Sunday 28th October saw the red squirrels at Underscar eating as much as they could from our patio feeders. They weren't deterred by heavy rain all day and returned for seconds, thirds and even fourth helpings to put on fat reserves for the winter. They put on about 12% of their body weight in autumn fat.
The squirrels did a lot of weighing and shaking the hazelnuts in their paws before choosing one. They certainly can tell a good nut from a rotten one. If the nut rattles, the kernel is likely to be small and shrivelled, and not worth eating.
Good luck Underscar squirrels in remembering in the winter where all your stored caches of nuts are.
Hi there. Good to read that your Red squirrels are doing fine. You like myself, certainly do a good job of feeding them. I live in Toronto, Canada, and earlier this year, my wife, Jean, and I were in Ireland where we came upon the rarely seen Red Squirrel. To us, they actually look somewhat like our Canadian Red squirrels, but boy, do they have long ears! We were shocked to learn that your Red squirrels are contracting the pox virus from Grey squirrels, and dying. We have far to many Grey squirrels here at our feeders. We feel very lucky to have seen two Red squirrels in Ireland. We have posted some of our pictures and video for anyone interested at: http://frametoframe.ca/photo-essay-red-grey-squirrels-canada-ireland
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