Danger, Squirrel Robinson!
Squirrels and our power supply infrastructure have been an unintended combination that 
has gone together with results that have been annoying for humans and deadly for squirrels. With the land nowhere near as forest-covered as it once was, squirrels have used this new outgrowth of human civilization as their own personal transport network and playground.
I know this all too well as the utility pole in my backyard has fried a handful of my buddies over the last decade-plus, each time also leaving me in the dark for several hours. So anytime I’m taking pictures of squirrels in my backyard, and I spy one climbing up past the cable TV wires (where they usually run, since it’s the “low road”) to where the real dangerous stuff is, I have to hold my breath that they don’t trip the wire connecting the big, gray transformer to the power lines…
The view is quite lovely up here!
HEY YOU!!! GET DOWN FROM THERE BEFORE YOU FRY YOURSELF!!!
I know you’re not talking to me, loser!
Yes I am! And I don’t want another burnt squirrel carcass in my yard, nor do I want to be left unable to post my squirrel photos on the internet due to a power outage…
Whatever! I’m gone, but you can KISS THIS!
Oh, those naughty, naive Saturday Squirrels! They’re going to be the death of me yet…
Have a great weekend everyone!
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
Squirrels and power lines are never a good mix. They make such a great squirrelly superhighway though….
They do fine when they stay on the information superhighway lines… though they may get fried by a rogue Tweet…
Well, fried squirrel – you know, some people eat that
I live close enough to huntin’ country to know that unfortunate fact….
They don’t seem to take kindly to being ordered off the power lines – “let the squirrels fall where they may” then. No power lines around here but plenty of hawks and I suspect THAT is a much slower farewell than a zap from the power lines.
Pam
Plus, I’d guess the hawk takes them for a farewell flight before THE END….
The darned electric lines are such good highways for these guys. I hate to see them fried but also hate to lose power. Where we live now our lines are underground so we have fat (we feed them) and happy squirrels.
They need a little treadmill to exercise on!
A very tempting squirrel highway but the cost is high. A lot of our lines are underground, so no fried squirrels around, but then there are the owls and coyotes who always want them to join for dinner!
Well, the coyotes can’t even catch a road runner, so I think the squirrels should be safe!
I’ve posted a squirrel photo today. 🙂
Humans have been fried for less.
So have chickens…
Yikes. At least that little guy escaped unfried.
I hope he hasn’t inspired other squirrels to act as foolishly as he did…
We’ve never had a power outage due to squirrelling around but I do hate it when I see one on the ground, obviously shocked to death–I wish there was some way to warn them, like those Louie the Lightning Bug commercials when we were kids, telling us to stay away from powerlines!
Poor Louie…. if only he knew that we liked to catch his kind and put them in jars back when I was a kid. With holes poked in the lid, of course….
Well. That cheeky little guy sure told you what he thought of your warning! Since your post wasn’t late, I’m assuming he made it across the electric super highway safely this time.
It would have been a LONG outage since those pics are from January! I’ve finally been cooling off the camera a bit the last few weeks so I can show some of my faves from earlier in the year that got skipped over!