Rock Squirrels

During my walk on Friday, September 2, along the Leon Creek Greenway north of O. P. Schnabel Park, the same one where I photographed the olive-sided flycatcher, I was walking below a fairly high cliff that is on the west side of the creek bed. The arrangement of three trees partway up the side of the cliff caught my eye and I took a photo using the 70 mm setting on the telephoto lens:

After seeing the photo on the LCD screen, I decided I wanted a wider angle view to include more of the rock face than the 70 mm setting allowed, so I changed to the wide angle zoom lens:

There was a very subtle change in the subject while I was looking at the camera changing the lens. I didn't notice this small change at first. I took a couple more photos using different focal lengths on the wide angle zoom lens. At some point I did notice what appeared to be a short, dark stump on the right side of the base of the tree to the left of center. I assumed it was inanimate because it didn't move at all while I was taking the photos.

All of a sudden it did move and I quickly switched back to the telephoto zoom:

It was an animal after all. I followed it for sometime taking a series of photos:

Eventually, it headed to the cliff and scampered up the rock face with great ease where it was joined by another:

And finally, it ducked out of sight:

It certainly looked like a squirrel, but it was huge, about the size of a small house cat. It was considerably bigger than the more common fox squirrel.

These are rock squirrels. The adult is about eighteen inches long from nose to the tip of the tail. They primarily live in rocky areas and are quite adept rock climbers. In Bexar County they are found in the northwest section where the Hill Country environment provides an ideal habitat.