Did you know…..our eastern Gray Squirrels breed twice a year…once in the winter (December – February) and once in the spring (May – June).
As we hit the middle of February, the winter brood is being born and in about 7-10 weeks when they are weaned and start to leave the nest, we’ll start to see the little squirrel pups.
The squirrel nest is known as a drey and is located high up in a tree. It’s made of sticks, leaves and soft mosses. Often, squirrels will make a couple of dreys in case something happens. We witnessed this first hand a few years ago when a tree came down in our neighbor’s yard. Wasting no time at all, we watched the mother squirrel take the babies out of the fallen nest and straight up another tree into another drey.
In the wild, our Gray Squirrels live up to about 12 years of age.