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Re: Winter in Finland 2010 - 11
Posted: April 8th, 2011, 7:51 am
by leonia
Hello Olga, good to see that spring has reached you too and the squirrels are well.
Hello Felis silvestris, wellcome here! May you tell us in which part of Germany you are living? I saw the stairs of an old house on one of your photos: that reminds me of our bureau in a similar old house where we have a lot of squirrels too (see some pages above).
We also have those red ones and a really strong dark brown one (should be a male), but the pics I made were not good enough to show.
I also read that the more the squirrels live to the east and north, the more grey they become in winter or even are the whole year long. So because Finland is much more north east than Germany, the winter is much colder and longer, so they should get a thicker fur and this winter fur is grey.
Re: Winter in Finland 2010 - 11
Posted: April 8th, 2011, 1:06 pm
by Olga
Re: Winter in Finland 2010 - 11
Posted: April 8th, 2011, 1:19 pm
by Olga
Re: Winter in Finland 2010 - 11
Posted: April 8th, 2011, 7:03 pm
by macdoum
Olga,welcome back to you,the squirrels and

here's to spring.!
Re: Winter in Finland 2010 - 11
Posted: April 8th, 2011, 9:09 pm
by Felis silvestris
Hi Olga!

How cute! A real story!
As Leonia (

) already wrote, the squirrels here are not really changing their colour.
Hi Leonia - I think you are not that far away from me
I think the colour of the squirrel does not have anything to do with the gender. We also would have liked to know if it's male or female and I read that it is not so easy to determine the gender. Searching quickly I found this page
http://eichhoernchen-notruf.com/erste-h ... timmung-1/ - which is in German, forgive me Olga, but shows the "little difference" very nicely. Left picture shows the male, right the female. The text says, that it is not really easy to say and sometimes, when a foundling is handed over, the presumed "Peter" becomes a "Petra".
Now I also found an English description, though without the pictures
http://www.ehow.com/how_5693550_determi ... irrel.html
Re: Winter in Finland 2010 - 11
Posted: April 8th, 2011, 9:36 pm
by Olga
It's all right, Felis Silvestris! There is very basic information behind the links that you gave, of the traits of the gender of squirrels

Re: Winter in Finland 2010 - 11
Posted: April 9th, 2011, 1:28 am
by macdoum
Olga wrote:It's all right, Felis Silvestris! There is very basic information behind the links that you gave, of the traits of the gender of squirrels

The distance between the anus and the genitals is
very important..
So,Olga you have to prepare your mesuring tape.!!!!

....

... and ask the squirrels to sit still.
Sorry,I couldn't resist that.
Re: Winter in Finland 2010 - 11
Posted: April 9th, 2011, 3:23 pm
by Felis silvestris

They are hiding "it" very well. Looked also through all my photos, their "shirts" are covering the important places very well, so are Olga's squirrels. Unless she grabs one I think we will not get to know if "Peter" or "Petra" is visiting

Re: Winter in Finland 2010 - 11
Posted: April 9th, 2011, 10:43 pm
by leonia

Tears in my eyes from laughing
On one of my winter squirrel pics one could see that it was a male. One of the red ones tried to reach for the fat nuts in front of the window and showed his whole underpart clearly.
And our dark brown one (Browny) it a real big boy, don't think that it may be a female.
And in spring times just look which one is running behind the other: the first one is the female, the one behind it the male.

Re: Winter in Finland 2010 - 11
Posted: April 10th, 2011, 9:19 pm
by Felis silvestris
I took the time yesterday to read through this whole thread. Such a lot of amazing and cute photos, Olga, congratulations!

You are really lucky to live in a such a place! When I have some more time, I'll look through your other threads, and I'm looking forward seeing more of your cute little friends!
Have a nice evening and a good week!

Re: Winter in Finland 2010 - 11
Posted: April 10th, 2011, 9:54 pm
by Olga
Hi, today was a beautiful day!! One squirrel visited, I tryed but I could not see if it was she or he.. The lightning was difficult, bright sunshine from behind - it meant bad reflections on photos. When the snow melts the reflections do not disturb that much anymore. And yes, and then..
" have to prepare your mesuring tape "
at 7:00
10:08
10:09

Re: Winter in Finland 2010 - 11
Posted: April 14th, 2011, 8:56 am
by Olga
Re: Winter in Finland 2010 - 11
Posted: April 14th, 2011, 9:36 am
by alice44
Looks like the squirrel is enjoying the change.
Olga -- no worries, when the squirrels start to nurse their young, you won't need a tape measure.
Re: Winter in Finland 2010 - 11
Posted: April 14th, 2011, 5:38 pm
by Olga

One squirrel visited for one hour ago! At first I thought that it is Oscar.. but then.. more pics to come!
1

Re: Winter in Finland 2010 - 11
Posted: April 14th, 2011, 5:59 pm
by Olga
Re: Winter in Finland 2010 - 11
Posted: April 14th, 2011, 6:00 pm
by Olga