STILL FLYING HIGH, WE HAVE SQUIRRELS
Up in the air they go gliding, landing on our feeders, then gliding home.
I wish I could be quiet as a mouse and go outside and see them flying in to eat at the feeders. I love that they can drift on the wind and land precisely where they want to be.
Oh, it turns out you can’t housebreak a flying squirrel. They do make lovely, adoring pets. But they need a lot of love, a lot of cuddling, and they can be very clingy. The good news is that if you have a pocket, they are very happy to travel around in as long as you don’t forget to pet them. They don’t like being crated and they need very big cages so they can at least do a bit of gliding.
I actually looked at the cages and they gave me shivers. They live much longer as pets than in the wild. In the wild, they rarely live more than five or six years, but as a pet, they can live ten or even fifteen years.
I think they would rather glide freely through the air, high in the trees. They are the freest, most joyful creatures in our woods. They were never meant to live in cages. Would they trade a much longer life with half of it lived in a cage?
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Categories: #black-&-white-photography, #Photography, flying, Flying squirrels, Marilyn Armstrong, Wildlife
MORE FLYING SQUIRRELS, SOME OF WHICH ARE GLIDING – Marilyn Armstrong 
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
Very interesting effects Marilyn. Not only would they need to keep up the gliding skill, it must be a real blast to be able to fly like that, they would be most unhappy.
Leslie
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That’s what I think. Would they trade freedom for cages? I don’t think so. But of course, they don’t “think ahead” so who knows?
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Wild critters have remarkably short lifespans due to all of the dangers they have to face on a daily basis…. but yeah, I’d choose that over confinement and “safety” in a heartbeat. Funny how timely that observation is…
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I look at them gliding through the trees and try to imagine them living life in cages, even assuming that half the time they can glide around a house. Those cages made me queasy. It seems so wrong. I know living wild is dangerous, but living in a cage isn’t a real choice.
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Your flying squirrels are wonderful, Marilyn! And this is a particularly good batch of photos. I would love to be able to soar between trees to find the best food! Who knew that your woods are so alive at night?!
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I was very surprised and I still am. I have to remember to put the camera out. The weather has been so bad, I haven’t bothered. Believe it or not, they are predicting snow tomorrow! Maybe by the weekend.
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Not only the virus has turned the world upside down — the weather is also upside down! Our rainy season normally ends in February — this year we had NO rain in February, and it rained every day from March 1 through April 13! I’m hoping for a few more sunny days before it rains again!
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We get one dry day (not necessarily sunny, but not raining) then three days of rain. And it’s COLD. Winter was warmer than spring is!
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