Southern Flying Squirrel

For several years, a small group of volunteers in the Backyard Bird Watchers and Nature Lovers  of West Neck have been monitoring several Bluebird boxes that we had installed on the Signature Golf Course. I am one of them.
We have had Bluebirds, Chickadees, House Wrens, and Tree Swallows nest successfully in these boxes. This year, we were excited to discover at the end of the summer, that two of them had Southern Flying Squirrels making a home in them.
Southern Flying Squirrels are common rodents in many parts of the country, but because they are nocturnal (active mainly at night), few people ever see them. I had never seen them in the wild until this experience!
Southern Flying Squirrels are native in Virginia. They are very, very cute! Only 8-10 inches long from nose to tail, they might more appropriately be called “gliding squirrels” because they aren’t capable of true powered flight like a bird is. Flying squirrels glide. They have a special membrane between their front and back legs that allows them to glide through the air between trees. When a flying squirrel wants to travel to another tree without touching the ground, it launches itself from a high branch and spreads out its limbs so the gliding membrane is exposed. It uses slight movements of the legs to steer, and the tail acts as a brake upon reaching its destination. Flying squirrels can cover more than 150 feet in a single glide.
When I went to check on these boxes, I carefully opened the side of the first one and cautiously peeked in. Two huge, beautiful brown eyes gazed back at me. Then the squirrel, I am guessing the female, jumped out of the entrance hole and scurried across the ground to the nearest tree, climbed up, and disappeared around the other side. I turned on my cell phone flashlight and looked back inside the box, observing at least one baby squirrel. I closed the box.
I walked over to the tree the adult squirrel had climbed and looked up, seeing nothing. I walked to the other side and there, seemingly frozen in place, was the adult flying squirrel. She was almost perfectly camouflaged and if I had not seen her relocate there I may have missed her. Southern flying squirrels have thick, soft, glossy grayish to olive brown fur with white underbellies, and I am certain it helps protect them from many predators. Their known predators include hawks, owls, domestic cats, snakes, raccoons, and foxes.
These squirrels mainly feed on nuts and acorns, especially those from hickory trees. They also eat berries, seeds, flowers, mushrooms, insects, bird eggs and dead mice. Each autumn, they may store up to 15,000 nuts to eat during winter, which they store underground or in tree cavities and crevices. We actually found where they were storing food in several of our Bluebird boxes last year!
We are so happy that they decided to make West Neck their home!