Explore Outdoors ~ Squirrel Snacks

 

I've read that rosehips make great winter snacks for rabbits and squirrels. Bears, too, though I don't expect we'll see any down at the County Courthouse gardens!

Rosehips are full of vitamin C, and they may be a great source of food when other stuff is scarce. But getting to them ... that's a prickly proposition.

If there are any rosehips in your neighborhood, do you ever see squirrels or birds eating them?

Wednesday Explorers Club ~ Squirrels

Squirrels are pretty crafty critters. For years they have raided our bird feeders. They can learn to navigate an obstacle course and can figure out the best way to sneak candy bars out of a vending machine. 

They usually remember where they cache their acorns, and some people maintain that they can learn how to unscrew a jar lid. (apparently our squirrels aren't that smart because they just bite through the lid)

Take a few minutes to watch the squirrels in your neighborhood. Ours leap between trees, run up and down trunks, chitter at each other, and - well - squirrel treats away.

Some things to note in your field journal:

• what kind of squirrel you're watching
• what sort of environment, and the weather, time of day
• what the squirrel is doing
• sounds it makes 

Plants Feed the Animals

David Hill/ creative commons

Last week I featured a review of Plants Feed Me. This week I'm featuring food that feeds the local wildlife: acorns. Acorns have been falling in such abundance that it's hard to avoid getting pinged in the head. At first we thought it was the squirrels - furious with us banning them from the bird feeder, they were ambushing us with acorns. But no, it's just a good mast year.

Mast refers to the edible fruit of woody plants - in this case acorns, beechnuts, hickory nuts. Squirrels aren't the only ones harvesting acorns; black bears, deer, raccoons, mice, bluejays, and turkeys eat them as well. The turkeys will walk up our driveway en masse, a pack of conventioneers with one thing in mind: eat the acorns!

Mary Holland writes about how birds and others eat the acorns in her wonderful field guide, Naturally Curious (review here). Deer, she says, crunch down on them with their molars and the shells left on the ground have a "distinctive mangled" look. Birds are somewhat neater, using their beaks to drill holes into the shell. A grackle secures the acorn and then uses its bill to bite down and cut the shell while turning it. In that fashion it splits the acorn in half, allowing the bird to eat the yummy nutmeat inside.

Turkeys, on the other hand, swallow acorns whole and their gizzard grinds them up later.

Squirrels and chipmunks tend to peel the shells into strips and leave middens - piles of acorn shells on logs or rocks. Mice are neater - opening acorns at the top and scooping out the insides.

So this week, when you're out walking beneath oaks, look for acorns - and signs of the animals who eat them. Drop by STEM Friday to check out books and resources other bloggers are sharing.

Squirrel Studies Beneath the Birdfeeder

Squirrels are pretty smart. Not only can they figure out the best route to your birdfeeder, but they remember where they’ve hidden nuts.

You don’t need to build a maze to test your backyard squirrels’ IQ, but you do need to think like a squirrel. For example, which is better: a big nut or a little nut? To find out, create a “squirrel feeding area” and offer your neighborhood squirrels their choice of peanuts of walnuts. Put ten of each out and count how many are left after each squirrel visit. Then replace so you have 10 of each.

Can squirrels associate food with a specific container? Since squirrels can see color, you might offer peanuts in a white cup and filberts in a black cup. Do they show a preference for one container over another? If they do, what happens when you put the nuts in the wrong container?

Squirrels can open a box and figure out how to get in vending machines, but can they learn how to open a plastic jar? If you have a large wide-mouthed plastic jar, put peanuts inside it and leave the lid off. Let the squirrels learn to associate the jar with food. Then put the lid on, but not very tight. Do your squirrels figure out how to turn the lid? Let me know if they do, because my squirrels got frustrated and bit the lid off my jar.

 

Check out other science resources and book reviews at the STEM Friday blog.

Who's at Your Feeder?

Every winter we hang a bird feeder from the clothesline. We fill it with sunflower seeds and millet and thistle... a whole mix of nutritious seeds for the local flocks. We also hang suet for the woodpeckers - then we watch from the living room window.

Here's who visits our feeder:
chickadees
nuthatches
juncos
blue jays
downy woodpeckers
hairy woodpeckers
red-bellied woodpeckers
mourning doves (they pick up seeds that fall)
goldfinches, cardinals, sparrows, turkeys and squirrels. Lots of squirrels.

Gray Squirrels who climb up the tree, clamber out onto a limb, leap onto the clothesline and tightrope walk to the feeder. They chew the suet. They scoop out seeds by the pawful, tossing them to bird and mammal below.

We wondered if giving the squirrels their own food would keep them from raiding the birdfeeder. So one day I lugged home ten pounds of unsalted peanuts in the shell. We put some outside on the chopping block. We tossed a handful beneath the feeder. We watched and waited. What we discovered: blue jays love peanuts! If the squirrels are too slow, the jays swoop in and try to make off with peanuts in their beaks. They fly around the house to the thicket of forsythia and lilac where they sit around their card table, playing poker and cracking the nuts.

What backyard wildlife visits your feeder? Check out other science resources and book reviews at the STEM Friday blog.