Look what I caught this morning sleeping in a tree! :heart_eyes: Unfortunately I wasn’t able to take a closer pic cause I was already in the neighbor’s yard :laughing: but it was still adorable to see. I also spotted tracks in the snow leading up to its spot. [IMG_3460] [IMG_3458] [IMG_3471]

Looks like a melanistic fox squirrel.

It’s not the best pic but it’s just a black squirrel

Thanks. Squirrels are not something I would ever see in my part of the world, and I didn’t know there were black ones.

[image] Vireya: I didn’t know there were black ones Melanistic grey squirrel. Widespread in many areas. There are white ones, too! Not albinos. Leucistic. https://www.ffa.org/ffa-in-the-usa/where-are-the-white-squirrels https://blog.nature.org/2021/10/11/whats-up-with-white-squirrels-and-bl…

Both gray and fox can be melanistic. In fact, I read that the specific gene that causes melanism in gray squirrels actually originated in fox squirrels, proving cross breeding in the recent-ish past. I’ll see if I can find the paper… Here we go! https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6625063/ Su…

not my photo! This belongs to my friend who does not use inat, but I think this photo is too cute not to share! [7F22155A-65A9-42CD-9F23-E2A0C92D8DD6DSC08974 (1) (1)] This is an eastern screech owl who fell asleep my friends yard!

That is an awesome picture and the owl looks like it could blend in a tree with its bark-colored feathers :deciduous_tree: :heart: it

btw, there’s an observation field “sleeping”: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?verifiable=any&place_id=any&field:sleeping

Caught Sleeping!

Nature Talk

Carmen February 4, 2026, 2:11am 9

Our town has a lot of black squirrels but I haven’t really seen them anywhere else either

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Caught Sleeping!

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