News and Blogs

Original Author: Alexa Seagrave   We often get asked about feeding red squirrels, and the very best thing you can do is make your garden as wildlife friendly as possible.   Planting native shrubs and small trees for berries and nuts will provide the best natural food for free and give the best nutrition.  So get out there and plant some hawthorn, blackthorn, holly, cherry, raspberry, crab apple and yew.  All small-seeded broadleafed trees will provide buds and flowers in spring for squirrels as well as giving a home to lots of other wildlife and insects. If you have squirrels visiting your bird feeders, it is vitally important to regularly clean and disinfect them.  This is especially important if you have grey squirrels in your garden.  We recommend stopping feeding, if grey squirrels are around, as visiting feeders leads to a high risk of spreading squirrel pox virus. Please don't feed grey squirrels! If you want to give red squirrels a helping hand over winter and spring, here are our hints and tips for providing the best food. What should I feed them? Squirrels will quite happily pillage the nuts and seeds from your garden.  It is best to feed a variety of different foods, similar to those that the squirrel might encounter in the wild, with a few added extras in small amounts. The most suitable foods for red squirrels are hazelnuts in their shells, wheat, unsalted peanuts and sunflower seeds. A suitable mix is: 4 parts p ...

Original Author: Stewart Smith - Squirrel Volunteer   As we prepare our special flexible-waisted ‘January trousers’ ahead of the Christmas eating onslaught, our favourite redhead has other ideas.   Your average adult red squirrel weighs in at a svelte 330 grams. It enjoys regular exercise – scampering and climbing being favourite pursuits. Its slim physique is maintained by seeking out different foods, ensuring it keeps to a balanced diet. A red squirrel has a more varied diet than people may realise. It has an instinct for knowing which nutrients are required by its body, and nuts only get you so far in nutritional terms. In winter, red squirrels will eat seeds, fruit, fungi and even show a carnivorous side come Spring, eating eggs and small birds, if the opportunity presents itself.  The extra protein helps bring the females into breeding condition. Variety ensures a good range of protein, vitamins, minerals and carbohydrates in the red squirrel diet plan, provided that there is a decent habitat and not too much competition from other animals.   © Steve Gardner   Naturally, the main competition for red squirrels comes from the animal with the most similar diet: the invading grey squirrel. Before grey squirrels were introduced to Britain in the 19th Century, reds were able to live very successfully in almost any type of forest. Nowadays, however, they have had to adapt to become more specialist in their choice of habitat and ...

Original Author: Stewart Smith - Squirrel Volunteer   How do squirrels survive the winter?  Do they hibernate?  The cold weather is a tough time for animals, how do they managed to stay warm?   Winter has arrived in Scotland. People are trudging home in the dark at 4 o’clock, and newspapers are threatening blizzards, and “the coldest winter on record”, which never materialises. Red squirrels, meanwhile are haring around, eating what they can, burying nuts, and scurrying in the direction of their dreys. Contrary to popular belief, squirrels do not hibernate. However they do spent less time in search of food, and more time sleeping. To provide warmth and protection from the elements during the coldest months, squirrels build winter dreys. Unlike summer dreys, which are open platforms, similar in design to birds’ nests, winter dreys are broadly spherical and enclosed, but for a small entrance hole. They are constructed of interwoven twigs on the outside with softer furnishings of moss and dried leaves to give some home comforts on the inside. New dreys are usually built, and existing ones renovated and repaired throughout the Autumn. However, as they are often positioned high up in trees, they tend only to become visible when deciduous trees drop their leaves.  Squirrels will often own and maintain several dreys, to allow them to retreat to another warm home in the event that the ‘principle residence’ is destroyed or damaged by the element ...

Original Author: Stewart Smith - Squirrel Volunteer   A good mast year with lots of nuts around is good news and bad news for red squirrels. Lots of food means an easier winter but it also means grey squirrels have an easy time too and will have higher breeding success the following year.   As our statutory 3 days of summer in Scotland has elapsed, we have well and truly landed into a decidedly mixed autumn, which is looking likely to be replaced by another mild winter. This is certainly positive news, in the short term at least, for our squirrel populations, especially when coupled with an exceptional mast year. A mast year is when, for reasons still not fully understood by academics and naturalists, there is an unusual abundance of seed, fruits and nuts on our trees. So much so that it would be impossible for creatures to consume the entire crop. This autumn with trees bowing under the weight of their own produce, red squirrels will be benefiting. Is there plenty of food on the trees in your area? As with humans in the supermarket “reduced” aisle, red squirrels will take full advantage of the opportunity and load up their plates at the forest buffet. This results in a boost in body weight which helps them to withstand harsh winters and will mean that more females are likely to bear two litters next year. Red squirrels have the ability to cache food for lean periods which means that even if there is a cold snap towards spring, the supplies put by this au ...

  Rosie the knitted squirrel had a rare old time at the RSPB Big Nature Festival in Musselburgh this weekend. Here are some of the folks she met along the way...   First up Rosie posed for a piccie with cBeebies presenter Rory Crawford from 'My Pet and Me'! Then who should come along but Andy Wightman MSP! He had a good chat with the staff about the Saving Scotland's Red Squirrel project. Then another TV presenter! This time it was Leah Boleto from BBC Newsround! And with all these new faces it's great to bump into an old pal- aye it's good old Bruce the Beaver! Nice to see him there to promote the wildlife of Argyll- including red squirrels! Blimey, thirsty work this! Off for a refreshing drink from the lovely folks at Ethical Ales. They help us out by giving a proportion of their sales to help fund our work. 

Original Author: Steve Willis   Sometimes trail cameras pick up some pretty unusual animal behaviour...   The SSRS team use trail cameras for much of our survey work. As these amazing devices have come down in price their popularity has risen and risen. And for good reason too - they are unobtrusive ways to observe your local wildlife. Even setting up a camera in your garden or local park could surprise - you often find foxes, roe deer, or maybe even a badger or hedgehog rooting about (they work in the dark too!). We know many folks out there who use trail cams just for a bit of fun and take them with them on days out and holidays and so on. One of our survey volunteers, Gus, was away with his class on a field trip to Mar Lodge Estate in the Cairngorms. A stunning place a with a lot of wildlife, as any of you who have ever watched BBC Autumn or Winterwatch will know. Gus set up his camera in the woods and put a wee bit of bait out in the hope of a few squirrels or maybe even a marten. The very first thing to find the bait was a marten! Then by day there were heaps of squirrels. See this link for a cool video of what is known, technically speaking, as a scurry of squirrels. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rik6pGV0KlI All very nice, but imagine Gus' surprise to see this- watch it right to the end! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZXZfnzXA4E This footage was caught just after 6am in early May. It clearly shows a tawny owl swoop in and land o ...

Young squirrels are making their first trips out into the woods this month.  Keep your eyes open for mini-squirrels with fresh fluffy tails and let us know where you spotted them. We'd love to hear if squirrels are breeding near you!   Our native red squirrel is a truly endearing wee creature.  More demure and delicate in appearance, than the American grey squirrels and much more elusive, red squirrels spend most of their time in the tree canopy.  Spring time, before the leaves fully open and shield them from our gaze, can be a marvellous time for spotting squirrels.  Squirrels are super active at this time with the joys of spring.  Food reserves from winter are low and energy demands are high with young in the drey demanding to be fed, so squirrels will feed on buds and flowers and stored fungi and lichens.  Recently a picture of a red squirrel eating a frog was sent to us, check out our Facebook page to see it.  They really will take advantage of ANY food source at this time of year! The first young, born in February will start to be weaned after 10-12 weeks in mid-April and make their first explorations out of the drey into the big bad world.  Keep your eyes out for these cute little mini squirrels with bushy tails and visit our website to record your sightings of both red and grey squirrels and any breeding activity you see. With the first litter being weaned, females become fertile again and the month of May is a great time to see mating chas ...

Original Author: Steve Willis The big focus for the SSRS team now is the annual spring survey.   So the festivities of Christmas and the New Year are behind us now and it's back to the grind stone for the team at SSRS. Grey squirrel control is underway in most areas and a key task for the Project Officers is getting set up for the big spring survey. So what is involved exactly? And, crucially, what can you do to help? We carry out a massive survey of red and grey squirrels across Scotland each spring. We try, as much as possible, to repeat the survey in the same areas, using the same kit, at the same time of year. That way we can make comparisons from one year to the next. This survey should reflect the changing fortunes of reds and greys in any given area. There are a LOT of woodlands to survey, so it's simplest to break the landscape down into 2km by 2km squares- we call these tetrads. Within each tetrad we place four feeder boxes and fill them with tempting bait. It makes sense to survey all the best bits of squirrel habitat, so we check the area for broadleaved woodlands where greys may occur and conifer woodlands which might hold reds. Feeder boxes tempt any local squirrels in, and once they work out that they need to lift the lid of the box to access the food they will visit again and again. What the squirrels don't realise is that each time they visit they brush against a sticky bit of plastic inside the lid which collects a small amount of hair from ...

Original Author: Alexa Seagrave Since 1975, National Tree Week has encouraged us to enjoy and respect our beautiful surroundings and appreciate all the services that trees and woods bring to us.  This is the best time of year for tree planting, so get out there and help our red squirrels by planting good food trees for them.   All squirrels need trees for their nutritious big seeds and during Autumn, they spend a lot of time burying tree seeds in caches for winter.  They have excellent memories but not perfect, so some of the seeds they bury will sprout in Spring and have an excellent chance of surviving and growing to be giants; all helped by forgetful squirrels who planted their seeds. This is the perfect time of year for planting trees.  Trees are dormant in winter and will have time to establish their roots slowly at this time of year. This gives them the best chance to grow when warmer weather comes along in Spring.  Trees provide us with so much; dappled shade on hot summer days, shelter in the rain, wood for furniture, houses and of course, warming winter fires.  They are vital for providing food and shelter for a huge variety of creatures, great and small.  Everything from bats, bugs and birds need them, as well as squirrels. Red squirrels are often associated with conifer woods but they are just as happy in broad-leaf woods.  Grey squirrels tend to beat them to the biggest tree seeds, like acorns, hazelnuts and beech mast in deciduou ...

Original Author: Steve Willis, Project Officer North-east Scotland Winter is here! What does it all mean for red squirrels? The temperature is dropping all across Scotland and many parts of the country have had their first snow falls. How does this change in the season affect the red squirrel? Like us, they experience shorter days and much cooler temperatures.   Do they hide away and hibernate? NO!!! This seems to be a widely held belief. Ground squirrels in other parts of the world do hibernate, but can only do so if they build up huge fat reserves. Tree squirrels (like red and grey squirrels) cannot afford to build up a lot of weight and still scamper about the canopy, so they have to stay active all year round and keep on feeding! Squirrelling away food... All through late summer and autumn squirrels frantically scatter-horde food all over the woods. They will move from food supply to food supply and eat what they can, and bury the rest. They have a great memory for finding their caches and will use them from now right through until the spring. Red squirrels are quick to take advantage of bird tables and feeders. Photo: Steve Gardner Get yer coat... Squirrels moult twice a year. In autumn the summer coat fills out and they prepare for winter. Any given squirrel can look a fair bit different in winter time- the coat can vary in colour from how they look in summer. Red squirrels can often show a silver, dare we say grey, colour in winter and this of ...