Winter visitor

Our winter visitor is back ...

Today was a beautiful winter day and my boys and I were out doing some yard maintenance this afternoon. Well, mostly I was doing the work but they would rake some leaves in between playing in them and climbing trees. After filling all the bird feeders, we decided to check out one of our bird houses (lovingly made by my father-in-law). Last spring we found a visitor in our bird house and wanted to see if it was back. Much to our delight out flew our flying squirrel. He hung on the tree for a while ... long enough to get some photos and really study him before he scurried back into his "nesting box". He should be all set for the winter ... a warm home and plenty to eat. Flying squirrels are very social animals but are nocturnal so it is rare to see them. They eat nuts, seeds, insects, fruits from trees and shrubs, berries, fungi and birds eggs. By the sounds of it he should have an entire buffet in our backyard.