I spend a lot of time at our gazebo, reading and writing. We have a gourd hanging on the gazebo that we hoped a bird would nest in. Something chewed the hole open larger and when I was up there during the day, I'd notice the gourd bobbing and moving and would hear a scratching sound coming from it. There was matted nesting material inside, but we couldn't see whatever was in there. Since it never seemed to emerge during the day, we figured it was something nocturnal. My husband and I sat up there for two hours before dark the other night to see what came out. As it got darker and darker, the thing would be moving around more. (My husband said it has as much trouble as I do getting out of bed!) Anyway, finally it emerged when it was so dark we could only see its silhouette. It was a flying squirrel. It hung its head out and looked right down at us. About then my husband sneezed and it went back inside. We had hoped to see it fly, but that will have to wait for another night. At least now my curiosity is satisfied and I know what's in that gourd.
Neat. I've never seen a flying squirrel, and I just recently learned that we do have them here. Do they all only come out at night? Anna
ReplyDeleteAccording to my book, the northern and southern ones are the only nocturnal ones of the flying squirrels. I've never seen one up close in the daylight. At one place I used to live, we'd hear them landing on the house roof at night (thump!) but never did see them, but we knew what they were. There's a website www.flyingsquirrels.com that has some good info about them.
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