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Flying Squirrel Cam   "Custom box/cam".
 Photos by John C in Dickerson, MD 2003

Bear-hugging || Stretching || Looking || Grooming || External || Cam setup || Woodpecker attack || Custom box/cam

About: This new box features a Kitchen, Soffit entrance, "Bath room" with trash chute, and Nest area. This custom Flying Squirrel nest box with night-vision camera was designed with a month of nest box cam monitoring observations in mind. The features in this box should enable them to eat, store nuts, and relieve themselves without leaving the box. This will also help to keep the nest clean and provide areas for them to climb around on without stepping on the nest too much.

Custom Flying Squirrel nest box/cam. (Marked with adhesive letters)

• E: Entrance was built in the soffit, to deter larger woodpeckers and provide an internal view of the outside approach to the entrance. It has steel anti-knawing / anti-pecking portals on each side.
• B: Bathroom is a sloped chute with a 1/2" x 2 1/4" slot opening at one end. The slot is too small for squirrels or birds to fit through. It is like a medieval corbelled privy or garderobe over a moat. Nut shells and droppings should slide into the chute and down to the ground. The outside of the chute has anti-gnawing / anti-pecking aluminum edges.
• K: Kitchen was made into a platform by cutting apart a suet-feeder cage. It will be a place to store nuts, eat them, and to climb on.
• N: Nest area is wide, to fit more squirrels, and shallow, so they can be seen easier. It can only be up this high and shallow because attacking woodpecker can't reach it with the new entrance design. The walls closest to the nest are were made 1 1/2" - 2 1/4" wide to better insulate against the cold.

  They really liked using this. It could also be used as a nest box and/or have another room added to it.