
Welcome to another duel post: combining my regular column, Motionless Monday, with our Blogging A To Z Challenge. Yes, S is for squirrel, and for those of you who have been following our blog, I’ll add, yes, Nutmeg has approved my using squirrel for another of the letters, because this squirrel is not about us Eastern Gray Squirrels!
First, our wildlife garden statue, for those of you new to us, my–this is Hickory, if you didn’t know–regular Monday column features a human ornament chosen to liven up a garden when real wildlife isn’t around.

In keeping with today’s letter and topic, I’d like to present the Delmarva Peninsula Fox Squirrel!

They kind of look alike, don’t they?
You may think squirrels are common, as common as acorns. Indeed, some are. Others are not, just like trees are becoming a little scarce. We gray squirrels learned to adapt to human habitat. Some squirrels, like the Delmarva Peninsula Fox Squirrel, did not. They thrived in the mature stands of oak, hickory and pines that grew in the coastal peninsula of land between the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. Three states now cover this peninsula—Delaware, Maryland and Virginia—so that’s how this specific squirrel was named.
It took a bit of detective work on my part to hunt down a Delmarva Peninsula Fox Squirrel—they are endangered, you know. But once I did, Lob agreed to write for us about his life out on the eastern shore of Virginia in Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. Look for his posts with us in early May!