This time a year, when you walk through the forest, the squirrel will ‘hawk’ at you… squawking incessantly. You are in their territory after all. This is their busy time. They are scurrying around ‘squirreling’ away nuts for the winter, filling crevices and holes throughout the forest – stuffed full of pinecones.
It seems every one in the forest is fattening up for the winter, readying themselves for those long cold winter months where food is scarce for these forest animals.
Including these hawks who were looking for those squirrels!
Everybody’s gotta eat!
You can tell when the weather is nice, even if only for a short period of time… the birds and squirrels come out in droves to collect seeds and food before the storms return. They are fun to watch as they happily hop around soaking up the fleeting sunshine.
We get a lot of squirrels and chipmunks. There are not unusual around here. But we get these tufted eared squirrel occasionally that are very striking looking. I originally thought that they are Kaibab squirrel, but Kaibab squirrels are known for being primarily in conifer forests in North Grand Canyon. So either these little guys are lost… or they are just garden variety tufted ear squirrels. Our visiting squirrel is likely a Abert’s Squirrel which is the variety found in South Grand Canyon.
kritterspix 