Late Night Visitor

Ken and I really enjoy our deck. We sit there in the mornings with our coffee when we have time before work but especially on weekends. We like to watch the birds feed, the chipmunks munch, and the squirrels gathering. It is peaceful most times when we sit there. We enjoy it in the evening after a day's work.

It seems there are fewer and fewer nights that we are up very late but one night around 11 pm we were sitting out there just relaxing and talking. Ken saw the big black bird feeder moving and mentioned it to me. We knew the birds were not out at that time. I immediately suspected a raccoon but since we didn't see anything other than the feeder moving, I knew I was wrong. A raccoon would have had that feeder swinging.

We talked some more and the feeder kept swaying slowing. I got the flashlight and shined it on the feeder. I could see something on the back of it but couldn't make out what it was. I continued shining the light and walking to the other end of the deck but still didn't know what I was seeing.

Ken went in and got his camera with the zoom lens. I shined the light on the feeder and he snapped away.
We were amazed when we looked in the camera and got a good look.

All summer long Ken had been telling me there were "flying squirrels" in the campground. I didn't know if he was just joking with me to see if I would believe such an idiotic thing or not. I didn't know if he was referring to regular brown and black squirrels that can jump from limb to tiny limb in a tree and seldom fall. It kind of looks like they are flying. But he wasn't kidding. There really is a "flying squirrel." They really don't fly but can glide 20-30 feet and it appears that they are flying.

He and/or one of his buddies has been to our feeder twice that we know of but we are guessing he has visited quite more often than that.

I think he is a rather peculiar looking animal, reminding me of a squirrel and a bat. He has a loose skinned body and he hung himself upside down on the feeder both nights that we saw him. He seemed to flatten his body against the metal of the feeder and it appeared that he was hanging on with his tail at first but when I saw the picture up close, I see that he was not. His tail and body appear flat. I got the picture below from the internet to show the underside of a flying squirrel.

I think I like seeing him better when he is hanging onto the feeder. He looks a little scary here.