02-APR-2014
Red squirrel with cone
Photographed in the Ash Woods area of the Fletcher Wildlife Garden. Almost every conifer in this section of the woods has piles of cone scales, and only a very few cones. All the ones stored last autumn have been mostly consumed by now. This squirrel was very busy with this norway spruce cone and paid no attention to my presence at all.
02-APR-2014
Red squirrel snow tunnel
All over the Fletcher Wildlife Garden in winter, these snow tunnels can be seen. This one was especially noticeable because of the abundance of food items left around it. On top are some sumac cone remnants, a husk of a walnut just below, and to the left and out of the photo, a pile of discarded walnuts.
02-APR-2014
Red squirrel
This red squirrel was very involved with getting sap to flow from the manitoba maples. You can just see some of the sap flowing in the photo. In addition to the sumac and walnuts shown in the last photo, the squirrels eat a lot of manitoba maple seeds, and when they've been consumed, and the warmer days appear, they 'tap' for sweet sap.
02-APR-2014
Walnuts
Near one of the roosting boxes used by red squirrels for denning and nesting, there is always a pile of food items, usually at this time of year, just the remnants. All along the branches the squirrel has stuck bits of sumac in crevices and cracks and balanced walnuts on branches, as here.
