I remember back in the late 1980’s waiting for maybe 4 hours below a known nest
cavity of a Ferruginous Pygmy Owl that had been being reported for several
weeks and up until just a few days before I could get there. I felt quite
content just sitting there watching time and things go by and after all that
time just to see a squirrel enter the cavity spend about 5 minutes inside and
then depart. Draw your own conclusions.
This was below Falcon dam a half mile or maybe more near the ‘famous
clothesline pole’.
Steve Gast
Houston TX
On May 25, 2020, at 1:37 PM, Mark Welch <welch.mark3@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Central Texas rock squirrels (big dudes, black upper halves, live and nest on
the ground in our rock piles in the Hill Country and Mexico) are omnivores,
carnivores & cannibals. I've watched a litter eaten by their mom), raid bird
nests in spring. True.
Mark in Dripping
<image.png>
On Sun, May 24, 2020 at 6:18 PM Clay Taylor <Clay.Taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
All -
I have not seen it here in TX, where we have Fox Squirrels, but I did back
in CT. Red Squirrels and Gray Squirrels, usually eating eggs in nests.
Nasty critters.....
Clay Taylor
TOS Life Member
Swarovski Optik N.A.
(Calallen) Corpus Christi, TX
Sent from my iPhone
On May 23, 2020, at 11:32 PM, Andy Dietrich <andydietrich10@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
While walking yesterday returning along Magnolia Parkway from retention
ponds I encountered something I HAD never seen before. I saw a squirrel
on the ground being harassed by a Mockingbird and upon getting closer the
Mockingbird flew to the top of fence. As I got closer to squirrel under
the tree it was eating something that I thought was a spouting acorn but
it dropped it as I passed. Sprouts on acorn did not look right so I walked
up to base of tree and observed a headless baby bird. It was very windy
and don't know if the bird fell from a nest or squirrel had snatched it
from a nest. Baby bird could not have been over a couple of days old.
Has anyone else observed squirrels eating birds?
Andy Dietrich
Pearland, TX
