Hey folks,

After a few weeks of not much photography (mainly due to constant torrential rain and being focused on writing for my other blog) I’ve been out quite a bit trying to take advantage of their being less leaves on the trees and all the critters being more visible as a result.

Today’s pic is of a cutesy little red squirrel, which we get a lot of in the woods round here. I had never seen red squirrels in real life before living in this part of the country. They are endangered and quite rare in many parts of England but locally common in Scotland – though I never seen any when I lived in Glasgow, which is our largest city. There are plenty of grey squirrels, as they can forage a wider variety of foods and habitats than reds.

The greys also carry a virus which is deadly to the red squirrels unfortunately, and while they are quite good at staying out of each others’ way (the reds here occupy the woods on one side of the river and the greys the other, more urban side, reflecting their adaptability to foraging woodland and human environments), human deforestation has often pushed them closer together. It was, of course, humans who introduced the non-native grey squirrels to the UK last century, so while the greys carry the virus which is deadly to reds, humans are ultimately to blame.