Today for the first time I saw a squirrel come into the covered terrace, even though the blackbird tried to scare him away. However, what is interesting is that this was a black squirrel, whereas I’ve only seen red squirrels in the garden up to now.
Apparently all squirrels on the Danish islands used to be black, but red squirrels from Sweden and Northern Germany were introduced in the 1930′s and have all but out-done the black squirrels. So a black squirrel is a rare treat, though perhaps he doesn’t look as glamorous as his red cousins with their fiery-orange fur.
Mind you, this little fellow is a clever one. Between the picture above and the picture below, he jumped down onto the terrace floor, grabbed one of the feed balls that I have left on the floor for the robin and the blackbird and other birds who prefer to forage on the ground, and in a second he was off over the low wooden wall, carrying the feed ball with him in his teeth.
As he was scampering across the lawn with his loot, a crow swooped down on him to steel the feed ball, but he deftly took refuge in the oak tree and eventually made his way to the hedgerow with his dinner.
Shortly after this incident the second feed ball on the terrace floor was attacked, this time by the pheasant:
(And yes, the windows need cleaning, but that will wait until spring…)
He managed to peck the feed ball to stumps before dragging it out into the snow and then sauntering off towards the hedgerow, leaving me to tidy up his mess. Now really, Mr. Pheasant? Was that quite necessary?
Apologies for the poor quality of the pictures, but that’s what you get with a phone camera. I guess some day I should ask for a proper camera for Christmas or a birtdhay or whatever, but for now I’ll just count on your imagination to make these pictures look like wonderful wildlife photography!
Red squirrels out-competing the blacks is interesting to hear. In the UK reds have suffered terribly because of the introduced grey squirrels. I love seeing squirrels. There aren’t many around here though. Where we used to live we had one as a regular visitor. He was named Cyril and it was a real delight to watch his antics as he scampered around the garden.
I know the American grey squirrels are a problem in the UK, but apparently the red squirrel is the same here. A group of black squirrels have been relocated from one of the main Danish islands to a smaller island that didn’t use to have a squirrel population at all, so the hope is that in this new habitat they will be able to create a viable population, free from the competition of the red squirrel. Time will tell if that works or not…
But red or black; they are charming little animals, and I don’t mind them stealing all my hazel nuts – literally ALL – and some of the feed balls for the birds.
So lucky you at least had your camera phone on hand when the visitors popped round. And a rare visitor too (black squirrel)
I always have my phone at hand…
But I always enjoy when wildlife comes so close – especially when I can spy on the animals from the comfort of the sofa with a pillow at my back and a warm blanket over me… So much better than squatting in a cold forest for hours to maybe see a hint of something disappearing behind a tree trunk in the distance!
Such competition over the feedball! I wonder if the squirrel will try his luck again.
I’m sure he will! After all, there’s a free lunch sitting right there on the terrace floor, so why shouldn’t he?
Mind you, I do hope he will at least leave SOME seeds for the birds…
I love your pheasants and so wish they did not become rare here. I do not know why that is so, but in the time I lived here they have disappeared. They used to be in the parks by the woods and are no longer. It would be so relaxing to sit with your blanket and wait for them to show.
The pheasant is a common game bird in Denmark, so hunters often rear pheasants to release in their hunting grounds, consequently keeping the population well-stocked.
-Not ALL hunters are good custodians of wildlife, but the GOOd hunters will ensure that they release more animals than they shoot. And in my experience most hunters are actually good hunters; they want to preserve nature because that is after all one of the things they enjoy the most.
They did that here too where hunters raised the pheasant for release. But they are still very rare where they used to be plentiful. I may look into this since it seems odd to me. Also, fireflies were plentiful and now they are not.
If I had the time and space I’d personally be quite happy to rear and release another brood of pheasants. After all, it’s pretty simple. However, even I won’t try to do that in a 4th-floor apartment!
Mind you, they are still a very common bird in the Danish countryside, and the only reason we only see one in the garden is that they are very territorial – and also that they prefer to have a mix of woodland and open fields. Nearest open fields are miles away, so we are happy just to have one cock strutting around.