The squirrels, in fact, are often more fun to watch than the birds! In the mornings they emerge from their dreys, or nests of twigs and leaves high in the tree tops, and climb, head-first, down the tree trunks. Their back legs can rotate similar to the way our arms do, allowing their feet to point backwards or forwards and giving them a good grip on the tree. Most other mammals, such as cats and raccoons, must back down a tree trunk because their back limbs do not rotate. Squirrels, however, are at ease moving up or down, and always head first.

They are impressive acrobats, too, jumping from limb to limb across gaps that make me gasp. Sometimes, they miss their intended target and fall until catching another branch further down the tree. Because they are lightweight, and their spread-eagle legs and bushy tail act like a parachute, they usually survive a fall from a treetop as long as they land on forgiving ground. If they hit pavement, it can kill them.

When food is plentiful, gray squirrels cache the extra. Those squirrels that come to my corn feeder bury individual kernels. They carry the seed a short distance from the feeder, dig a shallow hole using their nose and front paws, then deposit the seed and cover the hole again, finally patting down the leaves with their front paws like children making mud pies. Sometimes the squirrels maximize their nutrition by carefully biting out the germ of the seed, located in the kernel’s base, and leaving the rest of the kernel for some less fortunate squirrel to consume. Friends in Alaska have reported that grizzly bears practice a similar tactic towards the end of salmon runs, when the bears are glutted with fish. The bears eat only the eggs and brains of the fish, the most nutrient-rich, fatty tissues in the body.

In addition to corn and sunflower seeds, gray squirrels eat many kinds of nuts, buds, mushrooms, and any bird eggs or nestlings they happen to run into. They sometimes chew the bark off trees, probably to get to the sugary sap beneath. Squirrels handle the nuts they eat differently, based on the type of nut, specifically the acorns of oak trees, that they find. White oak acorns are low in tannins and germinate shortly after they fall from the tree. The squirrels, therefore, tend to eat white oak acorns right away, and if they do cache them, they nip the end of the acorn in the same way they nip out the germ of corn kernels, in both cases preventing the seed from germinating by killing the embryo. Red oak acorns, on the other hand, are high in tannins and do not germinate in the fall that they are dropped from the parent tree. Instead, they germinate in the spring. Squirrels tend to cache proportionately more red oak acorns and usually don’t bother to nip them. Incidentally, Native Americans, who used acorns for food, preferred the much more palatable white oak acorns. The red oak acorns are bitter from the high level of tannin, which prevents the growth of fungi and bacteria.

Brevard, of course, is famous for its population of white squirrels. These squirrels are still considered to be members of the gray squirrel species and apparently mate and raise young with either grays or whites. Almost 1 of every 4 squirrels inside the city is white, and they are not albinos. Bob Glesener’s website  has more information on the white variants. So try a squirrel feeder and enjoy the show!