I stopped off after our walk today an d watched the Squirrels and birds eating the seeds that someone had left on a post in the forest.The Squirrel is an American grey and is not our now very rare native red squirrel. Sadly these have declined since the introduction of the bigger grey. There are several theories why this has happened. One is that they compete for food but studies have shown they tend to have different preferences. Another is that the grey squirrel carries a virus that kills the red. There are a few pockets of Red squirrels left in the UK. At least two are on Islands where the grey Squirrel isn't found and efforts are made to make sure the Grey does not stowaway on the ferries to get there.! The bird is a young finch, you can see how downy he still is. he was so absorbed in eating his fill that I was able to get quite close.
1 comment:
This is interesting information about your red squirrel. The grey squirrel is dominating the wood I live in. When I first moved here, only 4 years ago, I saw small red squirrels--I haven't seen them in the past 2 years. I thought it was the red tail hawk hunting them, but perhaps it is a virus?
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