Flying Squirrel

[Corley5]

Here's a couple pics of one my bird feeder regulars.  I've had as many as fourteen in the tree at one time.  That was a couple years ago.  This year four is the most at once.  They didn't start coming around this winter until mid Jan.  I'm pretty sure that they were preferring to feed on beech nuts until then.  We had a bumper crop of beech nuts this year.  They're a blast to watch and boy are they fast.  They run up and down the tree faster than your eye can follow them.  The dog hates them.  She normally bags about one a winter but hasn't been quick enough this year.  She must be getting old ;D

[Don P]

Great Pics  8)
When we first moved up here, there were quite a few. Our cat was a good hunter and also must have had a degree in flight math. She could figure out their glide slope and be waiting. Fast food that delivered, she was proud of herself but wiped out the population in short order. Its been about 15 years and I saw one this year. I know their just tree rats but I like watching them.
Side question, what eats on a suet feeder? I've hung one at times here and down at her Mom's with no takers that I've seen :-/. Its in the back of the truck now getting ready to head down the road.

[Mark M]

When I lived up in Minnesota we had some of these critters come to our bird feeder at night. First time one landed on the window sill mounted feeder I just about had a heart attach. I was just sitting there minding my own buisness and this thing landed about a foot from my elbow. We used to have a whole bunch and then they just gradually disappeard. In the spring I found the reason why, I had a peice of stainless steel metalbestous chimney pipe in storage shed and it was full of dead squirrels, about 10 of them. I supposed one got trapped and the others heard it calling for help and eventually the whole family got trapped in the pipe. Kinda sad because I really liked them and hate to think they all starved to death in that pipe.  :'(

[Bibbyman]

We had a couple of them invade the attic of our first little home.  They made their way in the house through an opening I'd left in a closet.  I would hear them in the house at night and flipped on the light to see them flee away.  At first glimpse,  I thought we had rats!  

I set up an empty suitcase with some peanut butter and propped the lid open with a stick with a string attached and turned the lights off.  About twenty minutes later,  I heard the squirrel in the suitcase and sprung the trap.  We took it up the road about a mile and let it loose.  Caught another a few nights late with the same method and displaced it the same way.  Hope they found each other.

[Corley5]

Hairy and Downy woodpeckers, are the main takers of suet but chickadees and red and white breasted nuthatches will also use it.  I've also seen the flying squirrels nibble it at times.

[Phil]

I saw the first flying squirrel of my life one night when fighting a forest fire in Floyd County, Kentucky.  We were sitting on a rocky ridge waiting for the rest of the crew, and one just happened to pass through the headlamp's beam.  

I saw a couple more a year or so later when I tapped on a hollow beech and they glided out.

Phil

[Kevin]

We have oodles of flying squirrels here, they get into the telephone  cable splice closures and nest in them.
When you open them up you want to be sure your hooks are well planted because the squirrels will sometimes use your head for a spring board.
Black bears love the suet.  ;D

[Ron Wenrich]

The only ones I've seen was when I was doing a TSI job.  We cut out a lot of the aspen, which were about 12-14".  A lot of these had heart rot.

I put a saw to one of those trees, and things started "falling" out of the tree.  Turned out to be rockys.  I suspect there are a lot more out there than we can see.  

We get woodpeckers, and nut hatches on our suet.  Starlings will whack it when they come north.  Occasional titmouse, or junco.  

[RMay]

We have flying squirrels that like sweet corn they have got all of it  out of the garden the last two years . They would get it at night . ??? I cut a big forked pine by the garden last fall and had flying squirrels going everywhere . ;D