Flying Squirrel house: 1, 2(bird house), 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, Next >>

Flying Squirrel house #2
Photos by John C., 2003 in Dickerson, MD.

LEFT: Flying Squirrel house #2 showing predator guard, sun shade, & removable night time feeder on 3/19/2003. The feeder is placed at night and removed at dawn so birds don't use it. Doing this enables me to gauge exactly how much they eat. The Flyers do like the feeder. They squeak after I walk away from placing the food and begin eating as soon as I'm 35-50 ft away. When monitoring the feeder on the 1st night, I noticed that cats sit under the box watching the Flyers most of the night. My response was to add the predator guard. One night I saw a flyer land on the guard and slide off! It was them almost eaten by a cat so I removed the guard. Their nest box also has a new nest box room. This new room is both a vent and a self-cleaning latrine. (cleaning out the box was becoming a time-consuming hassle for me) Flyers can go completely inside of it. A decal of a letter "F" was added to a main box wall to identify the box but is was almost chewed off.

LEFT: 10 Flying Squirrels getting cooler air near top of box. They took turns near the vents and entrance. It was 70 F outdoors on the property, and was probably 85+ F inside the box! (my attic was 85.3F then) Since the sun is what heated up the box, a sun shade was added the next day. It might have been too late, as only 1-3 Flyers have been returning during the daytime since then until 4 days later when they stopped day usage. 3 days after that, after possibly being coaxed back with favorite foods, on March 26th, they began day usage again. Next >>

Started: March 19, 2002. Last updated: 3/29/2003