Tuesday 11 November 2008

New World Rodents

Canada is well served with rodents, and we saw a few on the trip. Beaver lodges were frequently seen, and we even got a few glimpses of some of the owners.
The most common rodents are, however, the squirrels, three varieties of which can be seen in Ottawa.
The red squirrels hold their own against the other two - the usual grey and a black form, which is particularly numerous around Ottawa for some reason.


I recently read, by the way, an article in the Observer about a group of people in Northumberland who were fighting the invasive Grey Squirrel with traps and guns, with considerable success. Perhaps one of the northerners could tell us if the greys are prevalent in their areas?
A chipmunk scolded us as we passed by, with a loud chip-chip....impressive considering it had its pouches full of food.

I don't think that Raccoons are rodents, but this one deserves to be seen because of its impressive size, gained by raiding a cat sanctuary. It would make a good hat.

6 comments:

me ann my camera said...

Great Squirrel portraits. Love the Black Squirrel as we don't have those in our region tho we were in Montreal last week and saw a few. All other species we have here in New Brunswick; all being visitors at our bird feeders occasionally except for the Beaver. Hope you had a great trip! I wonder if you got to see any Snowgeese?

Kingsdowner said...

Ann,
Despite checking many flocks, groups and skeins of Canada Geese we saw no Snow Geese. Shame!

We also saw no beavers on birdfeeders, nor even any porcupines.

me ann my camera said...

Too bad about missing the Snowgeese. That must have been the 'Ocean', the train from Montreal and Halifax that you took. We have taken that train before and it is a dark overnight trip for sure, you really see nothing of Quebec for either direction it is mostly all in darkness. We had planned on taking the same train for our recent trip to Montreal but were too late in booking so took our car instead. Small world.
Hmmm...how about Moose, did you see any?

Mary said...

I love those squirrel photos...especially that black one. I would love to see one of those! All 3 colors are beautiful. And the chipmunk...I'm jealous since we have none here, for some reason I have yet to learn. That is one fat raccoon! I have to get careful about over filling feeders when those varmints show up.

Rambling Woods said...

That is a huge raccoon and love the squirrels..

Tony Morris said...

Waders, what aren't Sanderlings are Dunlin.
Tony