Here are some recent photos of our regulars. We have a close up of Piggy, a picture of Gracie framed by flowers and a photo of a robin’s nest full of hungry hatchlings from a few houses up.
We received the following submission from Alyssa about this adorable squirrel Penny that she ended up with. Penny seems to have had a rough start in life, and her caretaker is trying to introduce her back to the wild.
Squirrels do not make good house pets people!
The submitter is doing the right thing in trying to introduce Penny back to the wild, but sometimes squirrels that have been raised alone amongst humans can never make the transition.
Penny does seem to be well cared for. She is lucky she ended up with you.
This is what Alyssa told us:
This is Penny the squirrel. I thought this of all places, nutsaboutsquirrels would enjoy a picture of her. This one is a few months old; it’s one of the rare times she was standing still enough for me to take a pic.
She isn’t a pet, and we are still in the process of introducing her into the wild (though she absolutely seems to hate the outdoors, we have to go so far as to prop open the door on the porch where she lives and leave her there all day and night.
In the morning she was still in her cat-condo, waiting for me to give her breakfast.
We got her pretty much because I have a group of extremely spoiled and bratty younger cousins, who are not disciplined at all.
They climbed a tree and kidnapped her because they wanted a pet squirrel.
After trying unsuccessfully to feed her sunflower seeds—the poor thing barely even had teeth and they thought it was a good idea—they then decided to just abandon her. My aunt came and dropped her off at my doorstep (my immediate family are pretty much the go to people for injured or sick animals) and she told me the story of how they got it.
I had no idea they even had it before she gave it to me. Unfortunately, they got her from a park and couldn’t recall which tree they took her from. So I raised her, pretty much on my own, and I want to release her, but I’m beginning to think I’ve got a permanent pet squirrel here. LOL
The highlight of any trip is the opportunity to see the local squirrels.
California is full of enterprising squirrels just waiting to separate you from your hard earned trail mix.
This little guy works the botanical gardens in San Francisco along with his four friends.
Then there is this guy who controls the much sought after parking lot territory at pebble beach.
This one is a real puzzle though, what kind of funny looking squirrel is this?
He’s not really a flying squirrel, but here is a nice video showing how far a squirrel can leap from a standing start.
Eastern grey squirrels can jump 8 feet from a standing start, so he probably could leap even further. Squirrels can reach amazing distances from a running start.
We went for a walk by the beach the other day. Temperatures were -10°C (-26° with the windchill) but it didn’t seem to bother the squirrels.
There were lots of them out.
A few of them were feeding off this tree eating buds or something. We’re not exactly sure.
While others were taking peanuts from an old man out on his electric scooter. Here’s one such squirrel making off with his peanut.
