Feathers and Fuzz

one woman's cure for the empty-nester blues

Flying Squirrel

Flying Squirrel: Kids are Climbing the Walls

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Fall has arrived at The Retreat.  Hummingbirds now appear solo — not by the dozens — as they add those final calories in preparation for their migration to places far south.  New birds appear.  Some are just migrating through — others come from the north to winter here.  Nesting season is over for our feathered friends, but the mammals are actively parenting.  We’ve seen the deer with their fawns.  Momma raccoon has been coming to the woodland feeders with her four offspring.  And … the resident Flying Squirrels are competing with the rabbits for beating reproduction quotas.

It has been an interesting Flying Squirrel fall.  Usually a single Flyer will occupy one of the larger, owl houses to give birth and raise a litter.  Flyer litters are generally born sometime around August and January (2 litters/year).  This year has been like musical chairs — only it’s musical houses.  I’ve identified what I believe to be three different Flyer females trading spaces in two houses.

The focus of this blog in on the first of these three females (Flyer One) to appear in the houses.

Flyer One gave birth outside of the houses, but later moved her litter of four (one by one) into the west house.  About a month later, she moved all four youngsters from the west house to the east house.  When the litter neared maturity, the youngsters started climbing the house walls (literally).  The mother relocated them again — probably to a tree-based nest.  I don’t know why the Flyer females move their youngsters out of the owl houses just as the youngsters reach maturity.  But, over the past several years when the youngsters have started climbing the house walls, the mother relocates them.  It’s rather disappointing since the more-mature youngsters are very fun to watch!

The feature video — Flyer One and her four wall-climbing youngsters — reinforces what we probably all know intuitively — thank God we didn’t give birth to quadruplets!

Human versus Flying Squirrel Birdhouse Modifications

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Back in the Spring of 2015, I proudly mounted two owl houses on wooden posts -- 12' in the air and equipped with snake baffles. I thought the design ensured the safety of future nesting birds.  A Tufted Titmouse quickly took over one of the houses that Spring and produced a brood of 6.  Late one night in April, the nestlings were preyed upon by a Flying Squirrel.  I was sick.  If you really want to feel ill also, you can watch the video footage of this attack -- but I don't encourage it.  

I very much enjoy watching the Flying Squirrels and stick by my ground rule of "do no harm".   What possible guard could one devise to protect a nest from a creature that glides through the air while retaining access for birds?  I began designing.  My first design, as you will see in the video, was to sheet the house in acrylic with large wings extending out from the top and sides.  When that failed, I added "spikes" made of long finishing nails to the top of the post (to prevent the squirrels from landing above the house), and added a baffle directly below the house.  After the failure of these designs, I concluded Flying Squirrels are smarter than I am.

A New Design

The next fall, I came up with a new design.  It is pictured here.  I understand it looks both mediaeval and evil, but so far it is performing its purpose.  The "armor" consists of a single sheet of acrylic applied to the front of the owl houses, and closely-spaced carpet tacks applied in bands around the top and front.  The application of the tacks is intended to discourage Flying Squirrels from stretching from top-to-side, or side-to-front, of the house.  The tacks orientation away from the front of the house would prevent a fledging bird from coming in contact with the tacks.

The removable armor is only applied when a bird has shown intent to nest in the house -- or when the Northern Flicker has used a house for winter roosting.  In this way, so far, Flying Squirrels happily use the dis-armed houses for nesting in the fall and winter -- and birds have an increased level of safety should they choose to nest/roost (armor applied).

Flying Squirrel Guard

I remain cautiously optimistic while humbly-aware ... flying squirrels may once again prove they are smarter than I am.