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A Story About Flying Squirrels
By: Al Gerhards

Flying squirrels are nocturnal and can be found in forest containing hardwood trees. The little critters only appear after dark making them hard to detect. The squirrels glide from tree tops to a nearby tree trunk in one noiseless swoop. Pulling out of their dive, they gently land on a tree trunk, and instantly disappear around the back side of the tree. I believe this is in order to avoid any owls that might have spotted them in flight, and that are trying to pounce on them just at landing.

One of my first sightings of a flying squirrel, was in my back yard, watching me as I worked on a shavinghorse. It was peeping out of a bluebird box, I had placed there earlier.

One evening I placed some walnuts on top of the box, the next day they were gone. I did that for several evenings. Later I placed a nut in the opening, the squirrel took it without hesitation. After a few days it was taking nuts right out of my hand. It was not long before other squirrels came flying in and taking the nuts. More squirrels were staying in the box. I counted seven one evening. That is when I decided to build a special box just for them. After going over a few design ideas I decided to combine twelve blue bird boxes into one large structure. The boxes all have individual openings and are interconnected on the inside.

The flying squirrel condominium, is anchored on two metal post about six feet off the ground. And has a wooden pole extending from one of the posts, for the squirrels to land on, and take off from.