded.

[NeOrKathy]

Oh, I see. I'm bummed that my momma decided to relocate yesterday. The previous nest was about 25 feet from my kitchen/dining room so I could watch it. Now, I think she has moved to the other birdhouse that isn't visible from inside my house.

But, she seems to enjoy the apple slices but doesn't eat the skin. So, I guess I'll start peeling them.

I hope I can figure out where she moved to so I get a chance to watch the babies when they start to explore.