3 species of squirrels

[brian]

I saw something this morning that I have never seen in the woods. A black, gray, and fox squirrel all at the same time from my stand. It was the first time i've seen a black squirrel in my woods, there were two blacks so hopefully they will make more.

[XX78]

The black squirrels are supposed to be the rarest of the three I believe, unless u live in my parents area in Lake county. There are black squirrels everywhere.

[chopiq]

I live in Hilliard and see black squirrels all the time in my neighborhood.

[brian]

Yea, its funny cause i've seen lots of black squirrels in town(Warren) but never out in the woods except over in the PA mountains. I've always wanted one of each mounted on a log, thought that would look pretty neat. The bad news is thats all i've been seeing is rats and no deer except one little 3 point.

[epe]

Better make that four :D Where I have been working this week in columbus, there are two white ones running around. I have video of them, going to watch it to see if they have red eyes (albino) or not....

[CStan]

Be careful what you wish for, the black squirrels seem to be a lot more prolific and aggressive. We used to have just fox squirrels around here, it is about 50/50 between them now. The black squirrels run a little smaller.

[Links r Us]

-and the old fart has ate everyone of them! :D

God I luv Tree-Rats n' there's one a simmerin' on the stove now a'-makin' my Ole' Belly Growl ... it's a tossup between "the Game" & munchin' ... so I think I'm a'-gonna have the best of both worlds n' indulge in both @ the same time shortly!

Go Bucks n' Chow-down!!! :D

[CritterGitter]

I have never seen a black squirrel in the woods. I have only seen them in the city. I know of 3 kinds of squirrels, Grey, Fox and Red. I hate them little "lumberjacks." They make all that noise and make you think a deer is coming and it's only a stinkin squirrel.

CG

[Links r Us]

CritterGitter ... when you say red are you talkin' about the lil' red jimmy's, them half-a$$ chipmunk, pain in the a$$, critters that look like they got the mange??

anyway reds n' fox are one n' the same to me:)

[rackman]

I could be wrong but I think the black ones are still considered to be in the grey sq. family.

[Canal Mud]

There are three species of squirel, grey, red, and fox. The black ones are a subspecies of grey. I have all three in the woods I hunt. The littler reds are very aggresive and will chase their larger cousins and they are very destuctive. They chewed a hole through the wood siding on a barn I have.

[CritterGitter]

Yup, them loud little lumberjacks are a pain the rear! lol

CG

[CatDaddy]

The Ohio hunting laws break it down into all four squirrels. Black Grey, Red and Fox. Michigan is known for lots of black squirrels.

The red ones you guys are talking about, Ive always heard them called "mountain jacks" or the old timers call them "fairy diddles". They look just like a grey but are red colored. By saying that they look like the grey is that they are smaller than the fox and have a white belly like the greys.

[The_Duck_Hunter]

I think it kinda sucked when Ohio made it a law that reds had to be included in your daily bag limit.

Now noone will shoot them because they want foxes and or greys for the meat, and the reds are running rampant.

I used to shoot them myself, and I would clean them. Not just leave 'em lay. Now I wont even draw a bead on one. Thats one law I'd like to see reversed.

[Canal Mud]

I take out the reds whenever I can just to make room for the fox and greys. If I kill them I clean them. It really has seemed to help the area I hunt.

[Canal Mud]

Are there still places that buy the tails? I can remember seeing adds for that when I was a pup. I thought Mepps used to buy them for their spinners.

[CStan]

I believe Mepps (spinners) still takes them. But they don't buy them, they give you a credit towards purchase of their lures.

[CStan]

According to their website, Mepps pays up to $0.26 each or doubles that if you take lures instead of cash.

Mepps (http://www.mepps.com/mepps/information/squirrels/)

[Canal Mud]

Thanks for the info CStan. Happy Thanksgiving! I hope to get out and chase some bushytails later this afternoon.

[geta4x4]

Here some interesting links for squirrel information. I don't know which flying squirrel breed I saw so I gave links to both.

http://www.enature.com/fieldguide/showSpeciesGS.asp?sort=1&curGroupID=99&display=1&area=99&searchText=eastern+fox+squirrel&curPageNum=1&recnum=MA0120

http://www.enature.com/fieldguide/showSpeciesSH.asp?curGroupID=5&shapeID=1041&curPageNum=12&recnum=MA0118

http://www.enature.com/fieldguide/showSpeciesSH.asp?curGroupID=5&shapeID=1041&curPageNum=47&recnum=MA0138


http://www.enature.com/fieldguide/showSpeciesGS.asp?sort=1&curGroupID=99&display=1&area=99&searchText=northern+flying+squirrel&curPageNum=1&recnum=MA0112

http://www.enature.com/fieldguide/showSpeciesGS.asp?sort=1&curGroupID=99&display=1&area=99&searchText=flying+squirrel&curPageNum=2&recnum=MA0113

[Thunderflight]

All we have are grey squirrels. I believe Fox squirrels are protected in NC.

TF

[Caribou Dreamer2]

Sounds good ,but who in the world will have 1000 tails to turn in to get the 26 cents per tail.

over 100--23¢ each

over 500--25¢ each

over 1000--26¢ each

If you bagged out (which is 6 per day) you would have to hunt 166 days to get 1000 tails.so the season comes in on Sept.1st runs thru Jan thats 5 months x 30 days = 150 days so to get your 1000 tails it would take you two season thats if you hunted everyday.
Good luck guys on a quest to get your 1000 tails

[Jimmy]

Noble County has flying squirrels.

2 got caught in a PVC feeder my friend has out in the woods. We dumped it over to let them out, they damn near ran up my leg. They ran up the tree and flew across to the next tree.

[esox lucious]

Black squirrels are the same as greys with a different color. They originated from Canada. In the late '50's/early'60's, custodians that worked at Kent St. Univ. took summer fly-in fishing trips to Canada. They live trapped black squirrels there and released them on the KSU campus. Within 10 years they had spread throughout Kent to Ravenna, Brady Lake, Stow, and Munroe Falls. From there they pread to Hudson, Cuyahoga Falls, Mogadore, and the other surrounding communities. They are now common throughout NEO and are spreading to Central Ohio.
Flying squirrels are also common throughout the state but are nocturnal and seldom seen.

[Duffy]

I love hunting squirrels, and I work at Kent State. There are black squirrels everywhere here on campus, and it's so hard sometimes to fight the temptation to bring my .22 or 20 gauge to work and take shots out my office window!

When I was younger and hunting in Pennsylvania on my uncle's property, there were a few isolated pockets of black squirrels among the grays and foxes. Now, when I go back, I see tons of them. Even though they are a variation of gray, whatever gene they have that mnakes them black must be a prolific one.

[Duffy]

BTW, Esox, you from around here?

[Buckmaster]

Recently took a couple black squirrels in Hiram. That college campus has a few too.

[esox lucious]

I grew up in the Falls although I haven't lived there in a long time.

[Duffy]

The Falls is home to me now, and I love the town.

I take it you're a northern pike angler?

[esox lucious]

Yes, You?

[Duffy]

Yes, I used to a lot when I lived in PA. The northern fishing in and around the lagoons of Presque Isle State Park and the bay it surrounds in Erie is awesome. Since getting married and moving to CFO 10 years ago, I haven't had much time what with graduate school, kids, etc., but the time element is getting better. Occasionally I pick a few out of the Cuyahoga River, but nothing too substantial. Always interested, though. I hope to explore some more areas later this year and see what's available.

(Perhaps this thread should be moved out of the "Small Game Hunting" category now!)

[eschatts]

A black squirrel is a grey squirrel. I watched a mother grey move the young from her nest on day and she carried two grey squirrels and a black squirrel out of the nest and moved all of them to a hollow tree.

Ed

[Canal Mud]

I came acrossed a couple of flying squirrels once when I was removing a large hollow sugar maple on a golf course. It was amazing to see these things glide over to the next tree. We had to postpone the job because they had a nest of babies in the tree. I didn't know we had them in Ohio until that day.

[countyroad]

Where did I just read that flying squirrels only come out at night?

[eschatts]

I don't believe that that is true countyroad. I can remember as a young boy watching flying squirrels in my neighbors yard during the day where I lived in Northern Wisconsin.

Ed

[eschatts]

Well, countyroad it looks like you and I were both right. The northern flying squirrel is nocturnal where as some of the others are not. Here is a copy of a paragraph that I got off a flying squirrel site.

The large eyes of flying squirrels facilitate effective night vision. This is necessary because, unlike their more commonly seen cousins, these squirrels hide away during the day and become active about an hour after sunset. Their nocturnal nature makes them difficult to spot despite the northern flying squirrel's wide distribution.

Ed

[countyroad]

Interesting. There's a fox and a gray squirrel out front right now. Havn't seen the black one today yet.

[Canal Mud]

The flying squirrels i saw did have large dark eyes. They didn't seem to scared of me and climbed around kind of slow.

[CritterGitter]

I've never seen a flying squirrel except a few that were no longer alive and they stopped flying abruptly once they hit the ground.

CG

[countyroad]

Heres someone's trail cam pic of a flying squirrel.

http://hagshouse.ipbhost.com/forums/uploads/post-16-1110378139.jpg

[eschatts]

Great picture countyroad.

Ed

[OHBOW76]

Excellent photo!!!!I have heard they are primarily nocturnal as well. There were alot of them in Alogonquin National Park when I camped there in High School.