When Tom Pendleton emailed HometownAnnapolis.com his stunning photograph of a blue heron, he also sent along some images he had taken of a white squirrel in his Queenstown backyard. We hope you enjoy Tom's descriptions and remarkable pictures of his unusual backyard friend, and are inspired to send along your stories and photos as well.

If you think herons are hard to photograph you should try one of these! Her name is Pearl. I discovered her last fall in my back yard in Queenstown. I had never seen a white squirrel in my life, and became obsessed with photographing her. Now I have hundreds of photos of her, but these are some of my best. They are also framed (16x20) and hanging on the wall at the new Town Offices in Queenstown. I donated them. (Click each photo for a larger view)

It turns out that Queenstown used to have a lot of white squirrels; they even used cutouts of squirrels painted white, numbered, and put on fences to identify houses on their historic tours.

These days, however, Pearl is the only white squirrel anyone has seen that I know of. We think she just had babies so everyone is hoping!

Over the winter I fed corn to all the squirrels because of the weather. Pearl has a hard time feeding because the other squirrels don't like her and will run her away from any food source. I have seen that behavior with white deer also; seems animals know that a white one stands out and is a danger.

I had to stand watch and run the gray squirrels off so that she could get some corn. She got so tame that she would come when I called her and sit on my front porch and eat corn. She disappeared in the spring for a while and then I found her nest way in the back where she stays. Pretty sure she has little ones there. It would be something to get photos of that!

By the way she is not an albino. They have red or pink eyes, and she has blue eyes! I have the photos to prove it! I have done some research and there are colonies of ones like her in a few places, but most of those are albinos.

As I mentioned I am obsessed with photographing her. Even though I have hundreds of shots I am always looking for new ones. It is not easy getting good shots in the light she is usually in. And flash is not an option with squirrels because their eyes light up like neon signs. So you have to take what you can get.

These are some of my favorite photos, taken when I first found her and had to follow her around the woods to get shots. She was very spooky then, but after a while she seemed to trust me as shown by the one with her back to me.

I can't resist sending you this sequence of her going to sleep also. I had been taking photos of her at the feeder when all of a sudden she went up the tree to this large fork and proceeded to fall asleep!

If the question ever comes up "how do you know it's the same squirrel?," that's easy: she has a notch missing on the top of her right ear and in the close ups you can see it.

Another thing you will notice is in some of the photos her coat is darker in places, and in others it is pure white. The reason is twofold: one is because late in the day the temp of the light is warmer causing more yellowish photos. The other is that my neighborhood has huge Black Walnut trees. In the fall, that's all the squirrels eat, and it stains their coats a brownish color. In the latest photos, Pearl is very white because she shed her winter coat.

Hope you enjoy the photos. - Tom Pendleton

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