Joann Merritt's Essays

Christmas Squirrels
March, 1996

Our annual after-Christmas birding trip yielded neither the Mountain Bluebirds of 1994 nor the American Robins of 1995, but their absence was understandable as the junipers were devoid of berries. On the River Road south of Iraan we found a Canyon Wren, easily our best bird of only 24 species we saw that day. Although he allowed us to observe him closely for a long time, the Canyon Wren never sang his lovely descending notes that echo down canyon walls. While searching for the wren we spied five hawk nests high in the cliffs - this calls for a spring trip to see how many of these nests will be occupied, and by whom!

While eating lunch in a grove of live oak trees we did not bother a porcupine (whose name means “one who rises in anger”) as he waddled by our truck swishing his quill-laden tail. A Cardinal called in the distance and a Buckeye butterfly patrolled the road. For forty minutes that was all we saw until suddenly ten species of birds appeared - three Hermit Thrushes, two Eastern Phoebes and a Titmouse among others who made us glad we tarried. We then journeyed a few miles north to where Live Oak Creek crosses the road (or does the road cross the creek?) but few water birds were present. Schools of small fish played hide-and-seek with a Belted Kingfisher by darting under moss or rocky ledges. Pennywort floated its round leaves in a protected pool and in the clear shallow water we could see fern growing from the gravel bottom. On the bank we found several dried Eryngo plants with candelabra-shaped stems and pods. We watched two Dainty Sulphur butterflies as they flew back and forth to the water.

While driving along the River Road we found something which made us temporarily forget the scarcity of birds a large family of Texas Antelope Squirrels scampering over the rocks holding their tails over their backs as they energetically bounded up and down the hillside. Don and I first encountered Antelope Squirrels while atlasing the Lindsey Ranches south of Rankin and west of Joe Chandler’s, but we identified them as chipmunks. Way out there in the hinterlands we thought we could see chipmunks if we wanted to, but Jim Henderson said there were no chipmunks in that area. After looking through the rodent section of the mammal guide we realized we had seen Texas Antelope Squirrels, not chipmunks. Are we the only Midnats who never heard of Antelope Squirrels? Their tail is white underneath and as seen from the back it resembled a Pronghorn flashing its white rump, hence its name. It is chipmunk-like in size and appearance but has no facial stripes and its white side stripes stop at the shoulder.

Scrub desert, foothills and rocky slopes make up the habitat of these squirrels. They live in burrows or rock crevices where they make nests of grass, fur, bark or whatever materials are available. A litter of 5 to 14 young is born in early spring, rarely, a second litter is born later in the summer. They do not need to live near water as they can metabolize water from their diet of seeds and fruit. The family we found entertained us for an hour with their playful antics, cavorting among the rocks, cactus and shrubby vegetation. Our after-Christmas was again a great success.