MetaChat - What the heck? There's a black squirrel in my backyard that thinks its a crow.

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03 December 2005

What the heck? There's a black squirrel in my backyard that thinks its a crow. Anyone ever seen this? There's a squirrel - I'm *sure* it's a squirrel that's sitting in a fir tree cawing like a crow. It needs a few squirrel clucks to get warmed up, then it starts cawing like a crow.

And the neighbourhood crows are replying!

WTF?

One of the damned things cached a half-squirrel-eaten chocolate bar (with nuts) on top of my garden-hose reel. Normally it's just nuts and pizza crusts, but this is one of those "king-sized" bars.

Crazy squirrels.

post by: porpoise at: 18:35 | 14 comments

This has not been a good week for squirrels.

posted by interrobang 03 December | 18:45

You might've heard a mating call; between late fall and mid-spring, squirrels' unerving birdlike cries are their equivalent of a pickup line.

posted by Smart Dalek 03 December | 18:53

This is troubling. My minions should be maintaining a lower profile if we expect to take over the world by next May.

posted by sciurus 03 December | 18:55

You want disturbing? Here's a typical day at the college I'm attending:

1) Squirrel sits on branch, shrieking away.
2) Squirrel scampers down tree, chases potential mate.
3) In the periods between classes, students and faculty nearly trip and fall as the little beasts scurry into everyone's path.
4) ???
5) Bankruptcy! Unable to get lucky on campus, the unfortunate squirrel more often than not climbs up another tree branch and starts shrieking again, albeit with a more desperate timbre.

posted by Smart Dalek 03 December | 19:03

When I attended UW in Seattle, the squirrels were so accustomed to being fed by people, that not only did they coming sprinting across the grass straight at you looking for food, it wasn't uncommon to find yourself completely surrounded or being followed by a few dozen.

Creepy.

posted by Frisbee Girl 03 December | 19:20

You might've heard a mating call

<shudder> I'm almost positive that the replying calls are from actual crows.

scurius - I think you might have to instill some discipline within your ranks...

posted by porpoise 03 December | 19:29

Yeah, Frisbee Girl - I've seen those UW squirrels climb right up people's pants legs demanding a toll. I also had one of those suckers leap at me from out of a garbage can I was walking past. Hit me in the chest, bounced back down, scolded me for occupying its planet without tithing, then went back to scrounging for alluminum cans and cigarette butts. Cheeky little bastards.

posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson 03 December | 19:48

The crows were probably mimicking the squirrels call. Crows have a wicked sense of humor and have a large vocal range. Corvids in general are pretty interesting, they get a long so well in human altered landscapes that their population is growing a pace. They are the ones we should be worried about.

posted by Mr T 03 December | 20:02

Speaking of crows, I remember from when I was in elementary school - 3.30pm on the dot (and only on weekdays) a massive murder of crows would blacken the skies being the elementary school (this was in North Vancouver District; borderline wilderness. We had annual bear/cougar/&c-behind-the-school alerts).

Literally blackening the sky; that flock of birds scene in LoTR:FoTR? Bah, they had nothing compared to that murder.

/saw a crow eating a dead squirrel on my way to work yesterday

posted by porpoise 03 December | 20:28

You know you wanna eat that half chewed chocolate bar. Go on, I dare you. What are you, chicken?

posted by Edible Energy 04 December | 00:11

Uh edible energy... Img 1 and Img 2. I can mail it to you (providing it's still there tomorrow), if you want (but I'll want pictures of you consuming said chocolate bar).

G'dmn black squirrels.

Does mecha have a poll option? I can take out all the black squirrels in my neighbourhood - but I don't really want to do it.

posted by porpoise 04 December | 00:25

Your Sciuridae-fetish weirdness flat out gives me the creeps.

posted by taz 04 December | 03:10

I heard a goose or something mimicing the backing-up sound of a truck. You know the beep-beep-beep.

The pitch was way diffrent then truck, but the timing was perfict. It would repeat after the truck.

posted by delmoi 04 December | 03:13

The squirrel is trying to attract a crow to eat. Just like the Russian dog-eaten-by-squirrels incident. Holy shit, they're evolving into carnivores!

posted by Five Fresh Fish 04 December | 11:57

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