Here are some photos of a squirrel nest (called a drey) that I was lucky enough to get when having a tree cut down in my yard. I knew there were no babies in this nest as 2 had fallen out over the weekend and I knew the mom moved them all to a new nest. Since this was the second group that had fallen out of this tree, I decided it was time for this tree to go so they would not build in it anymore. Plus, the next hurricane that comes through here, I don't have to worry about the trees coming down on our house.

The tree removal company, L & J Tree Service, Inc. out of Youngsville, NC was nice enough to get the nest out first thing in one piece for me. He said they always remove the nests first and if it has babies in it they sit the nest down somewhere and the mom's will come and get the babies and move them. I wish all tree services would do this.

The nest measured 22 inches long, 14 inches wide and 9 inches high and is oblong in shape. The weight of the nest was approximately 3 pounds. It was composed mostly of pine straw, dog hair, some grasses and lots of pine tree limbs and sticks. At least I know that when I dump my Rainbow vacuum cleaner they are making use of the dog hair. The baby chamber seemed to be made up mostly of the dog hair and some pine straw and was very warm and soft. There was another section to the nest that looked like the mom had a place she could get out and get away from the babies also. The baby chamber was fixed so that it had a top that could be closed over them to keep them warm. I opened it up so that you could see inside of that section. There was also an exit/entrance hole at the bottom of the nest, but I could not get a photo of this.

Please note that the composition of the squirrel nest in your yard may be different. This is just what this particular one was made of. They seem to take advantage of whatever is available in the area to make their nests out of.

This is a photo of the inside of the baby chamber. You can see it is mostly composed of dog hair, pine straw and some grasses. There were some shredded up tree limbs in there also.

This picture is a side view of the nest. You can see the pine limbs from the side and all the pine straw. Yes that is a clump of dog hair protruding from the front.

This is a top view of the nest. You can see on this one that the baby chamber is closed. It is in the bottom part of the picture where you can see the dog hair.

This is a top view. You can see that I have opened up the baby chamber so that you can see inside. It is mostly made up of dog hair and a little bit of grass.

Here is a picture of the nest that this squirrel moved her babies to in the neighbors yard. Anytime you see a large clump of leaves and other materials in a tree like this, you will know that it is a squirrels nest. You cannot tell from looking at it if it is occupied or not. When they leave, they do not destroy the nest and another squirrel will come along and refurbish it if they want to reuse it.

- Advertisement -