(no subject)

[ellarien]

We spotted a couple of black squirrels on the Stanford campus this lunchtime -- attractive little things; it's funny how the black fur trips the "Ooh, kitty!" circuits. A bit of googling suggests that they are either a separate species called fox squirrels or (maybe less likely) a melanistic version of the common gray squirrel which some web-authorities claim doesn't exist in California. They acted very like regular squirrels, of the people-habituated urban variety; they skittered off up a tree when we approached, but not with any great urgency, and we got the feeling that they might not have been averse to an offer of peanuts or apple-cores.

We also spent a few minutes quietly viewing the inside of the Memorial Church. It's as gaudy on the inside, with lots of gilding and technicolor stained glass, as it is on the outside; I've never seen anything like it, though admittedly my experience with the inside of mainstream churches is not wide, being mostly confined to the rather faded, time-worn interiors of historic British cathedrals, which lost most of their more opulent decoration in the Reformation.

Comments

[redbird]

We didn't have black squirrels in New York City when I was growing up. I was startled when I first saw them, and cattitude told me he'd seen them when visiting his grandparents in Michigan. Now, they're common here. Maybe they've moved west as well as east.

[ellarien]

These were the first I've seen. England has mostly gray squirrels, with small remnant populations of the native red ones here and there, and Tucson has far more ground squirrels than tree squirrels of any shade. I've seen speculation that the black ones do better in urban environments where camouflage is less important, but I'm not sure how scientific that is.