More Squirrels

Observer: Eloise Bacher
Date: 11 September, 2008
Time: 0604-0619
Place: North of Goudy, under an unidentified tree.
Weather: Slight breeze, still warm but cooling off as it gets later.

I’m having great luck with the squirrels that inhabit Willamette; it’s been very easy to observe them almost anywhere. This one, another Eastern Gray Squirrel, is climbing about on a tree to the north of Goudy. I can’t really tell what it’s trying to do, but whatever it is involves a lot of falling…I’m remembering talking in class about how 16% of squirrels get broken limbs that heal back, and that some get injured so badly they die. This squirrel seems to be having a lot of close calls; it’s climbing on very thing branches and keeps falling or slipping and having to grab onto the branch. I wonder what it’s doing…what do squirrels normally do in the evening? It would make sense that they would try and bed down for the evening, but this one doesn’t seem to be doing that. Now it’s disappeared behind some leaves….and reappeared again, this time clutching some kind of nut. It sits on a branch and begins chewing. Was it looking specifically for food, or did it happen to find it as it played? The squirrel’s not saying anything, so I guess we’ll never know.

Tyler Starr: 9/14, Martha Springer Botanical Garden

Tyler Starr

14 September 2008 from 1455 to 1517

Location: The Martha Springer Botanical Garden

Weather: Sunny, no clouds in the sky, about 80 ̊ F, little to no wind.

General: This was my first time in the Botanical Garden, and it was a great visit. I saw so many different types of animals, not to mention the variety of plants. The first thing I noticed was an answer to my question of where the mallard ducks go during the day—I saw about 15 of them in the Mill Stream next to the Botanical Garden. They were just paddling in place in the shade of a tree. They were largely inactive. I also saw a squirrel walking along the top of a fence. I saw another squirrel deeper into the garden. It was sitting on a rock, almost as if it was posing for the picture I took. I have seen a ton of these squirrels in the past few days. Since the last batch of baby squirrels were born already, most of the squirrels are probably beginning to stock up on food for the upcoming winter months. There are bees all over in the garden among all of the flowers—this must be a bee’s paradise. There are a few different species of bees as far as I can tell; some are fuzzy, and some are not, and there seem to be a couple of different sizes for each one. I watched a bee crawl into the narrow opening of a flower to gather its nectar, inadvertently transferring pollen between flowers. I also watched two mice scurrying around. They were tiny, gray, and maybe two inches long not including tails. Every time my camera made a noise, they would dart behind a tree or rock, so the picture above was the best I could get. I hear tons of different birdcalls as well, from screeches to tweets. I heard a distinct chickadee call, and so followed the call and saw two of the birds in a tree.

More Squirrel Notes

Observer: Eloise Bacher
Date: 10 September, 2008
Time: 1030-1045
Place: North of the Chicken Fountain on the path between the fountain and Jackson Square.
Weather: Very warm and sunny, 79°F.

I’m walking along the path towards the Chicken Fountain from the library, and on my right I see a flash of gray movement, which I assume is a squirrel. As I draw level to it all I can see is the tail, which is parallel to the tree but out to the side. I begin to stalk it without making any conscious decision to do so, but it’s a good thing the fountain is there because it masks any noise I’m making. Then suddenly I’m looking at a squirrel. It’s not flat against the tree, although from a distance it might look that way. Only the claws are really attached, and the head is sticking out, staring at something that I can’t see, or maybe it’s listening. Its whole body is quivering, and the feet are so tensed that I can almost see the bones of the feet. The tail is closest to me as the squirrel is upside down on the tree, and the hairs on the tail are amazingly long and each one is multicolored with bands of black, gray, and tan. I reach out with one finger and touch the tail, but the squirrel still doesn’t move. Is it so scared that it can’t move, or does it really not care that I’m standing there, or does it not know I’m there? A few seconds later a bicyclist goes past and the squirrel flies off the tree and into a nearby rhododendron. I go back to the path to see if I can continue watching it from there, but it’s gone.

*Photo courtesy of http://lh3.ggpht.com/_ZWvS0dAlwCs/RrQlrhB00_I/AAAAAAAABcI/qYPZjbIl84Q/P1000566.JPG

Squirrels...Dead AND Alive!

Observer: Eloise Bacher
Date: 5 September, 2008
Place: Japanese Garden
Time: 1345- 1400

Weather: Warm, sunny.

I wanted to check out the squirrel nest in the Big Leaf Maple west of the Japanese garden on campus, so I climbed the stairs up to the landing where we looked at the Star Trees the first day of class, but I saw nothing in the nest, so I headed back down. On the way I noticed a gray squirrel tail that appeared to be hanging from a branch, but as I walked farther down I could see that a whole squirrel was lying on the branch of one of the trees in the Japanese garden. It seemed really strange that if the squirrel was sleeping it would just let its tail drift around, so I started to think maybe it was dead. I went and looked more closely at it (as close as I could) and tried to climb the tree, but that did not work so well. As I was trying to climb it, another squirrel appeared and seemed to be trying to figure out what I was or what I was doing there. It got about ten feet away and did this head bobbing thing where it would stare very intently at me and weave it's head side to side and occasionally up and down, all while sniffing. Then it would leap to another location and repeat the process. It did this about five times, and during a couple of them s/he would suddenly vanish to the other side of a branch or farther up the tree. Eventually it ran off to the maple where the nest was located, and I couldn't see it anymore. The head bobbing behavior reminded me of two things: First, what I have heard that a cat does when it is curious and doesn't know what something is, and second, what Barn Owls do when they're upset, which is to sway their wings back and forth and weave their heads around while hissing.

*Photo courtesy of: http://f4bscale.worldonline.co.uk/Squirrel%20dead.gif