UKH

Was treated to seeing a couple of red squirrels at weekend.

Lovely, they are so much cuter than the Greys (which dig holes in our grass, etc)

Totally agree with you - but have we been conditioned to find red squirrels particularly cute by Beatrix Potter and Squirrel Nutkin?!

Amazing, thanks for sharing.  The second one is accidentally hilarious with the wonky ear, jaunty angle and neutral facial expression.  A very expressive squirrel!

We may have booked a holiday lodge for the summer on account of it being in a red squirrel area.

Very nice indeed.

They’re smaller and a bit fluffier - I think that helps. But they’re still just rats with good PR… 😄

For anyone who can't make the trip up to Scotland but wants to virtually guarantee a sighting I'd recommend Shap Wells Hotel. You don't have to be a resident as there are public footpaths through the grounds. The best spot is just up the beck above the hotel as they get left peanuts there. There are even midges so it's just like Scotland ....

Reds don't need PR. Although they can cause some damage to trees they've been part of our native fauna for 10,000 years. They're not rats. Although rats and squirrels both belong to the order Rodentia, they belong to very different families within that order.

Ok, I know you were joking. At least I hope you were. If not I'll be sending my friend Big Steve round for a chat.

Ps - I didn't dislike your post.

Saw one in Grange (Borrowdale) the other day.

I remember them turning up at Shepherds every now and then.  

My grandfather used to cut her husbands hair. Bet you wasn’t expecting that !!  

A few years ago we stayed in a beautiful B&B in Pitlochry, we were up there for the enchanted forest. 

There were 2 reds that visited the garden every morning, the breakfast room overlooked the garden where they put a feeded out.

Watching them eat whilst eating a full Scottish was a great start to the day. 

Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour, Dorset has a high likelihood of sighting. Interestingly some of the red squirrel population there have leprosy (IIRC this is also true on the UK mainland).

I was about to say Brownsea Island, I saw six there in one afternoon last autumn. 

I have only ever seen a couple before that (both in the Lake District)

I used to get annoyed at all those "slow down - red squirrels about" signs in the Lakes because you "never" see them.

But one day I actually saw one running across the road in front of me!

Mersea Island in Essex has some as well.

Who said gender reassignment was a new thing?

How come they are called RED squirrels when they are brown/orange?

Found on Isle of Wight too.

Most mammals are brown, and these are definitely have some orange in them so worth the distinction.

Since orange as a colour hadn't been named in medieval English times, things that were orange were called red. Or yellowy red.

So it's a red squirrel.

Same reason why we have red heads.

I think the word ginger as a colour may be a fairly modern term also.

I thought tawny was the word used for orange-brown in the middle ages?

Ah, yes I don't know.

There's a phrase I've never seen on the internet before! I don't either so I'd rather hoped you would

Think montyjohn has given a good answer; I’ve never given it much thought tbh! Quite a few species names are not strictly precise.

BTW Red squirrels can be have hairs of many different colours including black ones which can make them look blackish overall. They can I believe be entirely black as well - melanistic Reds, not that I’ve seen one of them.

Was quite shocked when I first walked in a wood in Switzerland to see that the squirrels were black.  This was in Simmental (second time I have mentioned that place this morning).

Going back over to the cattle thing - Herefords are considered red and it's a pretty accurate description although the bulls tend more to maroon (where I got my maroon fly tying hair from)  and some cows are almost Guernsey orange, we had a family of them who's herd name was Orange.

So was William III. An ancestor of a certain whiney ex-president?

And Longleat Centerparcs