Pleasant surprise
So I'm minding my own business in my home office when I suddenly hear a thud in the back yard. A tree has fallen. As I'm looking at the fallen tree, a visitor appears on the ground nearby. It's a very shy, rarely seen fox squirrel. I've only seen them two or three times and they're never around long enough for me to get the camera. He was heading home as I took this shot. Best I could do through the glass.
CrabAppleLane Fox Squirrel - February 5, 2008
He has a white splotch on his face and he is huge. My brother-in-law has one visiting his feeders that is similar but mine looks quite a bit larger. Not sure what that white splotch on the face is about. Anyone?
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No idea. I've never seen one. The Delmarva fox squirrel on Maryland's Eastern Shore is endangered. I've never seen one of those either. Cool shot, however.
K-
Wow...Even though squirrels are my sworn arch-enemy, this is pretty cool! Congrats on the sighting.
His coloring is gorgeous. I've never heard of one before.
Lovely picture - I have never seen a squirrel like it before. :-)
Very pretty, when they're not in my attic.
Funny and true story about the more common grey squirrels: don't feed them. Last spring my soon-to-be-bride and I were eating some drive-thru when she ordered me to turn the car back on so she could roll up her windows. It was a squirrel hopping toward us.
"You're kidding, right?" I teased. She insisted, so I turned the key and she rolled her window up. I still thought it was silly. I even tossed the little guy a few french fries. "ROLL UP YOUR WINDOW," Ladybug insisted.
Well, OK - keep the soon-to-be-bride happy, smile indulgently, raise the window... and then four seconds later there is this WHUP on the side of the car, like someone threw a beanbag at us - IT'S THE SQUIRREL. Gave me a turn. I never imagined that the critter would try to leap into the car for more fries.
So after a great deal of shame-faced apologies, we finished our meal in the closed-up car. The squirrel went off to pout on the base of a streetlight. (Seriously, that was one annoyed squirrel.) I do not doubt my Ladybug anymore.
They're all over my attic too. Drives the cat nuts. I've never seen a fox squirrel before either. It looks like the one at your brother-in-laws is circus-size.
Thanks, everyone. I've had them in my attic, too. Not at CrabAppleLane, though. That was when I lived in Metairie (Suburb of New Orleans). They can make an awful racket. They can also cause a lot of damage. They like to chew wires and other things when they get hungry. Very destructive. If you've got them, get rid of them by any means necessary.
The fox squirrel pictured is about three times the size of the largest gray squirrels. Thankfully, he avoids human contact and is not likely to ever find his way into my attic. The first time I tried to get a picture of one of these, he was alerted to my presence by the other squirrels in the yard and after giving them a 10-yard headstart, he overtook them in seconds and was 15 trees away in about a minute. Very fast, very skittish.
He's a lot bigger than than the grey ones. Looks like he could almost be Australian - very wallaby-ish.
Wasn't going there, delmer. :)
Hey Fi,
Good to see you. He's about the size of the wallaby I've seen at our local zoo.
Beautiful! My husband says Fox squirrels are fairly common up in MS where we're from but he's never seen one here.