This year, I had stock doves nesting in my Squirrel Studio Nest box, but due to an issue with the camera and the IR, I did not record much footage. Once the last squabs had hatched, the squirrels did come back to the box and, in fact, killed one of the squabs after ‘man-handling’ them as if they were angry they were in there!
Last weekend, I got up the ladder to clean the box out, in the hope that the squirrels might return and I adjusted the camera and replaces the IR unit that illuminates the box at night.
The box is on a neighbour’s tree, high on a bank on the edge of my lane and was purpose-built for squirrels as I had hoped to attract a female in there to give birth! To read more about this box and its history, you can visit my website page HERE.
I cleared a carrier bag full of debris out of the box and then put some fresh hay and a few leaves in there. I also placed a few peanuts , hoping to tempt the squirrels back in to take a look. I connected the camera back up to the i-catcher monitoring system I have here, so it would record every time anything went in.
I did not have to wait long! All week a young pair of squirrels have been in and out. Initially, they went to retrieve the peanuts in there, but later in the week they have seemed to use it as a playground! I think there are this year’s youngsters. The female who visits my feeders looks like she is still lactating… pretty late now but these two look like a right handful! I have captured some lovely clips of them playing in there…. one clip lasts nearly ten minutes!
The clip below is rather lovely…. just try to watch it and not smile!