Top Photo: Gray squirrel enjoys food from a relatively safe location, trash bin. The red wolf in the above photo has something hidden behind the pine tree to its left. The animal keepers entered the red wolf enclosure today (1/30/15), as they do every day, to feed the wolves. The keepers typically toss about meat balls throughout the enclosure, on rocks, in clumps of grass, halfway up the hillside in the enclosure, for the wolves to sniff out andRead more
Posts tagged: #gray squirrel
Some Goings On
Just a handful of things that you might want to keep an eye out for while walking along the Outdoor Loop Trail this spring at the Museum of Life and Science. Whenever an “outside” pair of geese fly into the Wetlands, the resident gander takes offensive action towards the intruder. Sometimes a simple flyby suffices to send them on their way. Other times, it may get physical. Enjoy your walk!Read more
Sleeping Wolves
While the wolves sleep, the birds reap. Animal keepers enter the Red Wolf Enclosure daily to both clean up and to drop off fresh meat in the form of meatballs. The meat is placed in various locations around the enclosure. Much of it’s picked up and wolfed down before the keepers leave the enclosure, but there’s often small tidbits left behind. I’ve often seen cardinals drop in to sample the raw meat. And Carolina Wrens sometimes fly in to pickRead more
Gray Squirrel
Just some photos of Eastern Gray Squirrels around the campus. Bye.Read more
Warm and Wet
The past few days have been rather warm and humid, if not rainy. That will all change soon, there’s colder air moving our way. But until that cold front rolls over us, enjoy the warmth as some of our wildlife has been. I don’t think the warmer weather matters very much to the mergansers, as long as the water doesn’t freeze and they can get at the fish and tadpoles beneath the surface, they’re happy. The mergansers above seem toRead more
We have much to do before winter
With each passing cold front the temperatures are a little cooler, the humidity a little dryer, and winter a little closer. There’s plenty going on outside during this transitional time of year when we make the shift from summer to winter. It’s time to prepare for what’s to come and the birds, mammals, and insects are doing just that. As the cicadas wind down so too the activities of the Cicada Killer. Hopefully their burrows are stocked with cicadas forRead more
Eating what’s in Season
The Museum’s gray squirrels have shifted their diet from elm to mulberry. The dark succulent berries of the mulberry trees are ripening as I write and the squirrels have found them. I found them too, and they are delicious! I don’t know a mammal or bird that would pass up a big juicy mulberry. It’s a good thing that the trees produce copious amount of the berries, too many if you talk to homeowners that have them next to theirRead more
What do they eat?
The last week in December was a very busy week. Many visitors were in town and it seemed most of them were at the Museum. Even with all of the activity, on Saturday (12/31) the Red Wolves were resting, as they often do in the afternoon, at the top of the enclosure and up near the fence. It was an unusually warm afternoon and there was a crowd of viewers at the Wolf Overlook. Late in the day, two Eastern Gray SquirrelsRead more
Gray Squirrel and the Pine Cone
It’s that time of year again when the Eastern Gray Squirrels build their nests and stock up for winter. The one in the following photos is searching the leaf liter along the boardwalk leading down into Explore the Wild in hopes of finding stores for its nest. After a few minutes of striping off some scales and eating a few seeds, it was off to the nest to store the cone for later use during winter. A wise squirrel preparesRead more