Hello and welcome to the National Trust podcast. In this mini episode, we're getting up close and personal to one of the UK's most elusive creatures. The Red Squirrel.
Hi, I'm Roger.
This is Kate.
Yeah. Well, we, we tend to work as a team when we're doing squirrel feeding. Ah, there goes the squirrel running across the road in front of us. Yes, there is a mixture of colours and then this one has quite a dark tail actually. This is an adult. It's got its tuft-ear tufts. It's a mature one. It's got the white front. The big difference is if you, the greys are bigger, they tend to be greyer, but there's still some red fur even on the Grey Squirrel quite often. But they
have a, a characteristic halo around the tail. You can always tell it's a grey if you see that fringe of dark fur around the tail, which the reds do not have and the reds have the ear tufts which the greys do not have.
So now he's coming to the feeder, isn't he? He's saying, is there any food in there? No, there isn't yet. Sorry.
Now, people ask us, why are we feeding them, given that there is plenty of food around and the main food they get here is of course the, the seeds inside the pine cones. We feed them partly to, to keep them here so that people can see them. But there's also the, matter that it is easy food. So if there's a sick squirrel, then they will come to the feeders and can be seen. We've been volunteering for the trust for, oh, you, you, more years than me?
I started about eight years ago and you started about five years ago.
Yes.
We're husband and wife.
Yes. Which is why we managed to come as a team at the same time. But, we will show you how it all works. One of us actually puts the feed up into the boxes high up on the tree and the other one engages with the public who ask what on earth we're doing. This is where the, the food is stored for the squirrels and sometime between 10 and 11 every morning, when the, the feeding is going on, somebody will be here to get a bucket full of seed and to go out.
And everyone wonders how on earth do you get the feed up into the feeders high up on the tree? Well, a decorator's extending pole with the cups fastened to the top. A high tech piece of equipment is the secret to that! Going into the kiosk. This is a TARDIS by the way, it looks very small on the outside. But the amount of stuff that gets crammed into here. A bucket, a scoop of seed. We used to sell, feed to the public at the kiosk. And, they used to throw their peanuts out.
Or even hand them out because the squirrels got so tame, they would come and take the peanuts from people's hands. That was a recipe for disaster to come because when a Grey Squirrel did come in and introduced the Squirrel Pox, there was a crowd of squirrels here so dense that it cut right through them. And with a very short space of time, we thought we were going to lose every squirrel on the site. It was a, it was a very sad time, but, they did recover but over time they've, they've
built their numbers up again to, oh, what would you say? About 80%? Is that right? Kate? Would you agree with that?
Yes. It's very difficult to give a- Every- There is a question that everybody asks us how many squirrels are there in the area, but they don't exactly line up for us to count them. But, I would say four or five hundred.
This year, there have been a lot of juveniles around coming out late in the year. So we suspect this will be a good second litter this year and numbers are probably up.
I mean, people come from miles away, they come from the Midlands, they come right over from Yorkshire to see the squirrels. But it is very, very important that they don't get tame. I mean, people do come sometimes on a very hot, sunny, often crowded afternoon and say there's no squirrels. Where are they?! But they are wild and you cannot have them on demand. And the best time to see them is, is early in the morning when they're, when they're very active and looking for food.
And sometimes they're up in the top of the trees and you can hear this sort of noise and they're saying, Come on! Come on! Where's the food? Neither Roger nor I are local to Formby. We, we moved here a good many years ago, but I mean, when I grew up, there were only Grey Squirrels, I didn't even know what a Red looked like and it is just so beautiful to see something so small. They're so quick the way they jump from tree to tree, an absolute delight to watch.
And I say it is, you think when Beatrix Potter wrote her stories, you know, Squirrel Nutkin, there were only red squirrels, that's all people knew. And now the majority of people in Britain never see a red squirrel. So it's so so important that we look after them.
Thanks for listening to this week's mini episode, our next full episode will be available in a couple of weeks, but there'll be another mini episode available next week while I'll be exploring the intriguing treasures buried in the Formby Dunes. So until then from me, Kate Martin, goodbye.