Tuesday was my first day back at school. Because it has been really really snowy in my village, my dad didn't go into his office but went on a walk instead to watch the roe deer. When he was watching the deer he turned around and saw a red squirrel in the tree and was lucky to get a picture of it.
I think red squirrels are quite beautiful. There aren't many of them, only 140,000 in Britain, and most of those live in Scotland. There are twenty times as many grey squirrels ! Red squirrels live in all the deer woods we go to, and one time me and dad were watching red deer in a wood when I saw a red squirrel come really close. Red squirrels love pine cones, and there are lots of pine trees in the woods around my village. At this time of year, when it is cold, squirrels can stay in their houses, called dreys, all day long. You can't really see it in this picture but they have tufts on the ears.
I have a red squirrel skull that I found in the secret vault in the same woods. The skull is not the best because it doesn't have the jaw bones, and only one of the back teeth is left, and the nose bones are damaged.
It has big incisors at the front like a rabbit, but it doesn't have the peg teeth behind them like a rabbit does.
It would be cool to find a whole red squirrel skeleton, or a skull with both jaws.
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2 comments :
Hi Jake, Good to read that there are others who enjoy watching wildlife, and yes, even collecting bones. Both are things that I have done in my work for decades. So perhaps someday, you too will travel to the Arctic Circle looking for long lost Bowhead whale bones. Or perhaps you will also travel to the Amazon delta looking for Ancient lost ruins. I live in Toronto, Canada, and earlier this year, my wife, Jean, and I were in Ireland where we too had a lucky meeting with a rarely seen Red squirrel. To us, they actually look somewhat like our Canadian Red squirrels, but boy, do they have long ears! We were shocked to learn that your Red squirrels are contracting the pox virus from Grey squirrels, and dying. We have far too many Grey squirrels here at our feeders, but further north, near Algonquin Park, Red squirrels are much more common. We feel very lucky to have seen two Red squirrels in Ireland, and have posted some of our pictures and videos for anyone interested at: http://frametoframe.ca/photo-essay-red-grey-squirrels-canada-ireland
Cool ! Lucky sighting and really great pictures !
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