Squirrels MIA?

[Josh Smith]

Hello,

This squirrel season I've not seen but one. I shot it.

Even in Wabash Town, where they usually thrive, they're not near as thick as previous years.

Been hearing the coyotes pretty close, but I've heard that before and it didn't really affect the squirrel population. (The rabbit population was a different story).

I almost wonder if there was a decrease in town and the woodland critters migrated that way for scraps.

Still plenty of deer, to the point I'm thinking of popping one or a few this year to thin the home herd.

Just the squirrels, and to a point, chipmunks, have disappeared.

I'm hoping for a light dusting of snow here soon so I can track with more certainty.

It's been unseasonably warm. It's near December and still reaching into the 60s some days, so I doubt it's a food issue. Good yield from the apple tree this year too. Plenty for the squirrel, deer, and whatever else.

Figure I'll start spreading food in a clearing to see what I can come up with. Help everything through the winter, too. As I teach part-time, I can come up with all sorts of stale biscuits and such from students who work at fast-food joints. The fat content and carbs should help all the critters through the winter.

But I'm off on a tangent.

Anyone know what's happening with the squirrels? Is this countywide, Indiana-wide, or nationwide?

I'd be interested in hearing from folks in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky as well as Indiana.

Thanks!

Josh

[docone31]

Down here, near Tampa, we usually see a lot of Squirrels With Bot Flies on them. Not that many, but they all had Bot Flies. This year, we see a bunch of Squirrels! Lots of them, no Bot flies though. No Squirrels with bumps.
As they get the acorns, you see less and less, but for a while, we saw a lot of Squirrels.
Every year, we have seen Squirrels with bumps. Sometimes quite a few bumps. This year, none. That is the first year I have seen that. Never saw so many acorns either.
Hmmm.

[Wally]

Hello,

This squirrel season I've not seen but one. I shot it.

Even in Wabash Town, where they usually thrive, they're not near as thick as previous years.

Been hearing the coyotes pretty close, but I've heard that before and it didn't really affect the squirrel population. (The rabbit population was a different story).

I almost wonder if there was a decrease in town and the woodland critters migrated that way for scraps.

Still plenty of deer, to the point I'm thinking of popping one or a few this year to thin the home herd.

Just the squirrels, and to a point, chipmunks, have disappeared.

I'm hoping for a light dusting of snow here soon so I can track with more certainty.

It's been unseasonably warm. It's near December and still reaching into the 60s some days, so I doubt it's a food issue. Good yield from the apple tree this year too. Plenty for the squirrel, deer, and whatever else.

Figure I'll start spreading food in a clearing to see what I can come up with. Help everything through the winter, too. As I teach part-time, I can come up with all sorts of stale biscuits and such from students who work at fast-food joints. The fat content and carbs should help all the critters through the winter.

But I'm off on a tangent.

Anyone know what's happening with the squirrels? Is this countywide, Indiana-wide, or nationwide?

I'd be interested in hearing from folks in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky as well as Indiana.

Thanks!

Josh

Plenty of squirrels her in NE Illinois...maybe we have so many as we don't have CCW...?

[GrayFox]

Down here in north central GA I doubt I've seen 20% of what I had seen in the last 5 years. The deer are few and far between, too.

[roverboy]

Around here the squirrel population looks good. I saw what I believe was a B&C fox squirrel the other day. Lol.

[EMC45]

I'll trade your squirrel problem for my deer problem in Mid Ga any day.

[Josh Smith]

Around here the squirrel population looks good. I saw what I believe was a B&C fox squirrel the other day. Lol.

Anything like this?

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b191/WabashShootist/Game/daddyfoxsquirrel800xX.jpg

I'm used to seeing them up to that big around here, though I don't think I'd want to eat one that particular size again.

The one in the picture took 24 hours in the crockpot to become tender enough to eat!

Thanks,

Josh

[roverboy]

Yeah he looked about like that.

[DIRT Farmer]

In this part of SW Indiana the hickery crop was almost 0, but several acorns. The walnuts are almost gone, normaly theyjust start eating them now. I have seen a few, but still blank on eating them.

[dale2242]

Squirrel populations cycle much like rabbits.
I think the cycle is 5-7 years in this area.
When the population gets too high, nature brings it back down with disease, etc.
The gray squirrel numbers here are WAY down this year from what they were the last couple of years.
On the up side, grouse populations are up.....dale

[richhodg66]

Funny this came up, I noticed fewer of the little guys while hunting earlier during muzzle loader season.

Right now I'm kind of split between two locations, I spend the week in eastern Kansas next to the Missouri line and then back home 130 miles or so west of there at Fort Riley. The squirrels around Riley are all Fox squirrels while nearly all the ones in the east are grays like we had in S.C. where I grew up. I have seen more here in the east than out west, I wonder if species has anything to do with it?

I remember those nasty bot flies being a problem in S.C. but have never seen it in squirrels in Kansas. Not sure why.

[para45lda]

In my area I would attribute it to our lack of rainfall. The turkeys and deer have moved to the water.

My opinion.

Wes

[Freightman]

My pecan trees draw a lot of unwanted squirrels, and being in town I use my 22 and Super Collibri quite effective.

[roverboy]

I saw about 20 squirrels today deer hunting. 3 fox and all the rest grays.

[EMC45]

Went deer hunting (waiting) last night and had a squirrel right behind me on a tree looking at me. I was gonna shoot it with the SBH .44........He took off instead.

[mroliver77]

I saw about 20 squirrels today deer hunting. 3 fox and all the rest grays.
Squirrels are not allowed to hunt here in Ohio.

POrolly a good thing as we have had great nut harvests the last few years. Many squirels about!

[Josh Smith]

Hi Folks,

Thanks. Since posting this, I saw ONE more squirrel. I took a shot at about 50 yards, prone, in very bright sunlit but windy conditions.

I was shooting from cover to cover, and the crosswind was whipping through.

I held for a 10mph crosswind and watched the bullet in the sun as the wind took it and still veered it off target.

Turns out the wind was going at 26mph, not 10, when I checked a few minutes later. No wonder I missed!

But I've not seen it again either.

I can get biscuits from a local fast food restaurant that they would otherwise throw out. Those things have about 300 calories apiece and a lot of that is fat, most of the rest being carbs.

I've started tossing them out for the various critters. Figure it might help them get through the winter as, now that some of you mention it, I did not see an overabundance of nuts and other forage this year, either.

Regards,

Josh

[Link23]

i went deer huntin today and saw about 15 of those little critters.... to bad its not season yet..