THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 13, 1994 TAG: 9407120119
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: COASTAL JOURNAL
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: Long : 108 lines
The Rheinhart family erected two bird houses in their Kempsville back yard a few years ago hoping to attract bluebirds.
Instead they got something that wasn't on their wildlife wish list - flying squirrels.
The small gray animals with big black eyes have taken over both bird houses. The first squirrel was discovered last spring by Mike Rheinhart and daughter Courtney, 11.
``We came to clean out the bird house and took off the bottom,'' Courtney recalled. ``And he ran out of the hole and up a tree. I said, `Oh, my gosh, it looks like a hamster.' My dad said it was a flying squirrel.''
Courtney was observant. Flying squirrels are closer in size to hamsters than to gray squirrels. They are less than 10 inches in length while a gray squirrel can measure up to 21 inches.
Earlier this spring, the Rheinharts sensed the squirrels were back. They saw tell-tale bits of fur around the bird house entrances, Courtney said, and the wood around the holes was gnawed in squirrel-like fashion.
So one evening, they shined a flashlight at the tree. One squirrel ran out and up the tree and another poked its head through the hole.
Mike and his wife, Kathy, got another glimpse of their furry guests while entertaining friends one evening in the back yard. A flying squirrel poked its head out of one of the bird houses as if to see what was going on.
``It was sort of like it was interested in what we were talking about,'' Kathy Rheinhart said, ``and it kept looking at us with its big black eyes.''
She called me recently wondering if it was unusual to have flying squirrels in the yard.
Actually, it's not. But what is unusual is that the Rheinharts have seen the tiny creatures. Unlike common gray squirrels, flying squirrels are nocturnal and don't leave their roosts until it's completely dark.
Also unlike other squirrels, flying squirrels do fly in a manner of speaking. Gray squirrels appear to be flying at times because of the huge leaps they make from limb to limb, but flying squirrels actually glide through the air with the help of a skin flap on either side of the body.
The flap extends from wrist to ankle. Fur-covered, the flap is white underneath like the squirrel's belly and gray on top like its back. Helpless and hairless, newborn flying squirrels have the skin flap, too, but it is so thin it is actually transparent.
``When the legs are fully outstretched, the membranes form a winglike surface that enables the animal to glide downward from tree to tree or from tree to ground. The tail is an effective rudder that helps to control the path of the glide. . . . ,'' according to ``Mammals of the Carolinas, Virginia and Maryland.''
The book, co-authored by William David Webster, James F. Parnell and Walter C. Biggs Jr., says that the squirrels can glide from 20 to 30 feet through the air and that 100-foot glides have been recorded. The tail works so well as a steering mechanism that the animals can make 90-degree turns.
Flying squirrels also run along branches and jump from limb to limb like gray squirrels. In fact, they are a lot like gray squirrels in other ways, too. They eat the same food, such as nuts, plants, seeds and grains. And since they don't actually hibernate, the two species store up food for the winter by burying it in the ground.
In winter, flying squirrels often gather in their nests in large groups of a dozen or so to keep warm. Their nests can be found in anything from an abandoned gray squirrel nest to an accessible attic. But they are most apt to compete with woodpeckers for space in tree cavities with 1 1/2- to 2-inch holes. They easily adapt to bird boxes, too, hence the Rheinharts' bluebird boxes.
Females raise their babies alone, and the Rheinharts speculate that a mother and young are in one box and the father has been banished to the other box. She easily could have an active nest now because flying squirrels not only nest early in January or February but also usually again in June or July.
The Rheinharts may never know exactly what's going on, because the little squirrels are so hard to observe. The authors of ``Mammals of the Carolinas, Virginia and Maryland'' have one piece of advice.
``Southern flying squirrels,'' they say, ``are most likely to be seen in the soft light of a full moon on a warm summer night.''
It's the time when the fairies come out to dance by the light of the moon and little flying squirrels join them to glide through the trees and see the world through luminous black eyes.
P.S. Sign up the kids for free Junior Rangers or Kritter Kids programs at Seashore State Park. Junior Rangers is at 10 a.m. and Kritter Kids at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays through July. Call 481-4836 for registration information.
A BASTILLE DAY CELEBRATION will take place from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Moses Myers House in Norfolk. Music, living history performances and a sampling of 19th century French hors d'oeuvres are all part of the event.
The cost is $14. Call 664-6283 for reservations.
THE PARROT ON THE LAM in Windsor Woods for several months is still around, said Randy Jackson, a Windsor Woods resident. It's bright green with a little red on its face and smaller than his macaw, he said. Recently a small parakeet has been joining a flock of sparrows at his feeder, too. MEMO: Do other folks have flying squirrels in their bird boxes? Any other
unusual nesters? Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555. Enter category 2290.
Or, send a computer message to my Internet address:
mbarrow(AT)infi.net.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARY REID BARROW
Courtney and Bobby Rheinhart look for flying squirrels that have
taken over a birdhouse. The animals are primarily nocturnal.
by CNB