I’ve mentioned before that when I hear a bird call I don’t recognize, it often turns out to be an american robin.  They don’t get enough credit for the variety of their vocalizations, I think.  Other times, an unfamiliar call will turn out to be a damn squirrel.

American grey squirrels have gone invasive in Europe.  Sorry about that.  Prehistorically, as continents have come together and pulled apart and come together again, there have been “biotic interchanges,” which initially result in massive reductions of biodiversity.  That is to say, many native organisms go extinct in the face of invasion.  I don’t remember the mechanism for it – why some alien species become overly successful – but it’s a sad affair, for people who like to see the world populated with unique and interesting creatures.  Right now?  Humanity has created the biggest biotic interchange since Pangaea, in addition to all the other ways we’re causing an extinction level event.

So Death to Squirrels?  I don’t know.  Ecology is all triage now, in an endless war, with no support from anybody with the resources or authority to make a real difference.  Fascist amxrika just voted “fuck it, burn the world to ashes,” so we’re left with the usual acting locally, but thinking globally?  All I’m thinking is this:  If nothing is ever done about any of this ever, what will nature do about it?  Because something will live through it all, especially if we don’t…

Eh, that was totally not what I meant to be talking about.  Squirrels, amirite?  They’re remarkable creatures.  So powerful, so well-adapted, so cute.  They live fast, they die young, but while they’re around?  Squeakin and sneakin and shriekin.  They get that nut, whether you want them to or not.

I don’t know a lot about them, but here are a few things…

Douglas’s Squirrel:  There’s a smaller species of squirrel that tends to stay in more densely forested places than your greys.  They have a dark stripe on the side and a less prodigious tail, charcoal on top, apricot orange underneath, but otherwise look very similar to a grey.  I don’t know much about them, didn’t even imagine we had all that many squirrel species locally, until I saw these ones in the West Hylebos Wetlands Park in Federal Way.  My husband thought he was seeing baby squirrels in the trees, but when we got a better look, they were clearly small-size adults.  One got pissed off at us and yelled from the walkway railing.

Flying Squirrels:  Supposedly we have flying squirrels here, ghostly colored things with huge dark eyes, capable of gliding really long distances between trees.  I’m guessing they’re high canopy adapted and might not live outside of old growth forests, but if they were around?  I’d never see one unless it fell out of a tree dead and I happened to see it in the moment before any number of beasts gobbled it up.

Black Squirrels?:  Driving from where I live up toward Canada, right as you get close to the border, you’ll see more black squirrels in people’s yards.  A morph of grey squirrels, or of a different species?  I think I’ve seen the answer before, but not curious enough to look it up again.  Just noteworthy to me because 99% of the squirrels we see are very samey here.

Chipmunks:  One reason I pushed for a honeymoon in the Olympic National Park was a childhood memory of going there with YMCA summer camp and seeing a chipmunk.  Only time I’d seen one in my life, in a quiet moment when all the other kids were off hootin’ and hollerin’ somewhere else.  Chipmunks are just another squirrel, but the stripes are cool.  The Olympic Peninsula has its own species.  We did see some, up on Hurricane Ridge, but I suspect these were not the unique local boys.  I dunno.

Cracked-out Squirrels:  There’s a tiny urban park in Seattle, near the homeless shelters and such, near the junction of Pioneer Square, the International District, and Downtown.  Last I saw it, there’d be a hundred plus homeless people resting there at all hours of the day.  My husband used to work across the street from it, and one time, passing through on the way to a bus, he had a squirrel charge him like it was going to attack.  On squirrel crack?  We don’t know.

Squirrels vs. Woodpeckers:  Northern flickers are the most common woodpecker in squirrel territory, and we’ve seen them squabble.  It’s mostly verbal, and the squeaky barking of the squirrels is what led ultimately to this post.

Dead in a gutter:  One time my home boy Bad-Moustache-Having Guy had a big-ass iguana that got out all the time.  It liked to climb trees.  One time it went missing for months, before it turned up dead in a neighbor’s rain gutter.  I didn’t see it, but I have to imagine it was sun-bleached and mummified.  One time my husband saw a squirrel sprawled out, utterly inert, near the gutter on a rooftop.  The squirrel remained there for hours, presumably sad and dead.  Then it randomly got up and took off.  Funny to imagine one having a lazy sunday, basking on a rooftop, but apparently this is a thing.  On some cold days you can see them resting on tree branches near the trunk, tail curled over their back.

Anyway, as noteworthy inhabitants of the predominantly birdy realm, they get a bird post.

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