Yesterday I was lucky enough to witness one of the widely reported local albino and white squirrels! You wouldn’t believe how excited I was!!!
I have been fascinated by them since I saw a photo of them on a local Dorking Facebook page but had never been luck enough to 1) see the little chap/chaps/chapess/chapesses (there are rumoured to be more than one) 2) Have had a camera in my hand at the time! I have only ever managed to see a quick flash of white as I strolled through the graveyard, scouring the landscape hopefully with my eyes!
The locals spoke about an albino who frequented (or lived in) St Martin’s Church graveyard often. He was much loved in the community until and even given a name - Albi! However, one sad day Albi got run over by a car on Mill Lane!!! How sad :-( ….there was an article published on Surrey Live in March 2020 that you can read here and tells you more about this lovely creature and how much the local community loved him, which warmed my heart! For this reason and reading about the various stories of Albi it made me even more happy to know there are a few around the local area! Especially during this awful lockdown, these little things bring people so much joy….as they say, sometimes it is the small things!
I was also made aware of a researcher called Claire who in 2018 saw her first white squirrel in East Sussex and developed a keen interest in these beautiful creatures and set out to understand more about them. Claire’s website is here (White Squirrels of Sussex and the UK) if you would like to learn more about her research and to report any sightings!