A nutty problem

It seems that many of us have noticed that there seem to be more squirrels around this autumn, with individuals turning up at sites, like Lakenheath Fen, where they are rarely seen. According to correspondence and comments made in online forums, the numbers of squirrels using garden feeding stations across the county are also up, with individuals raiding bird feeders and hanging fat balls in a sometimes troublesome manner. Our personal observations are supported by data collected through the BTO’s weekly Garden BirdWatch survey (www.bto.org/gbw), whose systematic records also show a substantial increase in squirrels this year. According to their figures, the use of gardens by squirrels is currently a third up on the same period for previous years.

So what is behind this increase in sightings? Is it a case of the squirrels having had a good breeding season, such that there are simply more of them around, or is a shortage of tree seeds forcing them to travel farther afield, delivering more of them into our gardens and urban parks? It might be a combination of both of these things, the increase having started fairly early in the year but it certainly seems to be the case that seed crops have been poor this autumn, with beech mast in particularly short supply.

The lack of tree seed has been having an impact on other species too. We have seen many more Jays around this autumn, struggling perhaps to find acorns and having to cover more ground. It is even possible that some of these birds will be immigrants from the continent. There have also been some big movements of Woodpigeons (a species that makes good use of the autumn beech mast crop) along the east coast. Additionally, many people are reporting Nuthatch, Coal Tit and Chaffinch appearing in greater numbers in their gardens than is usual for the time of the year.

It is also worth mentioning those birds that feed on berries, since these also seem to be having a hard time this autumn. Included with these, alongside the more familiar thrushes and Starlings, are rare visitors like Waxwing, a species that has already begun to arrive in northern Britain in growing numbers this autumn and which is likely to push south in the weeks ahead. I would expect to see some of these stunning birds feeding on the berry-producing shrubs used as amenity planting in supermarket car parks and new housing estates later in the winter.

These birds and mammals may well be facing challenging times this winter and so any helping hand that you can spare may be particularly worthwhile. In return you might be treated to the sight of a garden full of visitors.

Grey Squirrels busy in the garden

I planted several hazels in the garden a number of years ago and they have now reached an age where they produce a crop of nuts each autumn. This has not gone unnoticed by the local squirrels and a scatter of shells, neatly split into two, can be see on the path by each tree. I say ‘squirrels’ but it might be just a single individual, one brave enough to make a living in this highly fragmented urban environment. Up until a couple of years ago the grey squirrel was such a rare visitor to the garden as to attract a surprised comment and, even now, the bird feeders are never touched by this agile forager.

The grey squirrel is a creature that generates a mixed response from us humans. For some it is vermin, a non-native ‘tree-rat’ that has displaced our native red squirrel and brought about the decline of many woodland birds; for others it is a much-loved resident of urban greenspace and one of the few mammals accessible and approachable to a generation of children, growing up divorced from the countryside and its wildlife. The accusations made against the grey squirrel do not always stand up to scrutiny but such is the vitriol delivered in some quarters that claims and counter-claims are rolled out as fact. Take the supposed predation of bird nests for instance. Research has failed to find a link between the decline of woodland bird species and squirrel numbers. In fact, the evidence suggests that grey squirrels are not great predators of nest contents but find only the more exposed, poorly hidden nests, such as those of blackbird and collared dove. If anything, it is the red squirrel that is more of a nest predator than the grey.

Having said this, the grey squirrel remains an introduced species and one that has played a key role in the loss of the red squirrel from most of its former range. Efforts should, quite rightly, be made to prevent the grey squirrel from displacing the red from its remaining haunts and, additionally, be directed to increasing our understanding of the squirrel pox virus and its transmission from grey to red. But what about elsewhere in the UK? Given that the grey squirrel is now so well established across lowland Britain, should we not embrace it as part of our mammal fauna? It is not alone in being an introduction (think of little owl, for example) and its adaptability does deliver an experience of nature into our towns and cities. To see the delight in a child’s face when it watches the antics of an urban squirrel is to sense the contribution this species continues to deliver.