A pine squirrel was visiting birdfeeders here in Superior (elev 5400) a month or two ago. That was really unusual. Not sure if it's still around. The person who saw it concluded that there may have been a population boom in the foothills last year due to the huge cone crops, while the dearth of cones this year could be pushing the squirrels to unusual locations to find food. Kind of like how Red Crossbills were a dime-a-dozen last year but really scarce now.
Peter Ruprecht Superior On Sun, Dec 6, 2020 at 2:00 PM John Ealy <jre...@gmail.com> wrote: > Pardon this peripheral bird topic, but I was wondering if any other > birders along the front range have noticed pine squirrels encroaching on > lower elevations. > > I am at about 6,000 feet in Douglas County, and we have had one or two > present in our backyard for more than a month. I mention this only because > we have had two of them in our backyard, as well as more Steller's, blue, > and Woodhouse scrub jays at the same time than we've ever recorded. We > haven't seen the pine squirrels in the 11 years we've lived here -- an > occasional ground squirrel (Wyoming ground squirrels, I believe). I'm also > seeing the pine squirrels throughout our neighborhood. > > They are very territorial, and while they don't bother the birds, they do > chase off the fox squirrels -- even each other -- which is fine by me! > > > Here's a link to a photo from the Colorado Virtual Library of a pine > squirrel in Rocky Mountain National Park. Ours look identical. > > https://www.coloradovirtuallibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/640px-Pine_Squirrel_7368947296-600x450.jpg > > John Ealy > Roxborough Park, Douglas County, CO > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Colorado Birds" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/a963d80c-b0bd-46eb-b217-c7a28f739661n%40googlegroups.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/a963d80c-b0bd-46eb-b217-c7a28f739661n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CAHPXVBZjycK_JTQm9u4%2BK5q9wHmM%3D3yVRHUojAVZC_qkqVkUCQ%40mail.gmail.com.
