Hi, I'm new.

[VRB Black Squirrels]

I'm a Canadian who signed up here as a carryover from the Rocky rescue mission, as it was playing out on another forum simultaneously.

I'm not a rehabber or guru or whisperer or anything, just a dude with a small army of backyard buddies who I enjoy treating, watching, and photographing. I mostly have melanistic eastern greys here (hence the username), some with neat-looking little mutations, like one who's black with a flaming orange tail, and another who looks like the tip of every hair in his coat was dipped in gold. I wouldn't have thought there could be so much variety in black squirrel coats, but there're a lot of unique-looking ones running around back there.

Not many people I know outside of the internet "get" it, but I think it's awesome having squirrel acquaintances. They're little more than visual background noise to most people, I figure, but it never stops being interesting that I might see a squirrel sniffing around a neighbour's lawn, do my clicking noise, and have him or her perk up and trot over to me. Or when my grumpy little assertive momma squirrel takes a peanut from my fingers, how cool it is to feel her tiny digits on my fingertips and see her so up close. Never would have guessed they were so very, very smart before I got to know some, or so personable and individualistic.

So yeah. Hello!

[HRT4SQRLS]

:Welcome to TheSquirrelBoard VRB Black Squirrels

I’m glad you found us. That was quite a rescue of Rocky Balboa. :grin2 There are many stories on TSB of people going to extremes to save a squirrel. This board is made up of squirrel lovers all over the planet. It is an amazing place. We are glad to have you. Your yard friends sound AWESOME! I would love to see pics of your beautiful squirrel friends. We don’t have melanistic squirrels where I live because frankly we don’t have black squirrels. There are a few black squirrels in FL but not many. I would LOVE to see yours.
Welcome again.

[VRB Black Squirrels]

Lessee if this works...

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I call this guy "Stander"

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This one I call "Gold Dust."

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This is the grumpy momma, used to call her "O.G." but lately I've been calling her "Ojah"

Those are the three I mentioned.

[HRT4SQRLS]

Oh My Goodness, what beautiful squirrels! I am so jealous. You have designer squirrels. :grin2

[VRB Black Squirrels]

lol thanks. I do have a lot of interesting-looking squirrels running around. Even my couple of grey-greys don't look like typical greys. One turned up a couple of months ago who was textbook, clean white belly and everything, but I think that little guy met his end in the street : (

There's a park with a walking/bike path behind my backyard, I heard a cyclist once exclaiming about having spotted a black squirrel with a red tail to his riding partner, made me feel strangely proud.

[stepnstone]

:wave123Hello and welcome to TSB.
Little Rocky as with other's in need is what makes TSB what we are...
A united front for the welfare and survival of these beautiful precious
little souls. :Love_Icon
Here in Maryland depending on area and outnumbered by the "normal" greys
we do have the melanistic black squirrels. In my area there isn't all that many
but a good handful have been my own releases adding their babies to the
population. I do find that the black squirrels around here can be more elusive
then the greys and suspect it may be due to their inability to "blend" within the
environment as well as the grey.

[VRB Black Squirrels]

What's weird is, the grey-greys stand out so much more to me. Like, you'd think having a shiny black coat and orange tail would make them stand out like a sore thumb, but so much of it seems to be refracted light, once they're in some shade with a bit of tree cover, they just blend in with the shadows. The grey-greys blend with the tree trunks and branches, the melanistic greys blend into the negative space. Winter is different, most of my black squirrels grew shaggy brown coats and those with lighter-coloured tails had the colour grow out. Because of that, they blended in pretty well with the barren trees and dirty patches where snow had melted.

[CritterMom]

The black and red one is spectacular! We have ZERO black squirrels in Maine - we do have the "dirty face" grays but that is as dark as they get. And of course we have the little red squirrels and southern flying squirrels. I DEMAND black squirrels!

Welcome!

[VRB Black Squirrels]

The black and red one is spectacular! We have ZERO black squirrels in Maine

We have lots in the Greater Toronto Area, they're very common here. Here's that black and red one in the middle of a mob in my backyard.

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And this is him in his winter gear looking completely different,

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I expect at least one more to have a similar tail by the end of summer. Most have shed their winter bulk and puff, but they're not fully there yet. This sudden heat has to be hard for them.

[GoldenEyes]

I've only seen black squirrels on 2 occasions but nowhere near where I live. The most I ever saw were 2 several feet apart at the zoo. What's the most you've ever seen in your backyard?

[VRB Black Squirrels]

It's hard to say really, but I'd confidently guess I've seen a dozen at once back there, and guess two dozen or more have been regular visitors in the year I've lived here. The other side of the backyard is open beyond a little patch of wilderness, so I think there was a lot of monkey-see, monkey-do that brought a lot of curious squirrels to my yard.

There are nine black squirrels who I've given names to, though it's easy to lose track of some of them, lol. Sometimes it's like, "I think I know which one you are..."

[Chickenlegs]

Your guys are gorgeous! Those of us who “know” squirrels—their intelligence, beauty, sense of humor, their very human-ness—are closer to nature and its bounty than the poor sots who see “tree rats”—and look no further. Poor them. Poor them! Welcome to the land of the blessed!

[VRB Black Squirrels]

Thank you, and I agree completely, people are missing out, and I do know people of the "tree rat" mentality who think they're all dangerous little disease-carrying vermin. My one and only experience being bit by a wild squirrel was the gentlest little pinch before she assessed that my fingertip was not the treat in my palm she could smell, and she seemed apologetic and / or embarrassed about it, or maybe afraid I was going to lash out at her.

They just never really registered with me before I had a backyard full of them. I'd see one and think how cool it is that vertical surfaces are dancefloors to them, and I always like how they looked, but never gave them a lot of thought unless I was looking at one.