Shade tail, indeed!

Squirrel comes from the Latin scuridae which means shade-tail which this squirrel demonstrates. The other squirrels were not inclined to pose this way. It was very cold out but sunny so it wasn't because of rain or drizzle which is when they often do this.

In Canada, The Nature of Things had a fabulous documentary this week called "Nuts about Squirrels" - which can only be seen in Canada (but will probably pop up on YouTube). However, they do talk about Project Squirrel which is centered in Chicago, USA but is interested in squirrel counts and observations by citizen scientists from pretty much anywhere. It's akin to bird counts, butterfly counts, etc.