Squirrel Appreciation Day at Mires Beck
This time of year is a tough time for squirrels in the Northern Hemisphere, because food is scarce, and they might not be able to access buried food because the ground is frozen.
In 2001, Christy Hargrove (a wildlife rehabilitation specialist) founded National Squirrel Appreciation Day in North Carolina, to encourage the public to be kind to squirrels by setting out water and food for them, and maybe the one day we let them touch our bird feeders?
They benefit our environment by planting seeds which eventually grow into trees, assisting with forest renewal.
Squirrels were first introduced in Philadelphia's Franklin Square (America) in 1847. Boston and New Haven then brought in squirrels a few years later in 1850. This experiment ended in the 1860s because squirrels were either dying or people were killing them in fear that they would disturb the birds, leading to insect problems. When large, expansive parks were built in New York, Boston, Washington D.C., Chicago and other major cities, the introduction of squirrels were released again as these large parks provided great habitat for the squirrels to thrive and live in.
Did you know, that 25% of squirrels' nuts are stolen? Squirrels bury their nuts in the ground, and other squirrels (especially other grey squirrels) dig them up and bury them somewhere else to have as their own! How cheeky!
At Mires Beck Nursery, we have all sorts of different trees (including Oak trees) in our woodland that provides lots of nuts and berries for the squirrels to eat, and habitats (such as holes in the trunk of the tree) for the squirrels in our area to to live and thrive in.
We are currently designing our new visitor hut to showcase the nature on our site, and when we are able to we will open our woodland walk again!
To be kind to squirrels, let's all put out food (e.g. seeds, berries and nuts) with some water in a bowl for them.
Please donate to our Just Giving page to help us develop our woodland walk and visitor station. You could even do a fundraising activity to help fundraise for our site to be enhanced and developed for adults with learning difficulties to enjoy and learn about. It can be something you really want to achieve (such as walking more miles than usual, or baking more cupcakes than you ever have before)!
Why not paint a picture of a squirrel and ask friends to sponsor your painting. We would be happy to showcase all fundraising efforts at the visitor station.
Please ensure people donate to our Just Giving page at www.justgiving.com/miresbecknursery.
All projects require fundraising and we are always looking for new sponsors and volunteers to help us realise the future aspirations to maintain the charity and help it to thrive. If you would like to help please contact us.