** Reply to message from Kelly Mcallister <mcallkrm at dfw.wa.gov>

> On Thu, 23 Mar 2000, WAYNE WEBER wrote:
>
> > Grays are rapidly displacing the native Douglas Squirrel from forested
> > urban areas, as well as occupying some areas that never had enough
> > trees for Douglas Squirrels, and we can look forward to Eastern Grays
> > becoming a widespread pest.
>
> I'm not seeing Douglas Squirrels much around Thurston and Pierce counties. Their call used to be
> commonly heard almost anywhere in the forested environments of Thurston County. I hesitate to
> blame the Eastern Gray Squirrels but there is no question that the number and distribution of
> Eastern Gray Squirrels has increased in this region over the past 20
years.

Preferred habitat loss may have a lot to do with it. One can still find
Douglas' Squirrels in Stanley Park in Vancouver right alongside E.
Grays, and they seem feisty enough to hold their own there. However,
farther out in suburbia where the trees have been whacked down and
2nd-gen forests (if any) are the rule, the chickaree has virtually
disappeared. I last photographed a Douglas' Squirrel at my folks place
in Tsawwassen around 1979. The next year, 5 big broadleaf maples, part
of a larger maple grove, were cut down on the property. Two subdivisions
went in over the next ten years. The place is crawling with E. Grays now.



Jack Bowling
Prince George, BC
mailto:jbowling at direct.ca