Bluebell Squirrel

I rarely point my camera at grey squirrels but I made an exception today. I don’t dislike them and I do enjoy watching their antics, I think it’s probably more the fact they are so common. We even have one visit the feeders in our very urban garden.

The grey squirrel was introduced to Great Britain in the mid-19th century and after a number of releases it began to increase dramatically in population at the beginning of the 20th century, mainly spreading from Woburn Park, Bedfordshire. They came to England from North America and are now one of Britain’s most well-known and frequently seen mammals, with an estimated population of 2 million compared to the 160, 000 native red squirrels. It’s not their fault they’re here more the fault of bored rich Victorians introducing them onto their estates without any knowledge of the damage they would do to the red squirrel by passing on a disease they were immune to but which was devastating to the red.

Anyway I was in the woods to photograph the woodpeckers and was watching this squirrel and silently urging it to move into a nearby patch of bluebells for a more photogenic picture. It duly obliged and then went a step further by digging up an old acorn.