Morpeth & District Red Squirrels – Summer 2016

2016 has proved to be quite interesting. The early months saw greatly reduced grey sightings and in fact all sightings both red and grey were down. This was being reported across the board by many local groups. We then had quite sudden surges of grey activity in areas, and our enormous thanks as usual go to our grey control team who dealt with these. In the Shadfen area, where we have had very little grey activity, we have suddenly experienced a grey invasion and 17 were removed in July alone. This grey control is as always absolutely essential as there are a colony of reds in this area who have to be protected. There have been a family of reds visiting feeders which was lovely to see, but 12 greys were also removed from these feeders too. We had a heart stopping moment when one of the juvenile reds appeared to be quite sluggish and was not eating well and we suspected squirrel pox. This little red was caught and taken to a local vets where sadly it had to be euthanised. Fingers crossed…so far this looks like the one and only case. Swift action to remove incoming greys and also sadly removing this poorly red quickly, hopefully has protected the others. Read more>>