Larch Creek Birds

What the birds (and frogs) are saying at a creek in western Washington
Plate 34
Douglas's Squirrel
Audubon, John James; Audubon, John Woodhouse; Bachman, John, 1851
Mammal

Douglas's Squirrel

Tamiasciurus douglasii
Sciuridae
Heading outMammal
Summer visitor. Expected here roughly Mar to Dec. Moving on: expectation falls from 76% now to 57% a month from now.
Field marks
A small, dark tree squirrel: olive-brown above with a rusty-orange belly and a tufted tail edged in pale; a black side stripe in summer.
Male & female
Alike.
Voice
A loud, scolding chatter and an explosive 'chirr' that can go on for minutes when a cat, hawk or person intrudes, roughly translating as 'and another thing'.
Diet
Conifer seeds above all: cuts green cones in autumn and buries them by the hundred in damp middens, a pantry that also plants trees. Also fungi, buds, berries.
Habitat
Conifer forest west of the Cascades; the native 'chickaree'.
Nesting
A ball of twigs and moss high in a conifer, or a tree cavity; two litters a year.
Size
About 12 in including the tail, 5–10 oz: a can of soup with a tail and a grievance.

The cone-scale piles at the base of a Douglas-fir are its dining table. Scolding peaks in autumn as it defends the winter store.

Season how expected it is here, week by week

50%100%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecheard at the creektoday
Fig. 1. BirdNET's range model for this location: the chance this species is present in each week of the year. Orange ticks mark weeks it has actually been heard at the creek; the dashed line is today.

At the creek 5 calls on 2 days, first Oct 29, last Oct 31

2400:00 — 0 calls001:00 — 0 calls02:00 — 0 calls03:00 — 0 calls304:00 — 0 calls05:00 — 0 calls06:00 — 0 calls607:00 — 0 calls08:00 — 0 calls09:00 — 0 calls910:00 — 0 calls11:00 — 0 calls12:00 — 1 calls1213:00 — 4 calls14:00 — 0 calls15:00 — 0 calls1516:00 — 0 calls17:00 — 0 calls18:00 — 0 calls1819:00 — 0 calls20:00 — 0 calls21:00 — 0 calls2122:00 — 0 calls23:00 — 0 callssunrisesunset
Fig. 2. When it calls: all detections by hour of day (today's sunrise and sunset shown).
24Oct 2 — 0 callsOct 3 — 0 callsOct 3Oct 4 — 0 callsOct 5 — 0 callsOct 6 — 0 callsOct 7 — 0 callsOct 8 — 0 callsOct 9 — 0 callsOct 10 — 0 callsOct 10Oct 11 — 0 callsOct 12 — 0 callsOct 13 — 0 callsOct 14 — 0 callsOct 15 — 0 callsOct 16 — 0 callsOct 17 — 0 callsOct 17Oct 18 — 0 callsOct 19 — 0 callsOct 20 — 0 callsOct 21 — 0 callsOct 22 — 0 callsOct 23 — 0 callsOct 24 — 0 callsOct 24Oct 25 — 0 callsOct 26 — 0 callsOct 27 — 0 callsOct 28 — 0 callsOct 29 — 4 callsOct 30 — 0 callsOct 31 — 1 callsOct 31
Fig. 3. Calls per day over the last 30 days.

Recordings

Clearest recording · Oct 29 1:56 pm · 98% sure
spectrogram
Recent · Oct 29 1:45 pm · 90% sure
spectrogram
Recent · Oct 29 1:44 pm · 93% sure
spectrogram

From the encyclopedia

The Douglas squirrel is a pine squirrel found in western North America, from the Pacific Northwest to central California, with an isolated subspecies in northern Baja California, Mexico. It is sometimes known as the chickaree or pine squirrel, although these names are also used for the American red squirrel. Variant spellings of the common name are Douglas' squirrel and Douglas's squirrel. The Native Americans of Kings River called it the "Pillillooeet", in imitation of its characteristic alarm call.
From Wikipedia, "Douglas squirrel", CC BY-SA 4.0.