I spotted one of my favourite animals over the weekend. A flying squirrel. I like flying squirrels. While they’re not overly friendly animals, they don’t really shy away from humans. They fact is, we really don’t have much they want, so they tend to stay away. Unless it’s dark.
And that’s why we don’t see much of them. A lot of people don’t even know they’re around. But I think they are far more common than many of us realize.
We actually have two types of flying squirrel around the province. The Northern flying squirrel and the Southern flying squirrel. The Southern is slightly smaller, but it’s hard to tell the difference. Although the Southern flying squirrel tends to hang around the Keji area and the Gaspereau Valley. A few years ago, I happened to notice two sitting side by side on a feeder. I also noticed they were a bit different, so I had a chance to look at them closely as they munched on seeds. I actually had one of each at the same time, and a good chance to check them out.
But with bird feeders not being much of a thing over the past couple years, what with the parasites and the avian flu, I haven’t been seeing many. If I’m not going to put out food for them, I guess they really don’t have much of a reason to hang out with me.
As it was getting toward dark the other night, I put out a few seeds. The birds wouldn’t have much chance to get to them before nightfall, and I was hoping to attract a nocturnal creature or two. Hopefully not raccoons, but maybe a flying squirrel or two.
It worked. After it got dark, I noticed some movement in the tree. It wasn’t much more than a flash, as something zipped down the tree, grabbed a seed and zipped back up. After it did this a couple times, I was sure what it was. A flying squirrel. Eventually it spent a bit more time near the feeder to let me get a good look at it. They are cute, with their big eyes.
The only thing is, you almost have to plan to see them. They’re around, but they tend not to show themselves too much. I was pretty happy to see them once again.
