A strange sight !

[dk1677]

When I have been out and about I keep an eye out for the yellow beaks ( none in my yard) and have not seen any around I see plenty of tree rats in residential areas but today was a odd one! I was about 2 miles from my place going down a street lined with houses and I see a gray blob falling off what I think was a cable tv or phone cable as it hits I see its a tree rat! had to be a good 25 feet off the ground ,landing on the edge of a driveway  it quickly runs to a near by tree, as I pass by its on the tree at the base looking back at my car as if to say " I meant to do that" LOL  I have seen them fall off limbs maybe 10ft on to the ground and run but this was 20 feet or better. No ice on the cables, I can't imagine it wanted to jump seems it lost its grip , a strange one!

[airiscool]

It's amazing they can fall that far and get up like nothing happened.

Paul

[gamo2hammerli]

Maybe there's a little crack in covering of  the cable....and when the nutter touches it, it gives him/her a shock and that causes it to fall off.
There's a street around here where a cable goes over it, two stories up.  Every now and then I would see a dead nutter on the street, almost always near the same spot.  I think it's a high voltage cable with a small crack on it's covering...and the unfortunate squirrels goes by and gets zapped.

[only1harry]

It was a little scary at the time because I thought it was going to land on me!  I think it was in the Fall of '08 at the beginning of the '08-09 season.  

I had just shot a Gray and had gone outside to collect it.  I knew its partner was up there in the trees somewhere not far away because after I shot the 1st one, I lost sight of the 2nd which was only a few feet away from its buddy.  So I am out there holding the dead squirrel and looking up at the trees above me for the 2nd one.  A few secs later I hear something coming down from the tree behind me, hitting branches, leaves and all on the way down.  I turned my head quickly and when I saw the squirrel falling, it was still about 12ft up and almost on top of me!  I had barely enough time to back up 1 step.  It was actually going to land very close behind - like a few inches away.  This one had to have fallen from at least 30ft up because it took me at least 1 second to react and turn my head around and my body a little.  The squirrel landed about 3.5ft from me with a loud thud after I had backed up 1 step, and ran up another tree immediately.  That completely took me by surprise and raised my heart rate a little.  

I didn't know what to make of it at first.  I thought it was an Ninja squirrel attacking me to avenge his buddy's death! hehehe, until I calmed down and realized what had happened. I think he was concentrating on hiding from me at a weird angle or position probably, on a small branch, or looking down at me, that he lost his grip and fell.  How else can you explain it?  Or it was so afraid, it had a panic attack?    I remembered I had seen them fall before so then I calmed down and realized it wasn't a personal attack

Before this one, I had another one fall off my fence that summer which is only 5ft high.  I was target shooting from the usual window.  I left for a few minutes to get some more pellets or something and when I returned, there was a squirrel at the bird feeders on top of the fence at that time.  I couldn't shoot him - season hadn't started yet, so I figured I keep target shooting.  The target was about 10" over from the squirrel and about 12yds further back.  I took the shot with the Diana 36 at the target, and DOWN goes the squirrell!  At first I thought maybe I had hit him, but there was no way my shot was off by 10" or more!  He just got up and ran a few feet, then looked around like "what the hek was that?".  I then watched him climb a tree and did not look wounder or anything.  He was just startled so much by the loud report of the Springer, that he lost his grip and fell.  The Diana 36 (same as 34) is pretty loud, and he was only 14-15yds out, plus the sound bounces back from the trees along the edge of the lawn and on the hill, so it sounds louder than what it really is.  My 350 Springers sound almost like rimfire because of those trees bouncing the sound waves back at me.  Luckily the fence is chain-link.  I would imagine if it were wood with very small gaps, the shots would be louder.

But yeah Dave.  Squirrels will fall.  I am glad you got to witness it.  Not many people do, or pay attention.  A hunter's eyes catches a lot more critter activity than most people.

[shadow]

I've seen em chasing on another and one missed a limb after his grand leap, funny watching a squirrel trying to grab air on the way down.   The nutter hit the ground and didn't miss a beat as he kept moving at a high rate of speed. Ed

[only1harry]

My brother threw a kitten off the roof of the building we used to live in, when I was about 7yrs old. He was 8 at the time.  We were 9 stories up!  The 2 month old kitten landed on its feet, bounced a little off the ground, and walked away like nothing had happened!  We saw it again regularly in the neighborhood so we knew the fall hadn't phased it.  It's amazing what some animals can do.  I wonder if the squirrel can survive a 9-story fall.. that's about 90-100ft.  THat building had 9ft ceilings!  Hmm.. how can we test that theory now?  hehehe  

[dk1677]

I wonder how this one made out http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=516438

[airiscool]

Back when I lived on Long Island, we used to get phone problems after a few years because the Grays liked to chew on whatever they used for the wire insulation.

Haven't had that happen here, but several years ago, I heard the transformer across the street trip. It's like a shotgun blast when they do.

I went out front to see what happened. One of my neighbors was out there talking to a  guy who was walking his dog. He was telling the neighbor he saw a Squirrel running along a wire then BANG and a blinding flash. While we were standing across the street near the transformer pole discussing this, the guys dog starts barking. We look at where the dog is barking and the Squirrel had gotten up from where it landed in leaves on the lawn. It had a dark smuge along one side and it was acting like it was drunk.

It was trying to run away, but it looked like one of those America's Funnest Videos where the guy puts his head on the upright baseball bat and runs around it getting dizzy, then trys to walk. The Squirrel was staggering  around sideways in circles. Took him several minutes of circling and falling down just to go 30 feet to slowly climb up the nearest tree.

Some get lucky and survive.

Paul.

[jake]

ive seen a few squirrels fall of tree branches. actually about a week and a half ago there were 2 nutters fighting up in one of my trees, they got to the top(id say 40-50 feet up) and they both tackle eachother and fall of the top andd on the pointy part of my wooden fance! they didnt even look scaved. just ran up the tree and started fighting again, they are some tough critters! but is was pretty funny seeing 2 little balles of fur coming out of the sky lol