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Pat
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Blonde Squirrel
12/12/03 03:56 PM Attachment
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Today was a good day even if a bit cold, wind, and rainy. I ran my traps and although no beaver I have one less armadillo now. So far in a few years I have only got beaver, armadilo, and once a turtle in my "beaver" traps.
Today, as I was driving down to the house construction site I saw the red (AKA fox) squirrel in the driveway and as I was between him and his tree he ran away to hide. He has never been easy to approach. He lives in a hollow in a big nice pin oak tree. He has a fair sized hollow limb with part of it sticking out horizontal with top half missing to create a flat porch (with southern exposure) with his entry hole in the middle of the limb. Very nice set up. I have seen him sitting on his porch eating nuts on several occasions. After I drove on by "HIS" tree I looked back and voila, HE HAS A BLONDE GIRLFRIEND. There she sat on the porch just looking pretty.
I grabbed the digicam and started snapping pix as I walked up toward her. I was able to get a whole lot closer to her than he ever let me get.
Attached is a shot showing her with the "porch" clearly visible.
 Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
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Pat
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In the previous picture you could easily see the hole "DOOR" into their cozy little nest, undoubtedly filed with MY pecans and acorns.
In this second shot you can really see her coloration, apparently some sort of albinism. There is a trace of pink showing here and there where the coat is thin like around toes, in ears, etc. It was hypothesized that the closer approach was gained due to albinos having poorer eyesight.
I think she looks like a palamino but there are signs of albinism and besides who ever heard of a palamino squirrel?
I don't think it is too common. Perhaps not truly rare but certainly not common.
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
Edited by Pat (12/12/03 04:04 PM)
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Bird
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Re: Blonde Squirrel
[re: Pat]
12/12/03 04:12 PM
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I've seen albino squirrels in zoos; never in the wild though. Nice pictures.
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Pat
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Thanks Bird, If I recall my genetics correctly albinism is a recessive trait so if they produce a litter there may be no albinos. If one of those offspring carries the recessive gene, grows up, and mates with another normal looking squirrel that has recessive albinism gene there is a good chance of getting an albino pup. I'm no biologist so this scheme may be flawed.
Any you geneticists out there or our animal docs care to comment?
Here is a third shot. It was backlit so I cropped and gama corrected it. It shows albinism better than the others.
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
Edited by Pat (12/12/03 04:44 PM)
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egon
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Re: Blonde Squirrel
[re: Pat]
12/12/03 09:42 PM
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What kind of rent do charge the squirrel for the tree house?
Egon
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LazyJ_Arabians
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Re: Blonde Squirrel
[re: egon]
12/12/03 10:30 PM
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no kidding egon, quite a crib, precious pictures
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Pat
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Re: Blonde Squirrel
[re: egon]
12/12/03 10:35 PM
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Egon,
You asked, "What kind of rent do charge the squirrel for the tree house?"
An arm and a leg, (pause for comedic timing) fried with a crispy coating and a little gravy (no fava beans.)
Actually I was thinking their firstborn, pick of the litter, and or any albino offspring.
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
Edited by Pat (12/12/03 10:37 PM)
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Pat
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LazyJ, I took 19 shots of which about 16 are pretty good and don't show a lack of clarity due to camera motion of so so focus or both.
Want more? OK, here is a head on shot. We wonder with all the hawks around out place just how long this little beauty will survive with such poor camoflage.
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
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egon
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Re: Blonde Squirrel
[re: Pat]
12/13/03 05:00 AM
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Surely hope you get a chance for pick of the litter Pictures.
With your squirrels will the adults move on when the young get older as do the Red Squirrels I'm familiar with?
Egon
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Pat
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Shucks, Egon, I don't know. I suppose red squirrels are pretty much alike in their behavior unless there are some different environmental pressures to deal with or opportunities to exploit. It would seem that I don't know as much about them as you.
I was unaware that the adults moved on as opposed to the young. Sounds like a good thing with some survival benefit. The young would be familar with the region they grew up in and the adults being older and wiser should survive a strange new area better. This isn't the way of a LOT of other species.
Too bad for me if this is true since it means that Blondie will be moving on too soon for my own selfish interests. Their cute little cottage with the sun porch is sooooo photogenic, I was looking forward to getting lots of great pix, essentially at my leisure. I may have to make a bit more effort.
I don't really have a convenient lashup to cobble my wifes digicam to my longest telephoto lense (2000 mm) so I may have to regress to 35mm. My LOOOOONG lense is actually an 8 inch aperture astronomical telescope (S-C) that permits prime focus photography as well as eyepiece projection photography for super closeups (although I prefer prime focus). The cameras I use for astrophotography are real dinosaurs, selected for their total manual simplicity and ease of "B" (Bulb) manualy controled, esentially infinitely long exposure time capability. The Olympus OM-1 (long the preferred 35mm of choice for astrophotagraphy) has a through the lense light meter but it is not coupled to the exposure control except through the human "computer" of the photographer. This requires you to "ride" the aperture and or shutter speed controls in natural light to correct for changes in light intensity while still composing the frame and standing by to trip the shutter. This is hard to accomplish while siting down, especially while partially reclining with a hot or cold (depending on season) beverage in your hand.
**** squirrels, trying to be causing me too much work. Maybe I oughta just plug'em both, have a fine meal, and get on with my relaxin', ya think? 
We ended up with 3/4 inch rain in last 24hrs. and at 9AM CST it is 40F with no precip. I should be out slogging around in this with a bunch of photo gear? My wife had a mental lapse and suggested we should put out pecans for the squirrels. HAH!! Corn if they are lucky! Pecans are for pies and other baked goods.
P.S. NOte: yet another view of Blondie.
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
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8NTX
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Re: Blonde Squirrel
[re: Pat]
12/15/03 01:27 PM
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About 25 years ago, my in-laws had a "pet" albino squirrel that would eat out of their hands, at their lake house in Tool, TX (Cedar Creek Lake). Only one I have ever seen or heard of until now.
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Pat
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Re: Blonde Squirrel
[re: 8NTX]
12/16/03 07:28 AM
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A friend with whom I shared some blonde squirrel pix, apparently did a net search and found a couple examples, both inferior to mine. I quess it happens frequently enough to not be too rare like "Guinness Book" rare but still quite an oddity.
A fair number of squirrels used to be kept as pets, even walked on a leash but I would hate to be nipped by one of those buggers. They could do some real damage.
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
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GaryM
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Re: Blonde Squirrel
[re: 8NTX]
12/16/03 09:09 AM
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Olney IL is famous for it's white "tree rats"!
http://www.sirin.lib.il.us/docs/opl/docs/gov/squirrels.htm
Gary
----------------------------------------------
Hey! Aren't you supposed to be working?
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Pat
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Re: Blonde Squirrel
[re: GaryM]
12/29/03 02:44 PM
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Gary, Thanks for the link to the White Tree Rat stories. Apparently they were a variation in coloration but essentialy "Grey Squirrels."
The one we have here is an albino "Red Squirrel" (AKA Fox Squirrel.) I got a close look at it yesterday but sans camera. I nailed up a large can (Grapefruit juice can that I punched some small drain holles in the bottom) filed with suh flower seeds and whole kernel corn. There is a crotch in the tree just above my eye level. Blondie was on the other side of the tree from me looking at me over the crotch as I nailed the can to the tree close to their "sunporch". I placed a partial hand full of sunflower seeds on their porch and some whole kernel corn too. Later I looked down from a dormer window in the new house and saw Blondie sitting on their sunporch eating. Also saw an owl (probably barn owl) land in a small pecan tree about 75 feet from the pin oak where the squirrels live (one regular red squirrrel and Blondie.) A couple small birds (much smaller than mocking birds the usual suspects) were dive bombing the owl who was essentially ignoring them. Hope the owl doesn't eat our little oddity or friend.
I wonder if red headed woodpeckers will eat seeds? One was hanging out where I spilled the feed for the squirrels.
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
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