I live in northwest NC. We have mostly gray squirrels with a few reds.

Today I spotted the smallest red squirrel I've ever seen. I mistook it for a chipmunk at first. But it was definitely a red squirrel. Slightly larger than a chipmunk..... but not by much.

Shouldn't they be adult sized by this time of year? Or was what I saw some kind of freak runt?!!!

PS - No moonshine involved in the observation. And I know that reds are normally smaller than grays. But this guy was a real runt!

Under conditions of good feed and good weather, some healthy females have been known to have three litters. I believe you saw a young squirrel just out of the den.

quote:

Originally posted by swampshooter:
Under conditions of good feed and good weather, some healthy females have been known to have three litters. I believe you saw a young squirrel just out of the den.

That's probably what it was. I just am not used to seeing baby sqirrels this late in the year.

Thanks for the explanation.

Howdy Y'all,
I know this is an old post,but here goes anyway............
What you saw was a Piney-Red squirrel..........some folks call 'em Fairy-Diddles.
I remember once when I was a kid I shot one.It was small compared to a grey....less than 1/2 the size.
They cook up just fine..........just like greys.

D.P Reynolds

Ya know, now that he mention's it, I did get some pine squirrel's in Colorado. Awfully small but they ate well.

I possibly should know, but I don't know when the young ones here are born. Yesterday I saw a mother with 4 young about half her size.

this is red?

That's funny.

But it's supposed to be "an" Amen.

..and I know, that's not really what we're here for...

Clearly you don't go to a black Baptist church enough. In addition to some rousing choir work, you would know in our parts of the South it is always "a Amen". In the proper cadence it's much smoother than "an Amen": "Can I have uh-Amen?" like one three syllable word. Y'all need to learn up, hear?

Yes, you saw a true red squirrel; back in West Virginia we used to call them fairy diddles, like posted above. The animal that many people call "red" squirrels, are really FOX squirrels. BTW, we have solid black squirrels here in Iowa. Strange, but true.

Squirrels will have two litters a year. At our latitude, almost perfectly 38 degrees north, they are either breeding right now or preparing to breed. This litter will be the young you see starting in about mid-May through the opening of our squirrel season on the Saturday before Memorial Day. The second litter is usually young adults in October.

I have no idea how far ahead or behind to move those dates depending on where folks are. I also didn't know pine squirrels were....tasty. I had always heard the opposite. We do not have pine squirrels in Missouri that I am aware of. At least I've not seen any in 60 years. Big ol' fox squirrels and black squirrels, which are a color mutation of the fox squirrel, we have. Also have a piebald squirrel show up occasionally. They too are a color mutation of a fox squirrel....at least in our neck of the woods.

I have red, white, and black squirrels, but no greys where I have hunted. Once I saw a ringtail cat which was an albino on a deer lease. This white squirrel was in the Georgetown area and sent to me by my brother in law.

I live in SW Virginia. WE have a squirrel in the higher mountains that is exactly as you describe. It is smaller than a gray and bigger than a chipmunk.The only thing I have ever heard them called is a mountain boomer.You never see them where you find other squirrels.Gray and fox squirrels do not get this high on our mountains.
Old timers always said if other squirrels came into their area,boomers would either run them out or kill them. they are one of the fastest things on 4 legs you will ever see.

Slightly larger than a chipmunk and you, at first, mistook it for a chipmunk? It was probably a Southern Flying Squirrel. Right size and they do look like a large chipmunk.

In Wis we have red squirrels a little bit bigger then a chipmunk then gray squirrels and fox squirrels. The fox squirrels are reddish orange in color. but a lot bigger then the grays.

No one eats the reds unless you are starving.

Only reason I'm posting, is because I've got pics of all three while hunting. The fellow that said red-piney squirrel, is what we call them, here in Indiana.





piney/red squirrel.





gray squirrel.





fox squirrel.


Mad Dog

Here's a better pic of a piney.





Mad Dog

They look the same in Wis.

The pine squirrels are definitely a small squirrel, but they look pretty much like any other squirrel. I think most would agree, a flying squirrel looks a lot like a chipmunk