I didn't grow up with these little fellows, they are native Pacific North westerners. They are very talkative and too fast for my dog ever to notice them let alone chase them, he spots the slower grey variety.
I have spent a few afternoons chatting with them in what to me sounds like their voice but I am sure to them sounds a horrendous mockery.
They live from B.C down to Northern California and as the moniker Pine Squirrel suggests they live in forests of PIne.
This one was photographed in the loveliness of Hamlin Park.
The Douglas Squirrel aka Tamiasciurus douglasii
aka Pine Squirrel
aka Chickeree
Classification
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Sciuridae
Genus: Tamiasciurus
John Muir said of them;
"by far the most interesting and influential of the California sciuridæ"