Occasionally a Substack note is truly informative. This morning one of the nature photographers showed a mass of leaves and sticks and described it as a squirrel drey.
First, I love learning an old-fashioned word with a highly specific meaning. This one isn’t contrived like the alleged terms for groups of animals. (eg a murder of crows.)
Second, I realized that I had been completely missing the point.
Where do squirrels stay in bad weather, or sleep, or have their families? I figured they burrowed into the ground like other rodents. In fact I’ve been seeing squirrel dreys ALL THE TIME without connecting them to squirrels! I ass-u-me-d they were bird nests, which really doesn’t make sense.
Here’s what I see every time I open the front door!
Polistra's Mill 