# You learn something new every day



## Killer Kyle (Jun 13, 2016)

Saturday I got off work and was sitting in my car in the parking lot waiting to meet up with a friend. I was reading "Even Brook Trout Get the Blues" by John Gierach. To my left I noticed a grey squirrel milling about maybe only 15 feet from my car. I was sitting in the shade of a northern red oak tree. All the sudden it began digging in the grass. Dug deep and retrieved an acorn. It took the nut to the base of the tree and ate it while staring straight at me. Never would take its eyes off of me. Then when it was done, it went, sniffed around some more, began digging again and had dug up another. Took it back to the same place and ate that one too. It went a third time, sniffed around some more, and dug up a third. It took that one to a branch coming out of the first fork and ate it there. When it left, I got out and went to the base of the tree just to confirm that I wasn't crazy. Ended up picking up a handful of hull scraps and took them to show my friend. This tree began dropping last September. It drops in September every single year and I have observed every year that the acorns go seemingly untouched. The acorns just lie there on the ground all year long, and never once have I observed a squirrel eating them in all the years I have been there and I sit in my car during lunch break every single day that I am at work. I not only was surprised to see a squirrel had burried some and was eating them, but was especially surprised that they are STILL digging them up and eating them in mid June eight months after the acorns had fallen. I was convinced they'd all have been rotted by now. Anyone else ever see squirrels digging up acorns in mid June?


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## specialk (Jun 14, 2016)

I've got a few around the house....never paid much attention to what they were eating though.....


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## Red dirt clod (Jun 14, 2016)

*2 big oaks outside my office*

I noticed a few days ago the same thing, holes everywhere and Greys running around when I go out.


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## Killer Kyle (Jun 14, 2016)

I figured this time of year the acorns would have been rotted thru and thru but evidently they are still desire able this time of year. My best friend is a wildlife biologist and she has a pet flying squirrel that she rescued as a baby. This time of year we feed him mostly grasshoppers, cicadas, inch worms and crickets and only supplement his diet with fruits, veggies, walnuts, and pecans after he has eaten his bugs. Most people don't realize squirrels eat a LOT of bugs. With her squirrel, when fed crickets, grasshoppers and cicadas, he always chews off the wings, legs, and head first so they can't get away and then eats the rest leaving a shell. Most folks don't realize how voracious of predators squirrels can be. They love insects as much as nuts.


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## Anvil Head (Jun 15, 2016)

Not trying to be smart, but have seen this all my life. I majored in Wildlife Biology at UGA many moons ago in '72. The general thought was that the red oak acorns, most species very bitter on the drop (fall), age underground and become less bitter as they begin to germinate the following year. Pretty sure one of the grad students did a paper on it one time, but not sure how one would find that after this much time. You also have to factor in availability of natural food sources this time of year. The acorns rep a readily available source for minimal effort. (Not so tasty as corn or bird seed but newer feeders are a bit more tricky to circumvent.) 
Think this is going to be another fall of great migration due to increased populations, already seeing higher numbers of road kill.


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## Killer Kyle (Jun 15, 2016)

Anvil Head said:


> Not trying to be smart, but have seen this all my life. I majored in Wildlife Biology at UGA many moons ago in '72. The general thought was that the red oak acorns, most species very bitter on the drop (fall), age underground and become less bitter as they begin to germinate the following year. Pretty sure one of the grad students did a paper on it one time, but not sure how one would find that after this much time. You also have to factor in availability of natural food sources this time of year. The acorns rep a readily available source for minimal effort. (Not so tasty as corn or bird seed but newer feeders are a bit more tricky to circumvent.)
> Think this is going to be another fall of great migration due to increased populations, already seeing higher numbers of road kill.



I knew that red oaks contain much more tannic acid because I'm often cutting open acorns still green inside on up into April. I just didn't realize they'd last this long. I have also witnessed a lot of road kill this summer. I can't recall what it has been like in summers past but lately Ive been noticing a lot of dead squirrels and thought "man this seems like a lot".
Why do you suppose the increased population sets the scene for a migration?


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## Beaudeane (Jun 15, 2016)

I didn't know squirrels are anything but nuts & vegetation. Thanks for posting it.


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## GSUQUAD (Jun 15, 2016)

I've been observing this for years in my yard.  The two Oaks drop so much and so much left overs.  And every spring and summer the burrowed tunnels appear.  I wondered what it was from so I watched.  Sure enough, squirrels digging up the acorn crop from fall.  I think it's slim pickings right now so they eat what's available... the acorns they didn't want during fall.. or possibly the surplus from fall.  Who knows.


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## Anvil Head (Jun 16, 2016)

I'd say it's due to cyclic food abundance = higher birth rate = over population = higher competition for food = movement to better feeding grounds or forced by older more mature residents. Most of road kills are younger squirrels.
This in turn increases 'yote activity/population and birds of prey activity - just watch the dense brush edges and the sky.

It's a basic cycle of life....been watching it most of my 67 yrs here on the big ball.


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## Killer Kyle (Jun 17, 2016)

I figured this was the case but wanted a more seasoned opinion. Can't remember if it was this past fall or the one before...I think the one before...but something similar happened. GON published an article about the lack of squirrels in the woods, but those of us hunting the mtns had been chattering about it on the forum for over a month. I took the first week of archery season off to hunt bear on Chattahoochee and Swallow Creek. In seven days hunting daylight to dark, I think I saw one or two squirrels. Acorns sounded like raindrops hitting the leaves, and I sat in rich white oak groves and almost everywhere not one squirrel was observed. Usually there are so many around they drive me insane. Me and all the other Region 2 hunters were on here saying "what on earth is going on? Where have the squirrels gone?!" Those were the most silent woods I have ever hunted and it was eerie. If the birth rate and overpopulation are the culprit, how can it explain such a dead silence in the woods? Tons of hunters testified to this absence of squirrels, and DNR employees as well. In region 2, we have over 520,000 acres of unspoiled wilderness, and yet nearly nary a squirrel was seen in the same time frame when vast numbers of squirrels are seen year in and year out. It was such a significant absence of squirrels that even GON and DNR biologists decided to write about it. I am playing the devil's advocate here, and just trying to ask how an overpopulation problem could equal dead silent woods void of squirrels in the largest wooded region the state has. It seems somewhat paradoxical to me.


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## Killer Kyle (Jun 17, 2016)

http://www.gon.com/news/squirrel-numbers-way-down-in-mountains

Edit: I dredged up this article and reread it. Its mostly speculation as nobody really knows for sure, bit seems plausible. Speculation, again, but is the only rational answer most of us have to explain what happened.


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## Anvil Head (Jun 18, 2016)

Usually goes good mast crop, followed by high birth rate that creates overpopulation which leads reduced food/individual = malnutrition allowing disease epidemics to flourish. No food coupled with disease yields high mortality rate due to all the usual reasons - health, predation of the weak, other natural causes, and of course mechanical such as cars.

Kind of sounds like where our human society is headed, doesn't it?


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## Killer Kyle (Jun 19, 2016)

Ha! The short answer would be YES! Very much indeed!


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## king killer delete (Jun 19, 2016)

*Just like the time you reached out to pet my cat*



Killer Kyle said:


> Saturday I got off work and was sitting in my car in the parking lot waiting to meet up with a friend. I was reading "Even Brook Trout Get the Blues" by John Gierach. To my left I noticed a grey squirrel milling about maybe only 15 feet from my car. I was sitting in the shade of a northern red oak tree. All the sudden it began digging in the grass. Dug deep and retrieved an acorn. It took the nut to the base of the tree and ate it while staring straight at me. Never would take its eyes off of me. Then when it was done, it went, sniffed around some more, began digging again and had dug up another. Took it back to the same place and ate that one too. It went a third time, sniffed around some more, and dug up a third. It took that one to a branch coming out of the first fork and ate it there. When it left, I got out and went to the base of the tree just to confirm that I wasn't crazy. Ended up picking up a handful of hull scraps and took them to show my friend. This tree began dropping last September. It drops in September every single year and I have observed every year that the acorns go seemingly untouched. The acorns just lie there on the ground all year long, and never once have I observed a squirrel eating them in all the years I have been there and I sit in my car during lunch break every single day that I am at work. I not only was surprised to see a squirrel had burried some and was eating them, but was especially surprised that they are STILL digging them up and eating them in mid June eight months after the acorns had fallen. I was convinced they'd all have been rotted by now. Anyone else ever see squirrels digging up acorns in mid June?


and the Chihuahua attacked you


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## Killer Kyle (Jun 19, 2016)

king killer delete said:


> and the Chihuahua attacked you



Haha! That is true. I'm thoroughly convinced that a Chihuahua would attack a bear. I read somewhere once that possibly american huskies were responsible for the most reported dog attacks in the U.S. That is probably complete crap. Don't even know where I read it, but I'll bet the Chihuahua species has bitten 100x the number of humans than huskies. I wish someone would notify them that their bites don't actually hurt.......and to stop shaking all the time! Haha!


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## king killer delete (Jun 19, 2016)

*You ain't got a worry about her*



Killer Kyle said:


> Haha! That is true. I'm thoroughly that a Chihuahua would attack a bear. I read somewhere once that possibly american huskies were responsible for the most reported dog attacks in the U.S. That is probably complete crap. Don't even know where I read it, but I'll bet the Chihuahua species has bitten 100x the number of humans than huskies. I wish someone would notify them that their bites don't actually hurt.......and to stop shaking all the time! Haha!



We had to put her down just before Christmas. We still laugh about that little dog protecting that cat.


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