We have for a number of years had a colony of fox squirrels (Sciurus niger) living in this pine tree.
Fox squirrels range in size from 17.5 to 27.5 inches (45 to 70 cm) -- nearly half of that tail -- and weigh 1 to 2 lbs. (500 to 1,000 g), although apparently here in the western United States they are on the smaller end of the scale. Females can live up to 12 years, and males 8. Their nests, called dreys, are either platforms of sticks up in the tree branches in summer, or dens hollowed out from tree trunks in the winter.
I don't see them in the camphor trees much, despite the generous number of berries there at times, so it seems that they prefer the pines in the neighborhood, and possibly the magnolias. The ground under this tree is littered at the moment with eaten cones and the hard scales that the squirrels have torn off to get at the seeds.
They are very playful, and sometimes three or four can be seen chasing each other up and down the trunk of the tree. They also dash easily from tree to tree around the neighborhood, and use the phone and electricity wires as a kind of squirrely highway.
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