Tall trees

Yesterday we enjoyed another short but greatly satisfying hike in Ohio, this time at Goll Woods in Northwest Ohio. Goll Woods is the least disturbed woodland in the area and includes some of the tallest trees in Ohio. It's rather surprising to discover this place amid the pancake-flat agricultural fields of this part of Ohio. But the Great Black Swamp used to be located here, along with many habitat types and many deciduous trees. Thankfully the Goll family protected these big woods in the 19th century.

We hiked the one-mile bur oak trail from the east parking area. The 200 to 400-year-old oaks themselves were spectacular--stretching more than 120 feet into the sky. We saw several birds--both kinglets among the highlights, including a golden-crowned kinglet that landed just a few feet away. But the faunal highlight had to be the squirrels. We saw and heard red squirrels soon after arriving on the trail, then we saw a fox squirrel. Next we saw a black squirrel. For a moment I believed we recorded a rare sciurid sampler, but I'm pretty sure it was a black form of a fox squirrel--not a gray squirrel. Still, this area likely falls into the section of the country that includes these three tree squirrels.

All in all, another unexpected gem, which is the best kind of gem there is.

Yellow river

Many of you have read about my observations of squirrels. We've seen squirrels slurping from plastic cheese cups. Squirrels getting zapped by power lines. And squirrels eating dead flickers. But perhaps nothing tops what happened today.

A squirrel nearly, ahem, peed on me.

I was standing in front of our building, under one of the two norway maples out front. I heard something dripping on the curb, about five feet in front of me and the nestling strapped to my chest. It was not a rainy day so it wasn't wind blowing raindrops off the trees. I wasn't close enough to a building for it to be an air conditioner. No one was watering in the vicinity. So it could only be one thing--the only arboreal mammals in the neighborhood. Indeed, there was a gray squirrel draped over a branch about 20 feet up. And then it was all over within about 10 seconds.

Arboreal varmints

This post is long overdue, but I recently stumbled across a squirrel study that is right in my wheelhouse. Project Squirrel has been taking place for the past several years right here in Chicago. It encourages people from across the country to submit their squirrel observations. In particular, it focuses on the Chicago area's big three of fox, gray and red squirrels. (Recall driftless area's "Kankakee trio," recording all three in one day January 2009.) The observations are interesting as you dig deeper into the Project Squirrel Web site. The project studies questions like: Why do gray squirrels dominate college campuses? Why do fox squirrels reign in suburban areas? Can the species co-exist? It's great to see others getting squirrelly.

Park place

The Chicago Tribune has been good to state parks in the Camp Chicago area in recent days. First, a story about a hike at Kankakee River State Park. We recorded a "sciurid sampler," all three local squirrel species in one day, at the park about one year ago. Today the Tribune featured Maquoketa Caves State Park in Iowa, a place where we camped several years ago.

Fried squirrel

I'm taking a break from the Asian carp story to get back to the basics. A squirrel left 9,000 people without power in a Cleveland suburb the other day.

Squirrel tale

A few weeks back, we were sleeping just after dawn when we were awakened by a loud pop. The sound was immediately followed by our Dumpster loudly slamming shut. The pop sounded something like a gunshot or firecracker. Weird things happen in alleys, we thought, and maybe it was just one of those Uptown mornings.

Later that week, a squirrel was discovered dead in the Dumpster. The squirrel's presence seemed unrelated--could someone really have shot it, scooped it up and immediately thrown it into the Dumpster? And why?

Two days ago, we unraveled the mystery. Our neighbor Jason had been walking across the alley to his car. He heard the pop and turned. He watched a squirrel get electrocuted on a power line, fall and land on top of the Dumpster.