I see nests about the size of basketballs way up in big trees that seem to be made of leaves and sticks. I always assumed those were squirrel nests.
This site has information and a picture of a nest.
A very good point.
Who are you to talk? You have Hippos in your garden!
I live on the second floor of an apartment building on a steep hill, so my balcony is about eye level with a drey in a big ol’ maple. I could probably thwack it with a broom if I so chose.
It was pretty relaxing to sit out there over the summer with a cocktail, watching momma and/or poppa squirrel make repairs to the house. They’d run to one of the outer limbs of the tree, chomp off a bunch of leaves, carefully fold them up into a little compact bundle, and carry them back to stuff them in the walls of the nest.
I’d take a picture if it weren’t so dark outside.
I don’t eat them though!
I can vouch for this. When I lived in Texas we had one that would sleep sprawled out on the brick windowsill next to our upstairs deck in the summer. We thought he was dead or injured but when we’d go out there he’d jump up and onto the tree next to the windowsill, then eventually we’d see him sleeping in that spot again. We named him “Señor Siesta Squirrel.”
Since the question has been pretty well answered, let me relate a story that happened to me. Last spring I moved to DC and got an apartment on a ground floor, and would sleep with my windows open. I got so I could recognize a certain bird every morning. It made what I would call a “tropical bird sound”, sort of a combination between a caw and a krrsshhhh. Eevery morning I would look out my window for this bird, but could never spot it. Cut to early winter. I’m walking to work and hear this bird call again. That’s strange, I thought, why hasn’t that bird flown south? So I look around, and finally locate the sound to a certain tree. I walk over and look up, and all I see is this squirell. I try to wave it out of the way to see the bird that must be behind it, when the squirell opens his cute little mouth with a CAW-KRRRSSHHHHk. Until that day, I never knew that squirells made a peep.
Yep when I was young I was rather surprised to find out they make sounds. I was tasked with defending fruit trees from squirrels when I was 12 or 13, and learned a lot about them at that time. Here’s one YouTube video of one noise a squirrel can make.
They will typically make ‘scolding’ sounds when frightened or angered by something, usually from the vantage point of a tree.
I have a drey right outside my living room window.
We have a robust population of squirrels here in Willow Glen. More than you can shake a stick at…if you were so inclined.
I have 2 beagles. Nord spends her day staring out the window waiting for squirrels. She is so focused she can barely hear you . All she wants is to bite a squirrel. She has chased them all over the yard and missed by inches. She is absolutely determined. They are gathering food now and are active.
“Get off my lawn, you damn squirrels!”
Alas, my beagle has no interest whatsoever in squirrels, rabbits, or the usual beagle-y stuff.