Post your best Squirrel shots

[deltasun]

Here's one at Crested Butte...


Rebel XT, 24-105mm f/4L @ 105mm, f/4, 1/800s, ISO 100


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[Fast Glass]

I caught this guy in my neighbors backyard while it was raining.





Taken with; XTi, Minolta 600mm f/6.3 MD manual focus.





Bare 600mm.





With 2X extender.


Cheers,


John.

[Jayson]

I know I have another one somewhere...

[Jayson]

Oh and one more from this past August:


Columbian ground squirrel, Sunshine Meadows, Banff


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That is far too cool. Hopefully he didn't make a jump for you shortly after this shot!

[Colin500]

These are some really cool pictures, how do you manage to "shoot" a squirrel? Sit in the forest for hours ready to press the shutter? I

[DavidEccleston]

how do you manage to "shoot" a squirrel? Sit in the forest for hours ready to press the shutter? I've never come anywhere close enough to a squirrel for a photo

Perhaps they're just not as common, or tame in your area. City squirrels are much more likely to keep their distance, however I remember going to a park in Toronto where the squirrels would come up and take nuts from your hand. In the forest trails around Ottawa, you often find them only 3-6 feet away, and some will come within 1-2 feet with food being offered. All my shots are with 85mm or 24-105mm, so your 70-200mm should be long enough to get some good shots, even on a non-crop camera.


What I remember of my shots...


The chipmunk was fairly close, maybe 2-3 feet away. He eventually came to within inches of my shoes.
RedMunch was on a branch next a trail. I was 3-4 feet from him.
RedMunch2 was at the beginning of a boardwalk where we feed ducks, along a trail in the woods. The ducks, chickadees, nuthatches, and squirrels are all up for a free lunch here. These guys were probably around 3 feet away as well.
RedSurprised was less than 2 feet away. I don't think he expected to run into my wife, who tooks that shot.
RedFemale - I'm not sure of the distance. My wife shot that one too, and I wasn't there.
BlackPole - Several squirrels, chickadees, and chimpmunks visit this lookout point over on old sand quarry turned into a dog park. He was maybe 3-4 feet away.
BlackOaties - Three squirrels were hungry enough to come close for some of my daughter's cereal snack. One was brave enough to come within a foot or two from us. Again, my wife was the photographer on this one.
BlackWatchingTogether - Not particularly close. Squirrels on common city pathways are more skittish, likely due to kids chasing them, throwing things at them, etc. Still, they're not particularly terrified either. I think my wife took this one too.

[dsiegel5151]

Colin,


Squirrel days start one of two ways for me:


1. I

[Colin500]

Thanks David and dsiegel, I suppose I

[Jayson]

Colin,


My two squirrels were fairly close both times. The black one runs along our fence to get to the trees in neighbors yards. The trees are small since it is a fairly new development so they don't get far from sight. This was the first black squirrel I have seen. They only have the brown squirrels where I am originally from. The brown squirrel is from a park where they are curious, but stay far enough back. I was sitting in a car when I got that shot. As said before, you don't really go out to shoot squirrels, you usually are shooting something else and they just happen to get close.

[Jonathan Huyer]

Thanks Jayson. I actually got a prize for that photo, in the Sunshine Meadows photo contest. I was feeling mighty proud, until I found out that there were only 8 entries! (And two of them were mine). This guy was chirping quite excitedly, so all I had to do was aim and fire off a long burst. Sure enough, one of them got him in mid-chirp.