Eastern Gray Squirrel

Sciurus carolinensis

Pencil drawing of a gray squirrel holding a nut

If any animal defines the daily rhythm of a Montclair backyard, it’s the Eastern gray squirrel.

An Eastern gray squirrel on a stone ledge with its tail curled up behind it — The bushy tail works as balance, blanket, and signalling flag.

Constantly in motion, endlessly digging, and impossible to keep out of a bird feeder — squirrels are so familiar that it’s easy to overlook how much is going on in their busy lives.

What they look like

Eastern gray squirrels typically weigh about a pound, with grey fur (sometimes with reddish tints), a white belly, and their signature large, bushy tail — used for balance, as a blanket in cold weather, and as a signalling flag to other squirrels.

Black squirrels are also common in parts of New Jersey. These are melanistic gray squirrels, simply a colour variation of the same species rather than a different one.

Family life

Female squirrels typically raise two litters a year, one in late winter with kits born January to February, and one in summer, June to July, with two to four young per litter. Kits are born blind and hairless in a nest — either a leaf nest, called a drey, built high in a tree fork, or a tree cavity, which offers better protection from weather and predators.

Mothers raise young alone, nursing for about ten weeks before the young begin venturing out of the nest. If a nest is disturbed, a mother will often relocate her kits one at a time to a backup nest — most squirrels maintain more than one.

Daily habits

Squirrels are active during the day, with peak activity in the early morning and late afternoon. They’re scatter-hoarders: rather than storing all their food in one place, they bury thousands of individual nuts and seeds across their territory each autumn, relying on smell and spatial memory to relocate a good portion of them later.

The ones they forget often grow into new trees — making squirrels one of the animal world’s more effective, if inadvertent, foresters.

Squirrels don’t hibernate. They stay active through winter, relying on cached food and the insulation of a well-built den.

Territory and range

A gray squirrel’s home range is fairly small and dense with resources — often under an acre in a mature, tree-heavy neighbourhood. Squirrels are highly territorial around their nest sites but will share overlapping foraging areas, and the chattering, tail-flicking displays you may see between two squirrels are typically territorial communication rather than actual fighting.

Living alongside squirrels

Squirrels are rarely a real threat to people or property, and most conflicts have simple fixes.

Protect vulnerable wiring and structures. Squirrels gnaw to keep their continuously growing teeth in check; capping chimneys and sealing attic gaps prevents them from moving indoors.
Adjust bird feeders rather than fighting squirrels for control of them. Baffles, pole-mounted feeders set back from jumping points, and squirrel-resistant designs work better than removal attempts. Wild Birds Unlimited in Scotch Plains has a guide to baffles and feeder placement, and stocks weight-sensitive squirrel-proof feeders.
Leave autumn digging alone. Small holes in a lawn are usually just cache sites, not damage — they fill in on their own.
Never handle a squirrel nest. If kits are present in an unwanted location, wait; the mother will relocate them on her own, without any intervention needed.

A yard full of squirrels is, more than anything, a sign of a healthy tree canopy — and a small daily reminder of how much wild activity fits into an ordinary residential block.

Quick facts

Accidental foresters: Thousands of buried nuts each autumn; the forgotten ones become trees.
Two litters a year: Late winter and again in summer, two to four kits each time.
Black is not a different species: Melanistic gray squirrels are the same animal in a different coat.
Always awake: No hibernation — they live off caches and a well-insulated den.