eBirdseed.com Wild Bird Feeding Blog

Hi,

Very lucky to get the photo to the right... The American Red Squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) is a quick little loner halfway in size between a chipmunk and a gray squirrel. Trying to photograph him is usually an exercise in futility in that he zips from spot to spot at a remarkable speed, and is particularly wary of humans... Let's see what we can find out about this guy...

• Wikipedia claims that these critters are diurnal (active during the daytime), however the ones we've been seeing seem to be more crepuscular in nature (active during dawn and dusk).
• Red squirrels tend to be highly territorial, and quite aggressive towards intruders. Frequently, we'll watch a red "run off" a larger gray at the dedicated squirrel feeder or on the ground.
• On Cape Cod, it seems that both of these rodents are open game for most predators including the coyote. Other threats include cats, dogs, red-tailed hawks, foxes, and of course humans and their cars. Locally, we don't see nearly the amount of red squirrels as we do the grays, but in general (once again according to Wikipedia), they seem to be striving.

And in an indirect sort of way, that leads us to the next issue for this post - that of citing sources of information for this blog. First background... Ah, back in the days before the Web there were very fixed rules and styles required for giving intellectual credit where intellectual credit was due. (And failure to do so was an intellectual kiss of death.) Today however, things aren't nearly so straight forward. I might hit five or more Web sites corroborating a specific fact. (For example, there is some agreement that a full-grown red squirrel typically weighs 200–250g). To document all sites (not to mention a stack of books) involved in this corroboration process would make these posts needlessly bloated. Yet there are obviously times when uniqueness demands citation, such as the claim by the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums that the American Red Squirrel tips the scales at 140 - 310g).

The bottom line is that we go to considerable lengths to make sure that the folks who create knowledge get their fair due, and that when I make a mistake, I fix it pronto. (See: Little Brown Bat Update.)

But when all is said and done (concerning squirrels, birds, or whatever), it's probably more practical to simply point to our references link unless a specific citation or correction is called for.

Well, that's about it for tonight folks...

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan