Red Squirrel

Watched this pretty little Red Squirrel feeding at Bebo Grove this afternoon. The "red" patches really glow when the sun catches the fur.

"The Red Squirrel is basically a tree-dweller, ranging widely across Canada. In Calgary, they are mainly found in coniferous woods along our river valleys -- although a few can be found in residential areas that are well-treed with conifers. More readily heard than seen, they often scold trespassers, whether members of their own species or humans, passing by. They usually sit and chastise us from a horizontal branch 3-6 metres above ground, their bushy tail held upright against their back. Their reddish-brown fur readily distinguishes them from the larger Eastern Gray Squirrel introduced to Calgary in the late 1930s.

Unlike ground squirrels which hibernate, Red Squirrels are active throughout the entire year. During autumn, each is provident by cutting off and gathering many thousands of conifer tree cones, often while still green, which are stored in great mounds above, or sometimes below, ground, as a winter food supply. Also gathered are mushrooms and tree fruit (apples, etc.), which they dry by stashing in trees until dehydrated and ready for storage. Before winter sets in, they fill a tree cavity or an old magpie or other birds nest with shredded bark and other fine, soft, insulating material for their sleeping quarters. Some may use underground shelters, often amongst the massive midden heaps of the scales of the White Spruce or Douglas-firs cones that they have shucked off to get at the nutritious seeds. To get to their food source, they readily tunnel through the snow." From Weaselhead.org.