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!