Not good...

A couple of weeks or so ago I went to a place I love - Formby NT- to watch & photograph the redsquirrels - which I also love. I root for them to survive against the greys.

I took this photo on that day & processed it this weekend. I thought that the eye being closed was a lucky result of having a camera that takes 10 frames a second.

' What an expression,' I thought & shared it on Flickr. It was picked up & shared by BBC Springwatch.

A lady who works with red squirrels in Scotland saw it. She thought it looked unwell. She enlarged the photo & confirmed it. Today I've been emailing other photos to her & Formby NT + details of the date taken & where. The Scotland lady phoned me this lunchtime & we had a very informative, and worrying, conversation. No news yet re this squirrel but most of the 6 million grey squirrels in the UK now carry the pox virus that devastates the populations of reds. In comparison there are around 100,000 reds.

One grey that feeds at the same station as a red is enough to pass on the pox virus.

If you see a grey in a red area then please, please report it.