Today though it was digging through the mulch in our path. I assumed it was looking for some acorns it had left buried, but then i saw it had something in it's mouth, much bigger than an acorn. My view was obscured by a potted plant at first, but then it looked like an animal of some sort in its mouth. It scampered off onto the lemon tree and over the garage roof and disappeared. I'm still not sure what it was, but I think it was a small lizard, or little vole or something. (Really not sure because I was inside and upstairs.)
But this prompted a search via teh interweb and I found that my resident squirrel is an introduced species from back East, the Eastern Fox Squirrel (Sciura niger) and that they on occasion eat insects, birds' eggs, small birds and lizards. I had no idea.
Why, I had no idea either, but I think you're right, those squirrels are interlopers from further east, just like the humans here. Yes, I find them tiresome as well, and not to mention how difficult it is to protect the fruit trees...
ReplyDeleteIsn't it amazing how resilient squirrels are? Much to the dismay of many gardeners and birdfeeders ;-)
ReplyDeleteI can admit to having a love-hate relationship with these squirrels. In some respects, they're rather amusing and entertaining to watch, and significantly less skittish than our resident grey squirrels. On the other hand, in the gardens, these little monsters are rather brazen and bothersome!
ReplyDeleteWow - Who knew? I also didn't know till fairly recently that hummingbirds eat insects.
ReplyDeleteI also just found out about the hummingbird thing. It makes perfect sense, but I of course grew up thinking they just drank nectar all day.
ReplyDeleteWell you can't blame the squirrel for wanting to be a native gardener now can you? Just kidding- those squirrels are a serious pain. I've used tumbled glass as a mulch for my containers with some success. Large pebbles would might also work.
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