Eastern Gray Squirrel, female Gathering Leaves to Build Her Nest (Drey)
I was sitting in my home office on a cloudy Saturday afternoon, peering out of my home-office window when I noticed a female, Eastern Gray Squirrel, gathering leaves in her mouth, then climbing up and down one of the pine trees in our backyard. She went the whole way to the top of the 40-foot-tall tree on each trip, packing the leaves in the crook, then running back down the trunk to do the same thing over and over again. She worked for more than an hour, sometimes taking a few seconds to rest at the halfway point before leaping to the next branch and finally to the top. She worked until the light began to fade. The next day, I observed her working for part of the day, until she finally must have felt satisfied, and went back to searching for food. I now realize that this was most likely the same squirrel that had been searching for the best place to bury her nuts a few days before. Eastern Gray Squirrels will build their nests close to a food source and our backyard is a ready-made "grocery store!" She even stopped on one of her trips up & down the tree trunk to investigate the "frying pan bird feeder" filled with dried meal worms. She looked inside it, then took a short break to groom herself before resuming her nest building. She is doing all this because she is pregnant. Breeding season for this species is December to February and May to June, with gestation of approximately 40-45 days. The young are weaned at around 10 weeks and will begin to venture from the nest at around 12 weeks. The average size litter is 1-9 kits. Time will tell if all goes well.
*Note: The conditions for photography were not at all optimal. It was an overcast day, and I was shooting through my window, with a limited view between the lower branches only. As the squirrel climbed higher, she was completely out of sight, but I could see movement at the top as she compacted the leaves and worked to shape her nest. I did not dare to go outside, as she would likely have abandoned working on the nest. *See collage at the end of this series.
Eastern Gray Squirrel, female Gathering Leaves to Build Her Nest (Drey)
I was sitting in my home office on a cloudy Saturday afternoon, peering out of my home-office window when I noticed a female, Eastern Gray Squirrel, gathering leaves in her mouth, then climbing up and down one of the pine trees in our backyard. She went the whole way to the top of the 40-foot-tall tree on each trip, packing the leaves in the crook, then running back down the trunk to do the same thing over and over again. She worked for more than an hour, sometimes taking a few seconds to rest at the halfway point before leaping to the next branch and finally to the top. She worked until the light began to fade. The next day, I observed her working for part of the day, until she finally must have felt satisfied, and went back to searching for food. I now realize that this was most likely the same squirrel that had been searching for the best place to bury her nuts a few days before. Eastern Gray Squirrels will build their nests close to a food source and our backyard is a ready-made "grocery store!" She even stopped on one of her trips up & down the tree trunk to investigate the "frying pan bird feeder" filled with dried meal worms. She looked inside it, then took a short break to groom herself before resuming her nest building. She is doing all this because she is pregnant. Breeding season for this species is December to February and May to June, with gestation of approximately 40-45 days. The young are weaned at around 10 weeks and will begin to venture from the nest at around 12 weeks. The average size litter is 1-9 kits. Time will tell if all goes well.
*Note: The conditions for photography were not at all optimal. It was an overcast day, and I was shooting through my window, with a limited view between the lower branches only. As the squirrel climbed higher, she was completely out of sight, but I could see movement at the top as she compacted the leaves and worked to shape her nest. I did not dare to go outside, as she would likely have abandoned working on the nest. *See collage at the end of this series.