Bare trees reveal secrets in December that we couldn’t see in October.
On Throw Back Thursday, here’s a quiz about a common winter nest we see in Pennsylvania. Whose is it?
(photo by Marcy Cunkelman)
Whose Winter Nest?
Outside My Window
A Blog of Birds & Nature with Kate St. John
One lazy morning while in bed on the second floor, I heard (and later saw) a squirrel scamper across the kitchen roof (just below the bedroom window) to tear off a piece of Tyvek for its nest. We’re doing some construction and Tyvek is a house wrap that goes over the plywood. Back and forth it went, reaching up when the easy stuff was picked off. I’m pretty sure it had a nice warm nest that year.
I believe it’s a squirrel’s nest
It’s a squirrel’s nest.
looks like what I always thought was a squirrel’s nest too.
Looks like the squirrel nests in our yard. In the fall, they face around the yard, cramming their mouths full of leaves and twigs, then run up one of several trees, then back down for more. It’s comical seeing the leaves bulging out of both sides of their mouths. They don’t seem to use the same spot from one year to the next. Great photo!
Great Gray Owl?
Lars, actually it’s a gray squirrel’s nest. The photo was taken in Pennsylvania where we don’t have nesting great gray owls. Another hint is that great grays use lots of sticks and very few leaves. Here’s a photo of a great gray owl on its nest with young.
Owls don’t build nests, because they don’t know how to build one. Typically, they nest in dead, hollowed out trees and other cavity type structures. But all that’s besides the point—birds only use nests in Spring and early Summer to incubate eggs and feed hatchlings. Once they fledge, the nest isn’t used. Only a squirrel would be using a nest in the Winter.
(Sorry, I know this is an out of date post, I just couldn’t stop myself once I came upon this question)