An Introduction

Hello! My name is Elizabeth and I recently stumbled upon an internship with Project Squirrel. Yes, Project Squirrel is a real program and yes, I may be a glorified citizen scientist (only time will tell). I get to travel around the Chicagoland area (mostly Western Suburbs) taking note of grey and fox squirrel populations.

Now, you may be wondering "How can I support this worthy and noble endeavor?" Do I have news for you. You can become a Citizen Scientist! Just visit projectsquirrel.org and fill out a survey! The website explains how to tell the difference between squirrel types. Not in the Chicagoland area? Not a problem! Project Squirrel needs data from all over the United States! It's actually a lot of fun, similar to how bird watching is kind of addictive.

Since this is actually my job, I get to make my observations in the morning from sunrise to 8 am. It's been a fun transition. The nice thing about this is that nearly everywhere is safe at 6 in the morning, so I get to go into neighborhoods that I would normally try to avoid.

I've found a few neighborhood treasures, like fantastic parks and motels with half-hourly rates that I will report on. It will be fantastic.

Nature Fact (but the fake kind of Nature that you find in suburbs): Adolescent robins will let you get within a foot of them because they haven't quite figured out how to fly yet. Don't actually get that close because their mothers get pissed.