The Adventures of a Siberian Flying Squirrel Family
A glimmer of light moves upwards along the surface of a tree trunk as the sun sets. The forest grows dim once again. It is harder to see, but for now there is still enough light. I stare at a hole in the tree and try not to let my gaze wander. I don’t remember how many evenings I have spent staring at cavities in trees. Today my expectations are high. I suspect that the female flying squirrel has young, but I cannot be sure until I see them myself.
There is movement in the cavity. I am not imagining things this time. The mother has woken early. I look through my camera to see the familiar flying squirrel more clearly. Large, black eyes examine the outside world, but this time something is different. The head does not fill the cavity and the colour is darker. Wait a moment – it is not mum. It is a youngster! I take a photo to make sure it really is a baby flying squirrel. It is. I am ecstatic. In this small urban forest there is a flying squirrel family. There are probably more than one young in the nest too, but how many? That may not become clear today. The youngster sits at the entrance of the cavity, looking out at what lies beyond the nest and sniffing the strange scents brought by the outside air.
The youngster goes back inside and another flying squirrel appears in the cavity. Now my companion of this spring is there – mum. She looks a little tired, but still adorable. She must certainly be busy eating plenty of leaves to produce enough milk for her hungry young. Mum leaves the cavity, rests on a branch before climbing to the top of the tree to eat aspen leaves.
I continue staring at the cavity. Will the youngster come back again? Yes, it does, but then it goes back inside. Once more a dark grey head with large eyes appears in the cavity. I am quite sure there is more than one youngster in there, but I cannot tell them apart. All the youngsters’ heads look the same.
A few days later I am back in the forest, waiting for the flying squirrels again. Mum leaves the cavity first. Will the youngsters come out today? I do not have to wait long. Almost immediately a youngster’s face appears in the cavity. Once again it studies the outside world from the entrance. The mother appears in a nearby aspen and the youngsters continue peering out from the cavity. Can the youngster in the cavity see its mother? Perhaps, because now it leaves, but stays close by. Another youngster comes out and almost immediately goes back inside. Again a youngster comes out and then retreats back in. Is this their first time outside the nest? It might very well be, as they do not stray far from it. There is so much coming and going that I still do not know how many youngsters are in the nest. Why can’t they stay outside the cavity so that I could count them? No chance of that – there is constant movement back and forth and I lost track long ago. Only on my next visit do I manage to count them properly. The mother has three cute and active youngsters.
In Summer, flying squirrels are also active during the daytime, and on one warm summer’s day, I am sitting in the forest once again staring at the cavity. I do not know when the flying squirrels will leave the cavity, or whether they will at all. Anyway, I’s a pleasant day to sit in a small forest. I wait. My concentration drifts. It is difficult on a warm summer’s day to constantly watch the cavity, but a flying squirrel could leave at any moment. Suddenly the mother appears in the cavity. I don’t have time to even take a photo before she starts climbing to the top of the tree and disappears from view. I continue staring at the cavity. More than ten minutes pass before the first youngster appears. It leaves and sits on the tree trunk. After a visit to the toilet, it quickly climbs to the treetop. The second and third youngsters leave a little later, each in turn. I cannot see where in the canopy they are all feeding. Are they close together, or in different trees? So, I wait for them to return to the safety of the cavity.
The mother appears on the trunk of the cavity aspen. I did not see where she came from – she seemed to appear out of nowhere. A little later I notice movement out of the corner of my eye. A youngster glides back to the nesting aspen, walks down the trunk and goes into the cavity. It is the first time in my life that I have seen a baby flying squirrel gliding.
It is a beautiful summer evening in the small forest. The warm early summer has helped the mosquitoes to mulyiply. I try not to let them disturb my focus on the cavity. It gets too dark to see the cavity and I have not seen a single flying squirrel. A couple of days earlier mum had groomed her fur. At the time, I suspected that she might have fleas. That would not be surprising, as she has lived in the same cavity all spring and the past month shared it with her three youngsters. I’m quite sure mum has moved her family to another nest, and I move on to other photography subjects.
