Around this time of year, when most trees are bare and winter is near, do you ever look up and see a ball of leaves high in the branches? If you have spotted one of these leaf balls you might be standing at the doorstep of a squirrel’s home!

Most ground squirrels hibernate in winter, but not the Eastern grey squirrel. Eastern grey squirrels stay active all year round. Throughout the winter, you can see them running around digging small holes in the snow looking for nuts that they hid in the summer and fall. Eastern grey squirrels stay warm at night in nests. They will use existing tree cavities, but if none are available they will build a leaf ball home called a ‘drey’. These balls of leaves actually have three parts: the base; the outer layer and the inner core. Squirrels build the base for their nest out of sticks so that the nest has lots of support. The outer layer of leaves looks messy and fluffy but it really helps to block the cold wind. Inside, the nest has an inner, warmer core of leaves tightly woven or packed together with grass and thin strips of tree bark. In the extreme cold, two squirrels may share the same nest to help stay warm.

More squirrel facts!

• Squirrels are in the rodent family
• Worldwide there are 262 species of squirrels
• Twenty-two species of squirrels live in Canada, six of which nest in trees, like the Eastern grey squirrel; the other 16 live in dens or burrows in the ground
• Eastern grey squirrels have two different colour types, grey and black. Scientists think the black colour is an adaptation to cold winters in Canada