The largest tree squirrel native to North America is the Fox Squirrel, also known as the Eastern Fox Squirrel, Bryant’s Fox Squirrel, and the Delmarva Fox Squirrel. They are also referred to as the raccoon squirrel, monkey-faced squirrel and the stump-eared squirrel.
Courtesy photo.
At left, the Eastern Fox Squirrel, is the largest of the squirrel family.
Despite their differences in size and coloration, they are sometimes mistaken for the Eastern Gray Squirrel and the American Red Squirrel in areas where both species co-exist.
There are three distinct phases in color depending upon their geographical location. In most areas these animals are brown-grey to brown-yellow. In the eastern Appalachians most fox squirrels have dark brown and black squirrels with white bands on their face and tail. In the western states, their color below is more of a rust color. In the south they are mostly uniformly black with some having a white blaze on the face and a white tip of the tail. In South Carolina they are black with white ears and noses. All fox squirrels have large bushy tails.
The Eastern Fox Squirrel is active primarily in the morning and the late afternoon. It favors oak and hickory woods. However, in the South they seem to prefer live oaks, mixed forests, cypress and mangrove swamps. It buries hickory nuts and acorns that it will locate during the winter with its keen sense of smell – even under snow. .It is known to also eat tulip poplar fruit, winged maple seeds, ripening corn along wooden areas, open buds, and various berries when in season.
Those fox squirrels living in the Southeast prefer green pinecones and well as some fungi. The latter, located by smell, have large numbers of spores, which the squirrel disperses through defecation over several days and much territory. These subterranean fungi are beneficial to the germination and growth of trees, and some contain nitrogen-fixing bacteria.
The close relationship between these small mammals and their woodland environment—the forest, the fungi, bacteria—is destroyed by clear-cutting of forest; this constitutes a powerful, although little-understood, argument against the practice.
Although the Eastern Fox Squirrel will feed in common areas, and several individuals may den together in winter, this animal is not very social. It spends much time in trees feeding or cutting down nuts or sunbathing on a limb or in a tree crotch. In fall, it is often on the ground gathering and caching nuts, usually individually or in twos and threes, sometimes establishing larger caches in tree cavities.
Where home ranges overlap, more than one squirrel may store nuts in the same general area, or even in the same tree hole. The Eastern Fox Squirrel uses tree holes extensively, particularly in winter, often nesting in them with a family group of several other squirrels. They prefer to have one to two tree holes per acre.
Where tree holes are scarce, the Eastern Fox Squirrel builds leaf nests in tree crotches. These structures, up to 12 inches (300 mm) in diameter, have a side entrance and are lined with shredded material. Such nests are obvious in winter but more difficult to see in summer, when they are green, as they are usually made from the leaves of the tree in which they occur. However, they can be found if one looks for them carefully. Each squirrel usually maintains three to six active nests.
Winter mating "chases" are begun by males, who are ready to copulate before females come into heat. A "chase" consists of several males following a female throughout the day (rather than actually chasing her). She mates with one or more of the males.
After a gestation period of 45 days, the young, whose eyes remain closed for about a month, keep to the nest for the first seven or eight weeks. Litters of two to four occur twice a year. The young squirrels become independent of the mother when nearly three months old.
These squirrels are relatively easy to locate: one can listen for falling nuts, the swishing of tree branches, chewing sounds, or their call, que, que, que. Eastern Fox Squirrels are becoming much less abundant throughout the Southeast. Fire is favorable to this species, as it helps to remove undergrowth and thus maintains spacing between trees, especially pines, whereas dense hardwood forests and thick underbrush are more suitable for the Eastern Gray Squirrel.
The Delmarva Peninsula Fox Squirrel, a subspecies of the Eastern Fox Squirrel, is listed on the United States Endangered Species List. It is classified as endangered in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. While the animal once ranged throughout the Delmarva Peninsula, natural occurring species are now found only in parts of Queen Anne’s, Talbot, and Dorchester Counties of Maryland.
However, populations have been introduced elsewhere in Maryland as well as in Virginia, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. The Delmarva Peninsula Fox Squirrel requires a particular type of mixed hardwood and pine woodland with an open understory and a closed canopy. The woodland must be fairly small in extent as the Delmarva Peninsula Fox Squirrel needs extensive forest-edge habitat.
Logging practices have changed the habitat best suited for the fox squirrels range by either altering the canopy or understory, or by replacing mixed stands of same-species plantings. Once the Delmarva Peninsula Fox Squirrel loses its habitat loses its habitat, it must compete with the Eastern Grey Squirrel for its habitat and food.
Local fishing report
Surf fishermen have been catching pompano, whiting, bluefish, and an occasional tarpon and kingfish - which were probably chasing the menhaden just outside the breaking waves. Capt Fred Robert reported that there are a lot of Mangrove snappers being caught in the Halifax River. He has also caught a thirty pound cobia and two large tarpon just outside of the inlet.
Fishing in the lagoon is only productive in the early morning and late afternoon/early evening. Redfish and trout are being caught – some with top water plugs. Up in the Tomoka area the same is true except light colored soft baits seem to do the trick. Offshore there have been some catches of large dolphin, kingfish, wahoo, and cobia. .
Fishing capacity regulations announced
The NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) has proposed amendments to the framework regulations specifying procedures for implementing fishing capacity reduction program (aka reduction programs) in accordance with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act of 2007.
A reduction program pays harvesters in a fishery that has more vessels than capacity either to surrender their fishing permits including relevant histories for that fishery, or surrender all of their fishing permits and cancelling their fishing permits and canceling fishing vessels fishing endorsements by permanently withdrawing the vessel from all fisheries. The cost of this program can be paid by post-reduction harvesters, taxpayers, or others. The intent of this program is to reduce the number of harvesters in the fishery, to increase the economic efficiency of harvesting, and to facilitate conservation and management of fishery resources in each fishery in which the NMFS conducts a reduction program.
Comments on this proposal must be received by July 29, 2010. You may submit your comments, identified by 06348-AY79 by either of the following methods: Electronic Submission: Submit all electronic public comments via the Federal eRulemaking Portal at http://www.regulations.gov or Mail: Michael A. Sturtevant, Financial Services Division, NMFS-MBS, 1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, Maryland 20910
Comments will be posted for public viewing after the comment period has closed. All comments received are a part of the public record and will generally be posted to http://www.regulations.gov without change. All personal identifying information (eg, name, address, etc.) voluntarily submitted by the commenter may be publically accessible. Do not submit confidential business information or or otherwise sensitive or protected information. For further information, please contact Michael A. Sturtevant at 301-713-2390 or michael.a.sturtevant@noaa.gov.
Florida red tide organism not detected
In northwest Florida, Karena Brevis, the Florida red tide organism, was not detected in water samples collected this week offshore Levy County. On the east coast of Florida, Karena Brevis was not detected in water samples collected this week inside the Indian River Lagoon in Brevard County. In southwest Florida , Karena brevis, was not detected in water samples collected in late June from alongshore of Sarasota and Collier Counties. One sample collected offshore of Lee County contained background concentrations of Karena brevis.
Capt. Budd's Post Script:
It has been written “Angling has a distinction of its own; the very poorest man can, if he so chooses, become a fisherman.”
So whether you charter, ride a head boat, run your own vessel, stay in the river, surf fish, or fish from shore or a bridge, there are fish to be caught. Fishing is not a matter of life or death, it is so much more important than that.
Tight Lines, Capt. Budd