Cool! You must be talking about me!
It was around this time a decade ago that I combined the sciurine theme of The Nest with my love of taking pictures and launched what has become my most enduring feature, my Saturday Squirrel posts. For ten years and over 520 posts, I’ve shown off the best, the worst and the weirdest products of what’s become one of my favorite hobbies…. squirrel photography!
This is my best side!
It’s a hobby that can be just as frustrating as it is rewarding. For every shot I get that should be a contender for some kind of squirrel Pulitzer Prize, there’s another ten great opportunities I miss either due to bad timing or bad focus. And while I enjoy showing off the prizes of my ten year collection, there’s an interesting element to my Saturday Squirrel mission that sometimes gets overlooked in all of the oohing and aahing…. the squirrels themselves!
Yeah! I’m not just another pretty face, you know!
So in honor of Saturday Squirrel’s 10th anniversary this Fall, I’ve prepared a countdown of my favorite squirrels I’ve had the honor of photographing for their adoring public. A Top 50, no less! I even made this nifty little title card for the series…
Yes, I decked out my “trophy squirrel” photo for the occasion! I made a list of my fifty favorite squirrels (or, in some cases, multiple squirrels) who were the most memorable and left the greatest impression on me in these past ten years. Squirrels were chosen and ranked for this list based on their overall “body of work,” not just for a single remarkable photograph…. although there will be a handful of squirrels in this countdown who only contributed one great photo to my archive. Either way, this won’t just be an update of my Top 200 Photos countdown I did in 2018… this is all about the little guys themselves!
YAY! You just gave me a tail boner!
This countdown will begin next Tuesday with Squirrel #50, and continue each week until my absolute favorite squirrel of the past ten years is revealed on September 5, 2023! Yes, you’ll have to wait around that long to see the whole list, but I’ll try to make the ride there as enjoyable (and adorable) as possible.
Oh, and don’t worry…. there are no spoilers in this post. None of these squirrels will appear in the countdown.
You two can stop fighting, you’ve both been disqualified.
Join me next Tuesday as we begin this Squirrel Hall of Fame adventure!
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
why both are disqualified? one should be always the winner…
One gets sent to the hospital, and the other to time out…
Love the pretty face guy leaning on the tree. Very nonchalant…
Yes, and he was a late cut from the countdown. But love that face when he noticed I was photographing him…
Oh boy! You’ve given me a reason to live until at least September 5, 2023…..! I’ve always loved these imminently photographable critters and with that collection of yours, this should be a fun “ride” into 2023.
Pam
Yes, and me too! I mean, you never know with all those runaway buses and man-eating otters out there if I’ll make it another year. Next summer will be full of legendary squirrels!
Yay! I never get tired of seeing photos of squirrels. Even my yearly calendar hanging by my desk right here features these cute critters. 🙂
YAY! I wish we had squirrel calendars at Mecca, but we don’t so I settle for wolves. Unfortunately, we don’t have many of them prowling around here for me to photograph!
Sorry you don’t have squirrel calendars. I think we got this one at one of those dollar stores. Wolves are beautiful, but it would be weird to have them prowling around the parks all the time like the squirrels do. 🙂
Congratulations! Looking forward to the rollout.
It should be entertaining, especially for those who missed many of these squirrels the first time around.
Oh boy, a Hall of Fame of our ‘favorite’ hoodlums. Can’t wait. 🐿
Perhaps Elsa and Norman wouldn’t mind if we built the hoodlum shrine on their walking route. I’m sure they’d enjoy visiting!
Boy would they ever! My shoulders, not as much.
I’ve got some great little red squirrel picture still in my camera. I’m collecting them. I think I get one good one for ever three mediocre or really bad ones, so you are in great company. If only they would just HOLD STILL for me!
No squirrel is going to hold still for anyone unless it’s asleep or dead. And they are nearly impossible to anticipate…. but they get me some really nice blurry photos of trees that almost look like abstract art.
I have some twirly pictures that look like swirling fur in the ether. Actually, though, a lot of our squirrels eat until they are bursting and fall asleep on the railing and occasionally IN the feeder — which I think is kind of rude. The least they can do for the fat doves is get out of the way so THEY can eat until ready for the next hawk to eat them for lunch.
I have a lot of pictures of sleeping squirrels. They just keep eating until they are comatose and then pass out. The little ones eat as much as the much bigger ones. They apparently don’t care about the recession.
Trophy squirrel is looking very dapper. So the guys in this post are the also-rans…
Yes, but we gave them some nice parting gifts for playing along…