SQUIRREL ACTION

There have been daily visits to the Firs Chase garden by the regular male red squirrel, pictured here on Saturday 30th.

The male red squirrel was seen carrying bark strippings into the nestbox high up in the cedar tree on Saturday 30th. For several minutes it posed half-in and half-out the box, pondering its next move. The box is one of two that were fixed high up the tree a year ago, each one had some straw bedding placed them before installation to encourage usage.

Early on Saturday morning the male red squirrel was seen stripping a branch in the garden opposite. It then hurried along the stripped bare branch, seen here carrying a mouthful of bark, being watched by another red squirrel. The previous day the red squirrel was seen making four journeys with bark back high over the road and into the nestbox.

A few days earlier during a warm spell on Monday 25th, the regular red squirrel was pictured having an early afternoon siesta in the outer branches of the cedar tree. It stayed motionless and was here for several minutes at least, as I gave up watching to see when it would decide to move on.

The next day the male took a different path across our garden, this time over our garage roof, then dropping down a small tree onto the ground.

After descending from the garage rood, it then went looking for the walnut it had buried a couple of months ago in the back garden although this time he had no luck in finding anything.

Two more red squirrels were also seen on Saturday 30th from the public footpath, in Fishponds Wood in East Mersea. Both individuals were seen climbing down the pine trees to pick up pine cones from the woodland floor and then taking them back up to eat. This one paused half way down the tree on a side branch.

Having collected a pine cone, it then spent a good five minutes stripping the scales off the cone to get the seeds. The other red squirrel was also feeding on its cone about ten metres away in the tree-tops.