View Full Version : Red Squirrel Encounter - How Rare?
Nightwalker
12-07-2007, 22:04
I've never seen a Red Squirrel in my life :( I was just wondering how many of us here have seen'em and if so where abouts? How rare are they these days?
I would love to meet one like this :) :
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-r-fGdLRmQ
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3LRNZTR_pw
I saw my first one last week, the guy I was working with saw it first actually it was in a residential area up a very large horsechestnut tree. You had to look really hard to spot it.
Brownsea Island - I feel kind of like a cheat...
British Red
12-07-2007, 22:16
I've seen many in the Lake District years ago. Most recently I saw one on Altcar rifle range near Southport. I was just walking down to the buts and he was sat on a branch eating an acorn. Cute little fellah. Theres a couple of reserves up around there where they are still fairly well established
Red
Last one I saw was crossing a lane in cumbria, a few years ago....They used to have a stronghold at tonbridge castle in kent, when I was a lad, but they are no longer there...
Isle of Wight, still a good number there.
mikehill
12-07-2007, 22:47
Formby and the Lakes :)
Seen them a few times, Formby is good and brownsea island, but the centreparks place in the lakes is teeming with red squirrels, best bit about the week I spent trapped there!
Isle of Wight, still a good number there.
Plenty over here!!
Plenty over here!!
Are there no Greys on the Isle of Wight and Brownsea??
jdlenton
13-07-2007, 08:20
formby and just out side inverness for me i've not seen one for a very long time though. i have been meening to get a trip organised so my wife can see one as she never have
J*
Grizedale in the Lake District for me, a few years ago now.
We're on holiday near Poole later in the year, and hope to be able to go across to Brownsea Island (www.nationaltrust.org.uk/brownsea/) when we're there.
Matt Weir
13-07-2007, 08:46
Aiye, as Goose and jdlenton say Formby Point is teaming with them but I think that sadly it is one of the last outposts. The good news it is a protected National Trust site.
If you're ever up North Nightwalker then be sure to visit - you won't be disappointed :)
Wild in this country the last I saw was at Ingleborough a few years back.
Semi wild Formby of course
In Northern Norway you can't move for fear of treading on the wee critters....;)
fred gordon
13-07-2007, 09:18
Having read the posts above I consider myself very lucky. Red squirrels come to my bird nut feeders on a regular basis. There are also lots of them in the area where I live. There are a few greys, but very few, and the Forestry Commission and the local sporting estates keep their numbers as low as they can.:D
Last week, runnning along the wall bedsides the pavement on the Main Road. It runs next to the woodlands of the golf course, in the old castle policies.
It's mostly greys around here now though. There are a few patches of Scots Pine and the reds seem to prefer them.
cheers,
Toddy
Never :(
Its now on my list though :) I was under the impression they were pretty well contained to only a few protected areas and i didnt realise they are so prevelent in the lakes. Thanks for the info all.....
gregorach
13-07-2007, 09:45
Saw one once, many years ago, just outside West Linton in the Borders...
Ben_Hillwalker
13-07-2007, 10:59
First one I ever saw was in the French Pyrenees and was do dark red it was almost black.
The last one I saw was well over a year ago on a day trip Brownsea Island. Saw my very first spoonbill on that trip too.
Saw a couple at Killhope mining museaum near Durham
Nightwalker
13-07-2007, 14:01
Round figures so far: 40 people have voted, 30 (75%) have seen'em 10 (25%) havent. Wish I was one of those who had! :(
Have never seen one in England. Saw one in Scotland last Summer up near Pitlochry and another over in Sweden.
not the best pic in the world, but this was the one over in Sweden (its the blur in the middle lol ):
http://www.acc-systems.dsl.pipex.com/OtherPages/Vildmark%20Course/images/P1010008.JPG
fredcraft
13-07-2007, 16:55
Where my parents live, they are more or a nuisance (yep many lil red fellas around) as they tend to make their "nest" inside houses rooftop/walls.
We even bought a trap in order to catch and release them in the wild (a few kilometers away from my parent's house)
So yeah, I've seen more than my share of red squirrels, but also chipmonks, in my life. In the city where I live I've never seen a red one, only big gray ones. Which is the complete opposite of where my parents live where they saw their very first gray squirrel last week !!! The thing was BIG lemme tell you... must really make a lovely stew :D
Silverback
13-07-2007, 17:10
In Thetford Forest when I was ten years old (28 years ago)
used to see them as a lad at a dairy farm we lived on near milnathort. absolutely nixy fang doodle since then though.
Ranger Bob
13-07-2007, 18:41
In Thetford forest, out of my back window, about half an hour ago was the last time I saw one. I usually see at least one, once a week.:)
-Switch-
13-07-2007, 19:28
I, unfortunately, have never seen one :(
Seen - and eaten - plenty of greys though. They're good curried :D
Is it true there are no squirrels whatsoever in the Channel Islands?
Steve27752
13-07-2007, 20:44
Ditto Brownsea Island during a Cub Camp.
Steve :)
Brownsea Island - I feel kind of like a cheat...
If there are any red squirrels in South London they must also be invisible - never seen
one anywhere else either that I can remember. I might have, as a child, but to be
honest I wouldn't have cared that much. Would like to see one now though.
sxmolloy
13-07-2007, 22:09
Only at Formy Point IIRC.
Video clip: http://img531.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscn1065bb9.flv
S0.rry about the very poor quality and shakiness of the clip.
Heres a poor photo for you too! :rolleyes:
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/4945/dscn1064gf8.jpg
ATB....Stu
tinderbox
13-07-2007, 22:40
Here's a little fellow a saw earlier this week at Kingussie.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1012/801590513_a5da6e9a38.jpg
birch-fire
14-07-2007, 01:03
Kielder forest is their stronghold in England and i believe there are guided trips in the forest specifically to see red squirrels
SnaggleTooth
14-07-2007, 02:19
There's tons of them where I live (basically a residential forest). Although they are outnumbered by the greys, they are far more aggressive and skitter after them if they are in a pissey mood. I also have one nesting in my woodpile, we call him little red not only because of his colour but because he's a fiery little blighter :D .
Im so suprised so many people have seen them!
mikehill
14-07-2007, 10:17
Never :(
Its now on my list though :) I was under the impression they were pretty well contained to only a few protected areas and i didnt realise they are so prevelent in the lakes. Thanks for the info all.....
I actually have only ever seen one in the Lakes .. in the woods around Braithwaite if that's any help :)
I was born and raised in London, and when I was a kid back in the 60's - 70's you could see plenty of Red Squirrels in Londons parks. Ive seen loads of them. :)
demographic
14-07-2007, 13:41
See quite a few round here, they visit a mates garden often.
Near the Lake district though.
I just got back from a week near keswick in the lake district, and didn't see one despite really looking for them. Someone else in our group spotted on, though, and the locals say they come onto the ground just like the grey variety, so they can't be that hard to spot.
i ve seen one by lowswater in the lakes
but i was not really looking for them
a tree had been cut back i was looking at it as you do
there was a clicking noise i looked up and one was looking down at me
it then run off down the branch
i think reds like it in the trees more than the ground
that why you don't see them as much
Seen plenty.
Under pressure from the greys now though.
It's thought by some of the squirrel groups that southerners are catching the greys in the garden and helpfully letting them out in lakeland woods. How else to explain the huge leaps in sightings from one area to another without a suitable woodland corridor.
Nightwalker
16-07-2007, 10:19
Thats got me thinking; anyone know how far squirrel's travel? what are there territory sizes etc? I dont have a clue.. do you..?
Ringwood campsite in the New Forest, july 1976 the hot one if i remember correctly!
I was 10 years old and that was the first and last sighting.
Nightwalker
17-07-2007, 08:47
Ringwood campsite in the New Forest, july 1976 the hot one if i remember correctly! I was 10 years old and that was the first and last sighting.Maybe it was just a sunburnt grey :p
I see them all the time.
Bearing in mind I live 3 miles from Brownsea island, one of the largest colonies left it's however not surprising :)
twisted firestarter
17-07-2007, 12:20
Saw a pair of reds in Victoria park, Bath about 20 years ago. They ran into the road to mate and were promptly flattened by a mini :eek: :cussing:
I see them often in the North of Brussels, when I get up early enough :D
The grey :confused: are they the Korean ground squirrels? They abound in the Zoniënwoud, South of the city, but cannot cross the canal:p
when I was working in Dusseldorf I remember seeing a couple in the tree's as well.
One time a deer got stuck in the garden surrounding the office, and it took about a dozen people nearly an hour to get it out!
the perils of suburbia!
Celt_Ginger
18-07-2007, 19:46
I saw one just a week ago, just like British Red has said, it was on a range at Altcar training camp, near Southport. I was there with the Army Cadets on Annual camp. before that was last year at an estate house in County Monaghan. I have quite a few greys come to take the Hazel nuts from the trees in my garden, but not seen a red here in county Antrim
bushblade
19-07-2007, 12:17
Taken by my girlfriend at Formby
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t250/bushblade/Smsquizwitpic.jpg
Taken by my girlfriend at Formby
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t250/bushblade/Smsquizwitpic.jpg
It looks like the squirrel is reading the sign and just about to turn and walk where the sign says he must!:lmao:
I used to see the reds in Germany all the time, almost black they were. I don't recall seeing one in Britain, maybe as a child but I can't say for sure. I'm doing my best to rid these isles of the invader!:AR15firin