Squirrels

Good on ya mate, whatever works, mine is birds, Gillars in particular, I love the way they compete with each other and the shear joy they seem to get from flying.

Welcome back.

What are Gillars?

I feed squirrels and birds daily. It's amazing how appreciative they are.

I thought you'd know being a fellow Ozzie.

I have no idea either, and thanks.

We have three lots of birds in the park, seagulls, crows and pigeons.

I like the crows, but I can't abide pigeons.

One big problem is the pigeons descending on you en masse.

I give the squirrels nuts in shells so the pigeons can't get them.

I exclusively feed raw in the shell and my birds raise a ruckus if I am late feeding. Mockingbirds, Cardinals, doves, blue jays and some I can't name.

We don't have any little birds in the park, well we probably do, but the pigeons and seagulls scare them off.

Some of the seagulls are the size of a small dog.

Great black-backed gulls, I suppose.

Btw: I remember that in the 60's only red squirrels were common in Hants. (We don't have those grey "treerats" here on the continent)

Apparently, six grey squirrels were released in Bournemouth in the 1920s.

I always thought it was much earlier, that they had escaped in the 17/18th centuries not that it was deliberate.

It's not the squirrel's fault, they didn't ask to be released.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for protecting reds, and would never take greys anywhere, the nearest reds are on the IOW.

There aren't any reds in Southampton, and they greys are really friendly and affectionate when you get to know them.

Pigeons, crows and grey squirrels are all considered pests, so if you come across an injured one and take them to the vets you are not allowed to release them back into the wild, they will have to stay with you as a pet.

I think squirrels can be real pets like cats and dogs, allowed free reign and stay because they want to, not because they're in a cage.

You can spend all day on a meadow trying to coax rabbits with carrots and you'll get nowhere.

Squirrels recognise a friendly face and can be fed by hand when you know them.

Squirrels make proper pets, rabbits are captives.

My favorite local park has red, black, and gray squirrels.

The pink and gray galah.

I've never been adverse to throwing some crumbs of my lunch or snack to pigeons and other smaller birds.

But I still have fond memories of feeding some wildly assertive squirrels some Shake Shack fries in Madison Square Park.

I thought that might be what you meant but I've never heard them called gillars before.

I'm 83 and since my last stroke I've given many things new names.

Okay, fair enough.

I don't know what the pigeons are like over there, but here they are awful.

if you stood in the middle of the park with breadcrumbs in both hands you would be mobbed by hundreds of the buggers.

https://www.newyorker.com/cartoon/A23919

I'm not ever just stand in the middle of a flock of pigeons with breadcrumbs in either of my hands.