Warm in Minnesota

[Minnesota scroller]

We are lucky enough to be experiencing near record temperatures right now. Normally, I'm feeding corn to the squirrels by this time. Not this year. A grey squirrel is enjoying some uncooked pumpkin pie while the fox squirrels are still able to dig up their booty they buried not long ago. I'm thankful for this weather and wish it would last til spring.

[Greenfield_Bob]

Mike, those are neat squirrel pictures.
The squirrels around here seem to be fatter than last year.

Bob

[PuzzledMoose]

The weather here is nuts - last week it reached 65 and some places in NS were 68. Down to a much more seasonal 27 at the moment though

Squirrels have been very active here too but we obviously have a different breed here - see pic - they like those cones.

They're persistent little critters. I was watching one the other day trying to get something from under the leaves on the front lawn. Three huge crows kept chasing it away but it just kept coming back - must have been up and down the tree 10 times in 5 minutes..

There seems to be a lot more pheasants and whitetailed deer round here than this time last year too - had deer in the yard almost every night last week. At least they disappeared over the summer and left my veggies alone ..

[workin for wood]

how's things in lake Wopegon? that's what I'm always wondering. Love that prairie home companion show.

pretty nice here in michigan this week too. Sorry I don't have any chipmunk/squirrel photo's. I shot them all. Bought a high power pellet gun with an intense laser scope. Nailed about 50 of them ground squirrels...I know it sounds mean, but they are practically digging up my house. I was filling divits and trenches here on a daily basis.

[Minnesota scroller]

Ian, what you have there is a pine squirrel aka red squirrel. We rarely see that breed in these parts of MN, but then we don't have many pine trees around here either. They are fairly common in the northern part of the state. I live in the SW part of MN.

Jeff, shame on you. I love my furry friends. Once winter gets here I go out and pick corn for them. I'll go thru at least 250 ears of corn during the cold season. They get awful chubby by spring. Right now, as soon as I open my upper level door and go out on my deck, they come on over, sit up on their hind legs and beg for peanuts. I've had them come up the steps within 1 step of the top, to get a peanut. If I had the patience, I believe I could get a couple to take the peanut out of my hand. It's just an enjoyable pastime during the long cold winter months of MN.

[PuzzledMoose]

Thanks for the squirrel ID Mike..:-) N American red squirrels aren't like UK ones then - ours are "redder" and smaller with more pointed ears - see pic.

The UK reds are endangered and in places they're trying to reintroduce them - our grey squirrels are largely responsible for the disappeance of the reds. Grey squirrels were introduced into the UK in the mid-19th century and there is a huge population of them - even in urban areas.

And yup we feed our squirrels too - and the birds. After years of living in a city with not too much birdlife I'm fascinated by the amount of different types there are here. Mind you the robins came as a surprise - they are huge compared to English ones not the same species obviously - they're like robins on steroids..:-)

[Minnesota scroller]

Ian, that is one cute squirrel. Thanks for posting. I'd love to see one of those in real life. On a rare occasion I have seen a black squirrel up north. However, I have never been close enough for a good photo. Here is one of my little begging buggers.

[PuzzledMoose]

LOL like the begging squirrel ...

Mike I can't take the credit for that last pic - it's from the net - first one was mine. I've only actually seen red squirrels twice in my life in the UK - there's only something like 150,000 nationwide. There's a bit about them here and a few more pics - http://www.thecumbriadirectory.com/C..._Squirrels.php

The place to go to see black squirrels is London, Ontario - there are literally thousands of them there in the city. I've never seen so many squirrels in one place!

[William Young (SE BC)]

Hey Mike;
Warm in Minnesota ? Look at the latest forcast for my part of BC. And this is the real mild part of south eastern BC where I live . Up north it is REALLY cold.
http://www.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/ci..._metric_e.html
I think the squirrels will be hiding with their stash real good by weekend.
Of course the weather patterns travel from west to east so I hope you don't waiting for it to reach you.
W.Y.

[PuzzledMoose]

That looks chilly, Will! If i was squirrel I'd be heading to California..

Weather here is interesting - we don't always get the cold weather you've had in the west - it depends what that jetstream does. Quite often NS misses the worst of it and the cold kinda scoots up across PEI and NL, which I like ....