In the fantasy version of my life I am a super mom, super business owner and super wildlife enthusiast. I am full of interminable energy to cook, drop off, work, pick up, clean, count birds, smell the flowers and stay up late at night for sightings of nocturnal critters who enjoy the quiet of my backyard.
The reality of my life is all the cooking, driving, cleaning etc., plus a year of pandemic homeschooling while trying to keep my business afloat and voila, my dream of amateur naturalist of the year is but a fleeting ambition. (I made that accolade up, there is no such thing!)
My interest in spotting a flying squirrel in my backyard has not waned since my neighbors shared their experience a few months back. I’ve spent a few evenings outside, hoping to catch a glimpse of an animal I didn’t really think was common in the fragmented woodlands of suburbia. But no luck!
So, I bought a camera.
Learning the camera has been a game of trial and error: finding the right distance, setting camera speed and photo quality, where to hang the camera. But my boys and I have enjoyed flipping through the photos, surprised at who shows up. We’ve now caught the squirrel on camera a couple of times.
The best showing so far was just last week, February 20th. My neighbor suggested using a ladder as a post to maximize the angle and distance to the squirrel’s favorite feeder. While we had many trees to choose from as a post, they weren’t proving ideal: too fat, too skinny, too close, too far.
Around 8:30 pm we recorded our first sighting. The squirrel is seen climbing up a foreground tree. He is so quick. I got stills of him flattening his tail and then turning before leaping. We even caught him in mid-air flight. The videos proved how agile he is, so swift and confident in his movements. He was recorded eating out of a feeder around 1:30 am. He can easily sit right in the feeder, showing how much smaller he is than a more common gray squirrel. His ears are clearly rounded and his tail curls while he eats.
I nearly overlooked the grand finale, our big surprise. At the end of one of the videos, we see him glide toward a large tree, drifting below branches in his way, then kind of curving up to grasp the bark, holding tight, not on the perch of a horizontal branch but on the vertical plane of the trunk. I’m amazed at his flight control and his ability to see skinny obstacles in his flight path (in the dark). Once he landed we could see his eyes illuminated by the camera. And then we saw the second set of eyes. The squirrel was not alone! (enjoy the video below of his Feb. 20th escapades)
These observations leave me with looming questions:
Are they a mating pair?
Can I find a way to tell them apart?
Are they year round residents?
Is it too soon to hope for baby flying squirrels?
As a morning person, and super pandemic homeschool mom/teacher and small business owner, my nightly patrols are limited, but my camera and I will keep watch.
*Since the publishing of this blog we’ve discovered more about our cute nocturnal friends. See more video content, including the THREE sighted squirrels on my YouTube channel.
Flying Squirrels in Holly Springs?
“The most common mammal never seen by humans in North Carolina.” (NCWRC) Their nocturnal behaviors keep them mysteriously aloof but the Southern Flying Squirrel (Glaucomys Volans) is actually quite abundant throughout the whole state. They measure much smaller than the common gray squirrel. Tail and all they are less than 10 inches long, and weigh no more than 3 ounces. They glide, perch to perch, effortlessly thanks to a membrane attached to their wrists and ankles. They vocalize a high-pitched chirp.
No sightings have been reported on iNaturalist for the 27540 zip code. It’s on my to-do list.