It looks like 2017 has been an excellent year for all sciurids in New York area, not just woodchucks and chipmunks. I spent last night spotlighting in Pine Barrens and saw 5 southern flying squirrels at two locations. Let me know if you need directions.
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Florida Bonneted Bats
Jon Hall, , North American, 0
Does anyone have any recent information on where to see this species, preferably roosting, while I am in Florida...
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After 89-year absence a wolf returns to Iowa and is shot dead
Jon Hall, , North American, 0
DNA testing has confirmed that an animal shot in February in Iowa’s Buchanan County was in fact a wolf,...
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Red Bat in New Jersey
Jon Hall, , North American, 0
Andrew Block sent me these pictures of an Eastern Red Bat, hanging in a Juniper Shrub (about 4ft off...
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Florida Panther and Wolf vs Moose
Jon Hall, , North American, florida, Ontario, 1
Here’s a couple of interesting clips A Florida Panther in her backyard (just south of Fort Myers I think) was enough...
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Tabasco Batting
Jon Hall, , Central and South America, North American, Mexico, 0
Back in those halcyon days, before the collective name for a group of caution was “an abundance’ and when...
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Northern Georgia
Vladimir Dinets, , North American, 1
A few tips from northern Georgia (USA): Pigeon Mountain (once a roost of millions of passenger pigeons) is a...
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Dogs to help survey for Bonneted Bats
Jon Hall, , North American, 0
This is interesting…. Tracking bats is going to the dogs. Literally. If all goes according to plan this winter,...
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3 Florida Panthers Die in the First Ten Days of 2012
Jon Hall, , North American, 0
Florida panthers are off to a rough start in 2012, with three deaths documented by the Florida Fish and...
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When I lived in Princeton, I often observed Southern Flying Squirrels in the Princeton Institute Woods and along the D&R Canal.
This also seems to be a very good year for them further north. Last weekend, they were ubiquitous at Quabbin Reservoir in central Massachusetts. I lost track of the count after about 40 in three hours on Friday evening (most were detected by sound) .
I wonder why northern f. s. never occurs at such densities. Or does it?
Not sure… Perhaps NFS does occur in high densities at some sites, they probably have never been researched. I saw 2 NFS and heard a third animal in 2 hours in old growth White Fir/Douglas Fir forest at Groves Prairie (Humboldt County, CA); I suspect the density is quite high there, for example.
A tip for detecting NFS – they often vocalize if you play owl calls. We had them respond to Western Screech Owl and Flammulated Owl calls.
This is just speculation as I haven’t seen Northern Flying Squirrel yet, but perhaps it is related to diet. SFS relies heavily on acorns, so it could occur at very high densities when the acorn crop is good. On the other hand, the dietary staples of NFS are more stable year-to-year (fungi and lichens). Also, I’ve read that NFS is much less vocal, so its apparent density would be lower than the very vocal SFS.
I’d consider three SFS in two hours to be very low density, compared to my detection rate at Quabbin this year. It seems to be a local phenomenon, as I only detect a couple SFS per hour at a different site about an hour away in Rhode Island.