Indecisive squirrel

[ninnyscrops]

Left or right  ???  :D

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t87/ninnyscrops/DSCF1427.jpg

[ninnyscrops]

[betula]

Oh,decisions,decisions ???

[lorna]

What a great pic.

[thifasmom]

He is a healthy looking speciman isn't he?

[valmarg]

Dalek: exterminate, exterminate, exterminate.

Whilst the grey american tree rat might look 'fluffy bunny',  It is vermin.

If we are to have any of our native red squirrels left, the only alternative is to cull the grey invaders.

I may be a bit controversial, but we need to preserve our native species, and exterminate the invaders.

valmarg

[Froglegs]

Doing my bit. :)

[ACE]

Doing my bit. :)

What do you do when you catch one? Kill it or let it go on someone elses patch.

I have heard they are rather tasty ;D

They are all protected down here as we do not have any greys only reds. The ferries have a high mounted camera to spot them trying to get to the island on top of lorries especially the lorries that come the new forest way under all the trees. I can just imagine them ganging up like the immigrants at Calais ;D.  Seriously though they have been known to be knocked out of the trees and land on the lorries.

[valmarg]

Doing my bit. :)

What do you do when you catch one? Kill it or let it go on someone elses patch.

I have heard they are rather tasty ;D

The law is, that if you trap a grey squirrel, you should kill it.  It is illegal to transport them, and release them into the wild elsewhere.  I can't see this bit of legislation being very closely policed, but that is the law. ;D ;D  If you do transport them, and release them into the countryside, you will probably end up with a dead squirrel.  They are territorial animals, and an interloper would be 'fought to the death'.

With regard to the taste ACE, OH has eaten it, or thinks he has.  He was in Prague, and having eaten the main course, asked the waiter what the meat was.  Not having a translator with them, from the waiter's limited English, it was decided that what they had had was squirrel.  His description of the meat was sort of gamey, chickeny rabbity. ;D

valmarg

[Froglegs]

If OH knows Ive got one of the little sods we have to take it to Sherwood forest and let it go, ::) but the ones she don't know about end up in the big nut tree in the sky, ;)

[Kea]

Tell her it's illegal to let them go Froglegs...they all need to go to the big nut tree in the sky. Take her to see a red squirrel, then point out that it's one or the other which does she prefer.

[debster]

i have never seen a red squirrel not even in a zoo

[Kea]

That's because the virus the grey squirrel carries but is not affected by is killing off the Reds. Also the greys are bigger and more aggressive and force the reds to leave their natural habitat. Reds are now mostly found in coniferous forest as the greys don't feed on conifer seeds. Not many coniferous forest habitats in the UK.
We sometimes see them in the Lake District. We were planning to stop at Formby Woods this summer to see them but it's too late those ones have been infected by the virus and only 25% of the original number are left and where last year they were easy to see they are now rare or distressing to look at, the virus affects them in a similar way to myxomatosis  in rabbits. They showed Red squrriels that had died from it a few weeks ago on Countryfile.
I'm not aware of any zoo's having red squirrels, as zoo's usually have populations of Grey ones living there (not exhibits) then they wouldn't be able to keep red squirrels alive in a zoo.

Once you've seen a red you'll want to exterminate the greys.

[valmarg]

With regard to the taste of grey squirrel, has anyone else been watching 'Britain's Best Dish' on ITV1 at 5.00 p.m.

The judges/tasters are Ed Baines, Jillie Goulden and John Burton-Race.

Earlier in the week, for the main course, one contestant cooked squirrel pie.

Ed and John loved it, but Jilly had to spit it out.  It may not reach the Friday regional final, but it was interesting.

Jillie described it as 'foxy'.  My interpretation of that would be fusty, over gamey, aka yeuk. ;D

Be interesting to see if it makes the final on Friday.

valmarg