The Move
Shannon Marlow du Plessis
I have a love/hate relationship with the squirrels on our property. In March, it was all love as I noticed a fox squirrel with something in its mouth. Upon closer inspection, it was not nesting material as I initially thought, but a baby squirrel. Hoping I hadn’t missed the move, I grabbed my camera, found a spot behind an obliging juniper tree, and settled in.
Mother squirrels typically have a Plan B (multiple nesting sites). They prefer hollow tree nests but will build a leaf nest. This mother moved her kits from a leaf nest about 35 feet up in a juniper tree on one side of our house to a hollow tree nest in an oak tree on the other. Mothers will usually move their litter when the babies are six weeks old. Babies are weaned at about nine weeks and will stay around the mother for another month.
Here then, is the mother’s journey to move her kits.
The mother is preparing one of her kits for the move from the leaf nest in the juniper tree.
Mom is at the halfway point as she makes it down the juniper tree with her kit.
Safely down from the juniper tree, the mother must navigate a rock wall, part of our yard, and a fence to make it to the oak tree, where upgraded lodging awaits.
She leaped off the rock wall and ran toward the fence next to the oak tree.
It didn’t take her long to shimmy up the fence next to the oak tree.
She jumped from the fence to the oak tree. I missed the jump but captured the landing.
The mother was just a few steps from safely installing her kit in the new nest in the hollow of the oak tree.
The entire journey took less than two minutes.
About a week after the move, I noticed two babies peeking out of their new home.
Shortly after, the mom began taking her babies on outings one at a time.
I hope you enjoyed the adventure of the mother squirrel’s moving day. I’ll leave you with this fun fact: Squirrels can climb down trees headfirst because they can rotate their feet 180 degrees. For squirrels, it’s no big deal. When humans do this, they earn a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records, as Aaron Ford did on January 17, 2020, when he rotated his foot 173.03 degrees.