Formby red squirrels (1 Viewer)

[d.steeley]

Hi, me the wife and a couple of friends hope to visit Formby in the week leading up to Good Friday and hope to see the red squirrels. My national trust handbook says I 'may be lucky and 'catch a glimpse' of them. Are they likely to be that difficult to see? Any tips and advice would be very welcome as would information on other things that we might see whilst there. We all have bins and I also have a scope. We do not mind a good walk. We will be travelling from Coventry so should be there by mid-morning and would like to make a day of it.

Thanks

Dave

 

[john young]

hi should not be a problem at all, head for freshfields reserve, some excellent photo opps as well

 

[cheshirebirder]

Hi, me the wife and a couple of friends hope to visit Formby in the week leading up to Good Friday and hope to see the red squirrels. My national trust handbook says I 'may be lucky and 'catch a glimpse' of them. Are they likely to be that difficult to see? Any tips and advice would be very welcome as would information on other things that we might see whilst there. We all have bins and I also have a scope. We do not mind a good walk. We will be travelling from Coventry so should be there by mid-morning and would like to make a day of it.

You can't miss them ! Buy a bag of nuts at the reserve and you should get them coming very close.
Natterjack toads breed about that time down in the dunes but I think you might need to go in the evening for them.

 

[d.steeley]

Wow, thanks for such speedy replies. Good info John Young and Cheshirebirder, is there more than one reserve or are all areas accessible from the same car park? I will be following route as per NT handbook. Natterjack toads would be good, I've never seen one. Feeding the squirrels with a bag of nuts sounds brilliant. Looking forward to it even more now. Thanks all.

Dave

 

[sav]

You shouldn't have too much trouble seeing the squirrels at Formby. They are within a short walk from the parking area on the road down to the beach, just past the NT hut where you can buy the bags of nuts. As you head down to the beach, take any of the paths to the right leading into the pine woods and dunes. You should see squirrels fairly quickly if my previous visits are anything to go by. However, it might be advisable to avoid busy times - weekends, holidays -last time we went it was half term and there were loads of people feeding the squirrels. As a result, by the time we arrived, they seemed to have had their fill and were a bit less active than usual. Nevertheless, we did still manage to see about ten of them, at very close range. You won't need your binoculars to see them!

 

[paul goode]

Hi Dave,

I went to Formby with my wife last week to see the red squirrels, and like you saw the comment in the National Trust guide about possibly catching a glimpse of them so we took binoculars and a long lens for the camera.

If you park just after the information board and take the path into the woods behind the board the squirrels seemed to like an area about 100 yards in.

As other people have said you won't need your binoculars!! As soon as they see a bag of food they literally run up to you. We found they favoured the monkey nuts so getting a bag of these as well as the mixed food from the National Trust should guarantee their attention.

The squirrels were wary of dogs so it might be best to go at the quietest time you can.

I've attached a couple of pictures to give an idea of how close they are so take a camera, any camera will do!

Regards

Paul

 

[d.steeley]

Thanks for all of your replies folks, much appreciated.

Dave

 

[Bluetooth]

I went last year armed with a 300mm lens hoping to get a decent shot of a couple. I was amazed just how close they came to us. Get yourself a bag of nuts and you should be allright.

 

[Carltonu]

LOVED the pics of the red squirrels. Here in the Eastern United States we have mainly the grey squirrel which is often black as well. Several times I saw albino "grey squirrels". Beautiful. We have red squirrels in the Eastern U.S. too but they are found mainly in the mountains away from the more urban areas. When we used to camp in West Virginia we had red squirrels fussing at us and throwing objects at us!

Carl

 

[ceasar]

I could be wrong, but I think our American Red Squirrel is a different species than this english cousin. Ours is smaller than this one, and not such a deep overall mahogany in color, if the pictures above are accurate. The second thumbnail in thread # 6 is closer in color than the ones in the later thread. As noted by Carltonu, they are notorious for their sassyness.
Bob

 

[Carltonu]

I could be wrong, but I think our American Red Squirrel is a different species than this english cousin. Ours is smaller than this one, and not such a deep overall mahogany in color, if the pictures above are accurate. They are notorious for their sassyness.
Bob

I agree Bob. I too think that our's is a separate species.

Carl