Feathers and Fuzz

one woman's cure for the empty-nester blues

Fuzz

Relocation Flying Squirrel Style

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In the previous post, a litter of Flying Squirrels were shown climbing the walls of the bird house they were nesting in.  Once the youngsters start climbing, the mother Flyers on his property have chosen to relocate the family (presumably to a tree-based nest).

It is pretty funny to watch the mother attempt to prepare a youngster for relocation.  This requires getting the juvi onto its back, with its head between the mother’s hind legs, its hind legs over the mother’s shoulders, and its butt in the mother’s mouth.  I don’t know if the youngsters think Mom is just playing with them — or if they don’t like being rolled onto their backs — but it is quite the wrestling match.  (The fist time I showed this video to my daughter, she started yelling at me because she thought I was showing her a video of a parent EATING a youngster.  Mom is not going to eat her babies.)

I’ve chosen relocation footage from November of 2015.  It was a litter of two and Mom Flyer is shown relocating the first of two (she does also relocate #2).  The video first shows the wrestling match inside the house — and then shows the final stage of the relocation from outside the house.

At the very end of the video, I added a clip from a September 2017 relocation.  Things don’t always go according to plan in anyone’s world …

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!