Flying squirrels

treebing

treebing

Been here much more than a while
Location
Detroit, Mi.
I've seen flying squirrels twice. They are normally nocturnal. I had one in a dying tree in the back yard.
The tree was hit to check its condition; the squirrel came out a hole; scampered up higher; jumped/flew/glided 30 ft into another tree.
 
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treebing said:
Ive come across them a few time... in dead or dying dangerously hollow and sketchy trees. Its something to think about.

Opinion | Flying squirrels are our invisible neighbors. They need our help. - Washington Post

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@treebing - Link to Washington Post requires a subscription ! ! !
 
We encounter flying squirrels often enough. I had one take off out of a palm tree I was trimming, and I have seen them come out of hollow branches often enough that I have come to expect they might be living in anything with a good hole in it.
 
Flying squirrels look awesome from above. My first encounter was some 30+ plus years ago when flying a bucket.

We have them in our 20 acre patch of woods out back but see them very rarely.

Years ago had some in our attic, not a good thing as I understand they can gnaw on wiring.
 
GregManning said:
- Link to Washington Post requires a subscription ! ! !
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There's probably a way for Kevin to gift the article but anyway I read it and the bottom line is leave standing snags as is whenever possible bc that's where most of them live.

I've seen 8 or 10 over the years, always while doing tree work, would basically never see them otherwise. Although one time, after reading that if you bang on a likely looking snag with a stick, you can ofter spot them as they look out from their hollow to see what the noise is. So I tried it and sure enough the critter popped his head out to look around. I was amazed that it worked!

I've tried it dozens of times since and....no luck!:ROFLMAO:
 
Tree frogs are another really cool critter that I would never see if it weren't for treework. They stay well up into the canopy and their camo is basically perfect.
 
Don’t forget about bats too.

We fell a Doug fir and saw that a flying squirrel ran up the highest limb of which wasn’t very high. It panickly looked around gauging where it could glide to from so low. We peeled the limb down with a handsaw and I caught it in my hoodie.
Took it across the street to a big cedar and let it run up.
IMG_8319.jpeg
 
One summer years ago we ran into a ton of bats. Mostly co.mon brown bats but one time a Hoary female with young hanging on.
 
How ‘bout Tree Snakes ?

Holden Arboretum in NE Ohio has a VERY nice elevated canopy walkway, 500-foot-long that rises 65 feet above the forest floor.
It had a tree ~ 30 feet away that had a snake relaxing in a branch union, 50 ft above ground.
An arboretum guide said that the snake was in that exact same location the previous year.
 
Matias, it is wild how they fall out of trees when semi frozen, only to wake up unharmed when the weather warms.

When I'm in S FL, boca raton, I see them quite often in the jungly parks and riverine environments.
 
southsoundtree said:
I've been a big proponent of habitat snags for years.

A good amount of people here are on-board when appropriate to the site.





I offer bat and bird box hanging as part of the service.

I should ask more often at the time of bidding so they can order/ build one.
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You have a thread on this? I’m interested.
 
cory said:
Matias, it is wild how they fall out of trees when semi frozen, only to wake up unharmed when the weather warms.

When I'm in S FL, boca raton, I see them quite often in the jungly parks and riverine environments.
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I'll have to pay more attention next time I'm down there.
 
Years ago we used to go to the local park in the summer and at dusk a few local bats whipped back and forth maybe 20' overhead picking off flying insects. Took a while to figure out what they were.
 
I'm happy to report that we have bats flying around over our yard and house every night in the summer- I'm not sure how far into spring and fall their season extends. Their presence makes me feel the micro local ecosystem has some integrity.

Which reminds me of the annoyance I felt when I was in my back yard this week splitting fire wood and a yokel appeared in the adjacent backyard using a backpack to blast some product all over their property. The wind was swirling and intermittently strong at the time and my shirt off and I wasn't keen about getting drifting material on me. So I stopped splitting and decided to call the company, "Mosquito Joe" smh, and speak my concerns. They said on windy days they use 'botanicals' to lessen the potential problems of drift. On non windy days they use Bifen.

Well, idk, I guess it is what it is but bottom line I think it's a shame that folks feel the need to kill lotta bugs. I'm right next door and have never noticed a significant skeeter problem. Who knows, maybe they've had bad Lyme in the past for example and they don't want further risk of ticks.
 
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