Red Squirrels at Formby Point

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Red Squirrel	Red Squirrel
Red Squirrel	Red Squirrel
Red Squirrel	Red Squirrel
Red Squirrel	Red Squirrel
Red Squirrel	Red Squirrel

Formby Point on Merseyside is one of the last remaining strongholds of the Red Squirrel in the UK. It's owned by the National Trust and non-members pay a small fee for parking. You'll probably want a bag of squirrel food which is available here. There are around 1000 Red Squirrels the majority thought to descend from some squirrels that were brought over from Eastern Europe during the 1940's, this means that they are somewhat darker than usual for the UK. They inhabit an area of pine woodland originally planted by local farmers to stabilise the sand dunes.

It's a great place to take the kids, we've been a few times and they really love it. The children are generally very well behaved and quiet here (makes a change) because they are fascinated by the squirrels and know that being quiet is the best chance to see them. Unusually, with a bit of caution the squirrels here are quite approachable, they are used to people being a source of food and rustling a bag will often bring them to have a look, sit patiently and they will take food from your hand. Best to do this away from the main entrance where it's a bit quieter otherwise they're likely to be disturbed by other people with children and dogs.

Contrary to popular belief squirrels don't hibernate and so you can see them at Formby throughout the year, they seem especially active during January and February maybe they're keener on the extra food supply at the end of the winter. To get good photographs you really need to be there on a bright day as the light can be somewhat limited under the trees, the squirrels don't stop still for long so blurred shots are pretty likely, I don't used flash for fear of sending them running. As they will come quite close a medium telephoto lens will give you plenty of opportunities for good shots, some of mine were taken with a 70-200mm.

The abundance of nuts and seeds that are scattered about by the visitors ensures that a sizeable population of birds is maintained here as well as the squirrels so this provides another great subject for photography. Once the lure of photographing the wildlife here has faded (or your batteries have run out) there's a great sandy beach just over the dunes that's also well worth a visit.