MudderChuck

I think it is multifaceted. Some of it is habitat. Some of it is cyclic, it happens everywhere, prey animals get numerous, predator animals get numerous, prey animals decline, predator animals decline and repeat.

Also has to do with the food supply, weather has been screwy here, nut trees and fruit trees have been flowering at odd times, earlier than normal. Many trees are flowering a month or a month and a half earlier than normal, early warm spring, snap frost hits and kills the blooms. Normal rain and dry periods are also way out of whack, warm dry spring and wet summers, bass ackwards for here. Big Apple growing area here, this year the crop is down 66%. No Walnuts or Acorns, few Beech seeds, a lot of Pine Cones which may save them this winter. It is going to be a rough winter for the Squirrels.

Here the Fox Squirrels kill the Greys, Greys are almost extinct. Fox Squirrel numbers are up at moment compared to three years ago, year before last we had a bumper crop of Acorns. last year it was so so, this year nothing. Some people say it is a normal cycle, I say normal cycle and weather.

I've been feeding the Squirrels, few nuts anywhere around here.

I usually hear them before I see them, I'm attuned to the sound their claws make on the bark as they are scurrying through the trees. I'm old and my vision is going anyway, I hear the sound and then look for the movement.