Some people hate squirrels -- they see them only as rodents or pests. I love squirrels. I guess that's because I've never really had a bad experience with one. My favorite part of Christmas Vacation is when the squirrel is in the Christmas tree. "It's a funny squeaky sound," says Aunt Bethany. That's such a funny scene. Then there is my all time favorite movie with Chevy Chase, Funny Farm, where his wife writes a children's book about a squirrel named Andy. I can watch that movie over and over and over -- and I still laugh as hard as the first time. Classic!
We have a lot of squirrels at our house and they like to eat from our feeders. I've nicknamed them Andy and Nips. Andy I named after the squirrel in Funny Farm. Nips I named because, well, she looked like she was expecting and/or nursing babies when I saw her last spring. Right now they all look the same, so I call them all Andy or Nips. A squirrel will be running along the deck railing outside and I'll be inside. I'll call out, "Hi Nips!" and the silly thing will stop, sit up and look at me for awhile. Too darn cute, if you ask me.
Last night it was starting to snow, so I flipped on the porch light to see outside. I saw what looked like Andy or Nips in my feeder. It struck me a little odd because they usually don't get up there after dark. I stopped to watch for a minute and then remembered that the other night I saw one in there after dark as well. That night I turned the light off because I figured I'd just let it eat. But last night was different -- the squirrel didn't turn to look at me like they usually do. In fact, this one kept grabbing seeds and turning its head away from me. I guess I watch squirrels a lot because I actually noticed this one moved different than the others. Finally, it turned its head to the side and it had great big eyes and way different markings. Just as Rick was trying to get a picture of it, the silly thing jumped off and ran away. Rick had jokingly asked if it was a flying squirrel. I made some smartass comment about it being Rocky the Flying Squirrel. Sure as heck -- it was! I just looked it up and it had to be a Northern Flying Squirrel. That was exactly what we saw last night and the way it flew from the feeder way down to the ground, only clarifies it even more. Hopefully, we'll get a picture of one of these soon. In the meantime, that's Nips above -- or Andy. By the way, if you click on it, you'll get a really good close up. Absolutely adorable!
Ohhhhh I've never seen a real flying squirrel. That would be cool. We did have a squirrel problem once - but I still love 'em. We had to catch them 'cause they were getting into the house. So we would trap them in a friendly cage, tag them and put them back outside, for a while we were catching the same one until we found were he was getting in and sealed it up. ;) We can outsmart a squirrel.
ReplyDeleteYour squirrels are different than ours. We have red tree squirrels that visit our bird feeder. "Oh look," we'll say to Ursa the dog, "It's Mr. Squirrel." And she goes tearing off the porch. She chases them, she watches them in the trees, she wags her tail as if to say, "Come on down I want to play with you." But she's never caught one. I don't think she ever will. They're too fast, she's too big and slow.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to seeing a picture of the flying squirrel.
Funny Farm is one of my favorite movies. :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a cool thing to observe a flying squirrel!
Well, that was cool! You have your own little menagerie of animals Rena. And snow... couldn't get any better then that! :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a picture! And such a cute guy. We have black tailed squirrels here. They look really different. I've tried to get a picture of one but I'm not fast enough.
ReplyDeleteNice pic of Andy/Nips. All I can think of is how busted that squirrel looked, grabbing Andy & Nips' stash, lol.
ReplyDeleteI love the look of flying squirrels. I think it's the larger eyes and the extra skin/fur that makes them look so adorable. Of course, I wouldn't be saying that if one glided right onto my head and went berserk...
Gale
I love squirrels - they are so entertaining. I did click to enlarge your photo. How cute he is with those snowflakes on his face!
ReplyDeleteCute picture. I like squirrels to, they're fun to watch especially when they're chasing one another. My dogs like them too!
ReplyDeleteNancy
I use to see one often in the park we called stubby If you couldn't guess why
ReplyDeleteI've never seen a flying squirrel, but I love the picture you took of Nips or Andy.
ReplyDeleteThere's a lady where I live that's like the pied piper of squirrels. When she calls out, they come running from the trees all around. It's really amazing to see them all follow after her. She talks to them (and I'm guessing feeds them). I've never seen that with squirrels before.
BTW, we call all the chipmunks we see Chip or Dale ;)
LOL Stephanie -- we have the cutest little chipmunks here too. We didn't have those at our house in CA. They're hibernating right now (unlike the squirrels) but they'll be out soon. I call them all CHIP & DALE too!
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