Ozark
member
Reged: 12/14/05
Posts: 4012
Loc: out in the woods
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I saw some animals today I've never seen before in the wild. I've got some hunting property with a cabin on it in Douglas County (I shot a buck yesterday).
Anyway, I'd noticed in late summer that a woodpecker had put a hole in the attic siding under the eave. Then that hole got enlarged by something. Then, there were four holes, and they were on both sides of the cabin.
So when I went to hunt this weekend I brought a ladder and some plywood pieces to fix the holes. When I put the ladder up to the first hole, a face appeared. I thought, oh crap we've got rats. Then the guy spread his "arms" and sailed over my head to a tree about 20 feet away. I thumped around on the cabin and another one came out - flying squirrels.
When I got home I looked them up, and found that the Southern Flying Squirrel is native throughout Missouri and the southeast. The article said 90% of people never see one in their lives, because they're complete nocturnal. They eat berries and bark like other squirrels, but they also eat bugs - they hardly ever come down to the ground, and they sail between trees at night. Owls are especially hard on them.
They're sure cute little guys. Grey with white bellies, smaller than a squirrel and bigger than a chipmunk, and they have enormous black eyes. I'm kinda hoping they'll stay out of my cabin, though.
Has anybody else here seen flying squirrels in MO?
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griffin
administrator
Reged: 12/13/05
Posts: 9571
Loc: the most dangerous city in Ame...
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Two weeks ago I seen a smallish, black, gold-toothed creature sail out of a second story window of a building he had broke a hole in, to find some goods to store for the winter at a local pawn shop........but he didn't fly too good. He was a young one.....prolly ain't quite figured out how to flap.
griffin
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"The Irish are one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever." - Sigmund Freud
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SwampFox
member
Reged: 12/13/05
Posts: 7948
Loc: Mid Mo
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"Being deeply learned and skilled, being well trained and using well spoken words; this is good luck."
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Ozark
member
Reged: 12/14/05
Posts: 4012
Loc: out in the woods
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griffin - I'm glad your gold-toothed black St. Louis squirrel couldn't fly too good. Mostly, those kind of squirrels could run faster than me. That just didn't seem right, especially if they were carrying a TV set and I wasn't.
SwampFox - That's it, except no flying helmet. Seriously, I didn't know we had these critters in MO.
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SwampFox
member
Reged: 12/13/05
Posts: 7948
Loc: Mid Mo
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I had some land in southern Montgomery county. We were clearing an old logging road and I stapled a target to a small snag for my daughter to shoot.
About the third time I stapled a target the snag fell and a flying squirrel came out and ran up a tree. We followed it through the woods for about 10 minutes as it flew from tree to tree. Pretty cool stuff.
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"Being deeply learned and skilled, being well trained and using well spoken words; this is good luck."
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Al A
member
Reged: 12/19/05
Posts: 50
Loc: eastern Missouri
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When we built our house, at the edge of an expanse of mature oak timber, we had flying squirrels around the house for a couple of years. But I haven't seen any in several years now. Kinda miss the little guys.
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67Firebird
Former political advocate
Reged: 12/14/05
Posts: 8975
Loc: Russellville, Mo
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Quote:
Ozark said:
griffin - I'm glad your gold-toothed black St. Louis squirrel couldn't fly too good. Mostly, those kind of squirrels could run faster than me. That just didn't seem right, especially if they were carrying a TV set and I wasn't.
SwampFox - That's it, except no flying helmet. Seriously, I didn't know we had these critters in MO.
That'd make a cool mount, hanging from the ceiling like a goose. 
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RafeHollister
member
Reged: 12/14/05
Posts: 672
Loc: Webb City, MO
Current High Scores in:
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If I had a mount of a flying squirrel, I'd use the little bastard for a potholder.
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Both how I'm livin' and my nose is large.
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67Firebird
Former political advocate
Reged: 12/14/05
Posts: 8975
Loc: Russellville, Mo
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It wouldn't last too long that way, but whatever works for you. 
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duko™
member
Reged: 12/14/05
Posts: 3440
Loc: east mo
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flying squirrels are not near as uncommon in MO as you might think. They're a nocturnal animal and that is why you seldom see them.
duko
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Al A
member
Reged: 12/19/05
Posts: 50
Loc: eastern Missouri
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Well, I said I hadn't seen any in several years. But last Friday we had about 20 of wife's former high school classmates at the house for a party. It was a warm night and a bunch of the guys were out on the back deck. Had all the lights on, and I caught movement out of the corner of my eye at the bird feeder hanging from a tree limb just a foot or two off the deck, five feet away from where I was standing and talking. Looked a little more closely, and there was a flying squirrel jumping back and forth from the tree trunk to the feeder, reaching in and grabbing a sunflower seed, and leaping back to the trunk to eat it. He was there much of the evening, and since then we've seen at least two of them. They're back! (If they ever left.)
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67Firebird
Former political advocate
Reged: 12/14/05
Posts: 8975
Loc: Russellville, Mo
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Quote:
Al A said:
Well, I said I hadn't seen any in several years. But last Friday we had about 20 of wife's former high school classmates at the house for a party. It was a warm night and a bunch of the guys were out on the back deck. Had all the lights on, and I caught movement out of the corner of my eye at the bird feeder hanging from a tree limb just a foot or two off the deck, five feet away from where I was standing and talking. Looked a little more closely, and there was a flying squirrel jumping back and forth from the tree trunk to the feeder, reaching in and grabbing a sunflower seed, and leaping back to the trunk to eat it. He was there much of the evening, and since then we've seen at least two of them. They're back! (If they ever left.)
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