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Woody the squirrel

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  • Woody the squirrel

    A couple years ago my folks adopted this injured baby squirrel. The cat brought it to them just after a storm we had. He had a broken leg and was close to death, didn't think he was gonna make it. So my mother made a little splint for his leg and nursed him back to health with some kind of formula. Well he ended up being quite a little character. He was a neat little pet but just way to wild to keep and it would have been cruel to keep a creature like that confined. So my dad got him a little starter house the following spring that my mother inscribed and put it up in a tree. He took to it fast, and stayed there for a little while. Sometime later on we saw him up in a big oak making his own nest. He would come down the tree and say hello sometimes. Well we haven't seen the little guy for awhile now but then again they all look the same out there. I hope he made it and is doing well with a family of his own.
    Attached Files
    keep on keepin after

  • #2
    That's great! I hope he made it! We had one, a female, dislocated lower jaw. Could not crack an acorn, or any nut. So, I took to putting the two halves of an open walnut in her mouth, she would have to point her head straight up, gum the walnut pieces, hard to use her teeth with her lower dislocated, and let gravity send them down I guess. Anytime I only gave her 1/2 walnut, she would look at me and not leave until I gave her the other half. She was my favorite, but there were many others. My wife saved "Shut Eye", another female with an injured eye sealed shut. A hawk was descending on her blind side, and my wife jumped out the door just in time to alter the hawk's flight. Poor Shut Eye shook like a leaf afterwards. We didn't take any of our little buddies in, just took care of them when they stopped by.

    Now, I've been feeding them all outside, aside our building, and we just realized a hawk has been picking them off. Bummer! We don't see any anymore, it's like they all left the neighborhood. It's sad. Can't broadcast any seed for the squirrels or doves and other birds until that hawk vacates. My own fault, though.

    My wife's favorite was "One Ear", named for you guessed it, lol. It hurts when a favorite doesn't show up again. I always check around.

    Rooting for Woody!

    "One Ear", sitting by kitchen window, eating a breakfast walnut....

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    Last edited by CMD; 02-20-2020, 07:12 PM.
    Rhode Island

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    • PointHound
      PointHound commented
      Editing a comment
      That is awesome. How in the world did you guys come across so many? This one was our first and only experience so far. He was allot of joy, sad day letting him go. Yeah, them hawks are one of the biggest predators around here. Allot of them too. Glad your wife was able to save shut eye.I bet she was a little shaken up herself. That's cool you guys still have them hanging around the yard like that. Thanks man.

    • CMD
      CMD commented
      Editing a comment
      I used to throw nuts to them from the balcony, and they soon learn to recognize that guy with all the nuts, lol. We caught another hawk in the act last year. We just walked into our parking lot in time to spook him, he had the squirrel pinned to the ground, but flew off without him. I was out this morning checking the side where I had been feeding squirrels and birds, and looked up to see the hawk eyeballing me from his favorite perch. No doubt waiting for me to broadcast seed. Not now, I guess not for awhile. Yeah, the little guys would show up at our back door. One night, about 9, I could swear I heard one. Sure enough, I open the door, there's a squirrel standing on his hinds begging, lol. I'm like, hey, you're not nocturnal, go to bed, lol. Of course he got a nut. Another time, had one sitting right outside the door, making a sound exactly like a turkey gobble! I swear, I stood there and watched and listened. And, I thought, do scientists know a squirrel can gobble? Lolol....

    • PointHound
      PointHound commented
      Editing a comment
      That's something else to have tame ones outside like that. Neat pets to have.They sure can make some noises. I never knew all the different sounds a squirrel can make until this one. If I'm not mistaken I think I remember him making a sound that kind of resembled a turkey.

  • #3
    Cool post hound
    SW Connecticut

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    • PointHound
      PointHound commented
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      Thanks red. I didn't have anything to post right now. Just thought I'd share the story of this little guy.

    • redrocks
      redrocks commented
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      Last spring I saw a snow white squirrel..pink eyes......a true albino....it was cool

    • PointHound
      PointHound commented
      Editing a comment
      That would be cool to see. My uncle has a stuffed albino fox squirrel. I don't think it was solid white though from what I can remember, but did have pinkish eyes. I have seen a solid red squirrel when I was a kid deer hunting over in WVA. Little tiny thing no larger then a big chipmunk.

  • #4
    Hey Guys, Those are some cool stories and great photos.
    I feed a lot of squirrels and other critters.
    My favorite squirrel was a piebald Red Squirrel.

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    Michigan Yooper
    If You Don’t Stand for Something, You’ll Fall for Anything

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    • CMD
      CMD commented
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      He's beautiful, Ron. All the other squirrels must be envious, lol. In Great Britain, the introduced Eastern Grey from North America is really causing a steep decline in the numbers of Red Squirrels native to the isle. Of course, the Red is native here as well....

    • PointHound
      PointHound commented
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      What a pretty creature. That's one that better keep its eyes open for the hawks, with all that white showing.

    • redrocks
      redrocks commented
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      Hey Ron...that's a beauty

  • #5
    Here's a page of recorded squirrel calls. I've sometimes used this to see how a nearby squirrel will react, lol, but not sure I ever really fooled them:




    We also feed squirrels at a nearby bayside park. Something I noticed is that they always head in specific directions to cache a specific nut. If I toss them a hazel nut, they'll run one way, and bury it in a general, but localized, area. Toss them a almond, the squirrel heads to a different spot, etc. Turns out somebody has studied that behavior:

    A new study finds that squirrels are incredibly organized when it comes to saving nuts, using a "chunking" technique to sort them into ordered collections.


    Anybody home, inquires One Ear. My wife still misses him. All our favorites eventually just don't show up one day, but, better to have love and lost as they say, haha....

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    Rhode Island

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    • PointHound
      PointHound commented
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      lol. Let me in! That is incredible.You guys giving them a second chance at life is what matters. I wouldn't doubt they are out there somewhere. I tried the sound board you posted but don't have that adobe flash player

    • CMD
      CMD commented
      Editing a comment
      One day, ole Shut Eye didn't show up. After 2-3 weeks, you realize they are gone. Then, for just one day, he returned, then never showed up again. I honestly believe he had moved away, not dead, just relocated, they do that. And he stopped back for just one more feeding, which made us feel good, knowing he was OK, just had apparently moved too far to visit anymore.

  • #6
    Boy that just a great story . I have been feeding and nursing animals back to health since I was a child .
    enjoying reading all this .

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    • PointHound
      PointHound commented
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      Thank you. That's good of you for doing that. Not everybody has a kind heart. Its kind of funny, cause ever since I was a kid I would squirrel hunt all the time and eat them of course. But now after having one for a pet, I don't think I could even put one in my sites.

  • #7
    I always found interesting the so-called "mass migrations" of Eastern Grey squirrels:

    https://www.farmprogress.com/massive...-north-america


    The Great Squirrel Migration of 1968(!):

    https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/...migration-1968

    Further to Nicholas Roosevelt's 1811 voyage on the Steamboat New Orleans on the Ohio and Mississippi River, and the squirrel migration on the Ohio observed during the voyage, Vagn Flyger's report on similar migrations.

    Rhode Island

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    • TJdave
      TJdave commented
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      Thats cool and I never heard of it. Would be a sight to behold. As the owner of a black mouth kerrdog he would probably explode.

    • PointHound
      PointHound commented
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      That is interesting. Never heard of it before either.

  • #8
    Back to feeding my buddies, who I thought had vacated the neighborhood. Don't blame 'em, lol. Today, none to be found. Then I noticed why. Right on his/her usual perch.....

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    Rhode Island

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    • PointHound
      PointHound commented
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      lol, that's not what you want to see. The little guys said that meal can wait huh!
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