Marty’s photo of the day #2208: My home office has big windows, with a beautiful view of the mountains and the forest below. Two weeks ago, I happened to look out just in time to see a flying squirrel go by, with a gray squirrel in hot pursuit. The flying squirrel landed at the base of a tree, raced up the trunk to a birdhouse, fought off the gray squirrel, and barricaded herself inside with a plug of dried grass.

I have been watching the birdhouse ever since. Unfortunately, I hadn’t seen anything, other than occasional movement of the plug, as flying squirrels are nocturnal. Yesterday, I decided to set up my motion-sensing camera outside the birdhouse. While I was doing that, the flying squirrel became curious and removed the grass plug to look at me. I then ran into my house and returned with my good camera to take this photo.

That’s not all: I’m positive that the flying squirrel is nursing babies. If I get any photos of the babies, via either my good camera or my motion-sensing camera, I will post them for you to see.