Sunday, May 29, 2005
Squirrel Feeder Locations:
Gardens where someone feeds: Red squirrels; grey squirrels (if I can find anyone that really does feed grey squirrels); both squirrels
- Replace the squirrel’s normal feeder with a standard hopper+sticky tape and keep it topped up with hazelnuts
- Record each day the no. hairs of each species that are stuck to tape
- Let X days pass for habituation
- Add a Selective Feeder around the hopper
- Record each day: weight of nuts taken; continue hair counts and identification.
- Record for X minutes at X o’clock each day how many squirrels successfully feed
Now to find some dedicated people that feed the local squirrels in their garden. Maybe they would even like to collect, each day, the little hairs squirrels leave stuck stuck to sticky tape...
Oh yeah, and read some journals to fill in the X's
Do reds and grays shed the same number of hairs onto the sticky tape per gram of nuts they eat?
Small plan revision required: I also need to be counting the squirrels for the few days that they're being habituated to the hopper before the selective feeder's added.