Where was I? Red squirrels are nasty little beggars. I've had resident squirrels for around ten years. Mother Red squirrel establishes a territory in July and has a litter the next April. Mother squirrel leaves the territory once the litter has become independent. One of her daughters takes over the territory. In other words , every year I get a new female squirrel.
So for the year I have my female squirrel she makes life miserable for me. She helps herself to my bird seed. That's the worst. She drops spruce cones all over the place. Some get very territorial and think that they should chase me away from my house. Some chew holes in things on my yard.
I keep covers in a wooden shed to cover plants when there's danger of frost. One fall I kept seeing bits of blanket spread around. I was too dumb to figure out that the squirrel was entering the shed and taking material to make a nest. To top it off the same squirrel made a nest in the blankets in the shed to have and raise her litter. I accidentally discovered the nest when I went in that part of the shed and a nasty squirrel came out of nowhere and made a fast exit from the shed.
So last week I observed two red squirrels competing for territory. I noticed two squirrels keeping on opposite sides of a tree and then they would chase around the yard. Back to the tree. Same game. Out in the yard and chase some more. Finally one squirrel made it up the tree and out tho the end of a branch. Dumb move! Second squirrel raced to the end of the branch and there was a lightning speed fight. One squirrel fell out of the branch . (15 ft.) At that point the chase ended.
So two females were competing for territory.
Sorry , no photos of this fight.
Now Red squirrels may be cute and interesting to watch but I still hate them. Does anybody want a free Red Squirrel? Do I have any followers left?
Photo by Angela McLean Cormier
