Blonde Squirrel

[Pat]

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.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Pat]

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.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Bird]

I've seen albino squirrels in zoos; never in the wild though. Nice pictures.

[Pat]

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.



[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[egon]

What kind of rent do charge the squirrel for the tree house?

Egon

[LazyJ_Arabians]

no kidding egon, quite a crib, precious pictures

[Pat]

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.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Pat]

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.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[egon]

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

[Pat]

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? [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

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.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]