Let the Squirrel Cross the Road!

For Mother’s Day I was gifted a swanky squirrel nesting box my husband found on Etsy. He put it about 20 feet up on a tree. A nesting box increases survival rates particularly in urban areas like mine where there aren’t many tree hollows (dens) for squirrels to nest in. Compared to dens, the chance of survival decreases when squirrels build their nests called dreys in the crook of tree branches because the babies are more exposed to predators and weather.

If you look up and see what looks like a large pile of leaves in a tree fork it's probably a squirrel drey. They look messy but are actually sturdy structures and cozy inside. They're still not as safe as the hollow of a tree or a human made nesting box.

The new box was placed above a more modest one I gave my husband as a gift a few years ago so he could see squirrels nest from his home office window.

The old squirrel nesting box is starting to fall off the tree but you can see nesting material from previous seasons in it. The new box is definitely an upgrade!

Squirrels are the most common yard wildlife and great ambassadors for coexisting with nature. Watching them fosters a better understanding of how our outside spaces are also their home and why we need to find ways to coexist.

Seeing squirrel families helps create a strong bond with the natural world just outside our home.

At some point this summer a mama squirrel we call *Half Tail for obvious reasons moved in. For weeks we've watched her sploot on top of the box cooling down and taking a break from her babies.

Female squirrels are single mothers and nest and raise their young on their own.

Baby squirrels aren’t weened for ten to twelve weeks but venture outside the nest around 6 weeks so we’re anxiously waiting to see if squirrel babies appear.

We've watched generations of baby squirrels play in the 100-year-old native tuliptree in our front yard. A few years ago we put the squirrel nesting box on a native pine tree next to the tuliptree - and continued to see babies scampering on both trees.

We came home from the farmers market last Sunday and my heart stopped when I saw a deceased squirrel in the street. Fortunately, my daughter was with me so she calmly went to see its tail because I was so upset. If it was Half Tail, I knew we would need to get those babies out of the box and to a rehabber. I breathed again when she said it wasn’t Half Tail but it looked like it was another mother squirrel. We don’t know enough about squirrels to know if she was still actively nursing. There's a chance that if babies were born in June they might be out of the nest by now. Young squirrels are starting to appear around the neighborhood. Environmental anthropologist Amanda Stronza honors dead animals killed by cars by creating memorials - she moves them to a quiet soft spot and adorns them with flowers and other natural elements. My own ritual is saying a prayer and marking the space where I bury wildlife with gifts from nature.

When we honor dead animals we're acknowledging them as fellow living beings, not things.

This sweet squirrel was just out foraging for food. A distracted or impatient driver came down my quiet street and didn’t stop to let her cross. If she has babies, I’m powerless to help them because I don’t know where they are. Half Tail fiercely chases any squirrels that dare to come anywhere near our front yard so I'm guessing the poor soul in the street was from a tree across the street.

This mother squirrel foraging for native flowering dogwood fruit (Cornus florida) in my backyard must live in one of the neighboring trees behind my house - and I've never seen her in the front yard where Half Tail doesn't let any squirrels even pass through.

It’s maddening to see a squirrel darting back and forth in front of your car when you need to get somewhere.  People often disparage squirrels for being dumb and inconvenient to somehow justify the inevitability of them being hit. As if it’s the squirrel’s fault for not getting out of the way fast enough. Squirrels are the most likely animal to be hit by cars. Maybe if their behavior was better understood, this would change. The reason squirrels crisscross in front of oncoming cars instead of making a beeline for the other side of the road or backtracking away from oncoming traffic is because they are trying to survive. In addition to having poor depth perception, this behavior is how squirrels have evolved to avoid predators. It’s a useless adaptation when 2-tons of speeding metal is coming at them. Possums are another example of wildlife often hit by cars because their adaptation to avoid predators (playing dead) doesn’t work with human machines.

Squirrels confuse and outmaneuver predators like red-tailed hawks is by zigzagging instead of making a straight line forward. This is why they spend time in the road going back in forth when a car is coming.

Coexisting with wildlife includes paying attention when we drive and teaching our kids to do the same. The Humane Society (now called Humane World) has some tips to avoid hitting animals with your car. They include: follow the speed limit, drive defensively, lower your dashboard lights slightly to see wildlife eyes in the road at night, and avoid swerving around wildlife and instead brake and blow your horn. If safety is a concern a sudden stop may not be possible, but in neighborhood streets like mine letting a squirrel cross the street can be as simple as slowing down and putting on hazards if needed.

There is no reason a car can't avoid hitting a squirrel on my quiet, residential street. (the rewilded right-of-way strip on the left is mine)

To shake off my profound sadness around this situation and feel like I was doing something I posted the following in my immediate neighborhood group:

I just found a deceased mother squirrel that was recently hit by a car near the front of my home at X (my address). We buried the poor girl and said a prayer for her - but somewhere there may be a nest of baby squirrels nearby because nesting mother squirrels don't travel far.

Squirrel nests called dreys are 20-40 feet off the ground often in a crook of a tree branch and look like a big pile of leaves. If the babies are big enough to leave the nest, they will be out desperately looking for food and may even approach people. They can't take care of themselves and will need to get to a rehabber immediately.

If you find the babies in your yard or hear them crying in a tree and can save them, AWARE Wildlife Center is the best place to take them.

 Squirrels dart back and forth in front of a car to avoid predators in the wild. They haven't evolved to avoid a car speeding down an otherwise quiet street. Please just stop if you see a squirrel and let them get across the street - and share this information with your teenage drivers.

Thank you for caring!

Squirrels are just trying to exist in human made spaces and their habitat can include our driveways, sidewalks, and streets.

 For now, I’m focusing on the babies I hope to see emerge from their safe and cozy nesting box in the next couple weeks or so. They might eventually try to cross our street. I hope my raising awareness and educating about squirrels crossing the street helps them live longer lives. Squirrels typically nest in the summer and again in the late winter so this message is a timely one to share in the community because by fall young squirrels are everywhere playing near and darting across streets.

I hope to see baby squirrels chasing each other in my trees this fall! This photo was from late winter a few years ago.

I am also thinking of installing a Slow Down For Squirrels sign near the street. There are several options on the internet and the sign would be on-brand in my rewilded yard!

This sign is now on my wish list for the holidays!

 *I'm aware why it's important to not anthropomorphize wildlife by naming critters or getting attached to them the way we do our pets. I try to be compassionate and protective in creating safe habitat support but at the same time respectful of the fact that they are wild. Rarely do squirrels, chipmunks or birds have distinguishing features like Half Tail so they’re blessedly interchangeable as “wildlife”. It fortunate because in all honesty, I sometimes think I feel more connected to the natural world and understand wildlife’s behavior which is centered on survival more than people’s incomprehensibly cruel and callous actions when it comes to wildlife.

I took this video last fall before Half Tail lost half her tail. It was just hanging for a couple weeks before coming off. The only reason I could pick her out from the other squirrels in my yard and knew she was living in my yard is because of the tail.

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