There are dozens, maybe hundreds of other little tricks that can improve your squirrel stalking abilities, but space is limited here.

Dress properly -- This means wear camouflage. A good hunter can kill squirrels without it, but good camo helps immensely, regardless of your skill level. Green-based camo is okay early in the season, but brown or gray-based stuff is better when the sun starts to kill off vegatation. And as you get into fall hunting, the more appropriate becomes the brown or gray stuff. Remember, most of the squirrels will be above your level, and they're looking down at the forest floor. You need to blend into that, not into the treetops.

Use a Scope -- A few hairy-chested, he-man types of my acquaintance look down their noses at using a scope for hunting squirrels, but they're as silly as they are wrong. A scope will let you pick out squirrels that are hiding from you, squirrels you'd never find with a naked eye, and it will also let you thread a bullet through a small hole in the foliage to hit your target.

And while you're at it, make it a good scope. This is precision shooting, and the vital area of a squirrel is no bigger than two walnuts, and while you're shooting at it, that double-walnut sized target is apt to be moving, sometimes at considerable speed along a crooked limb. The last thing you need under those conditions is a cheap, dim, narrow-field optic with crosshairs as thick as pencil lead.

Hunt early and late -- Except on the coldest winter mornings, squirrels will be most active during the first two and last two hours of daylight. Early morning is also when dew or frost from the previous night moistens the foliage and makes the going a little quieter, so you can ease through the woods with as little noise as possible.

Hunt in the rain if you get a chance -- A driving rain puts squirrels under cover, but a drizzle or gentle rain seems to bring them out and make them more active than usual. They'll often feed all day long on those gray, drizzly days.

Move and stop, move and stop -- Don't bother to look for squirrels while you're in motion, because it's difficult to see movement in the branches when your angle of view is constantly changing. It's better to watch where you're putting your feet and slip along for a few steps, then pause a minute or two and eyeball the trees before moving another few yards and stopping to watch and listen again.

Use your ears -- Most good squirrel hunters will tell you they locate as many squirrels by sound as by sight. There are many auditory clues - the swish of a branch, a nut dropping, a squirrel barking, the sound if its nails on the bark of a tree, even the sound of its teeth scritch-scritch-scritch-ing as it chews on a pecan or acorn. Once you've located a squirrel by sound, you can concentrate on his vicinity until you pinpoint him.

If you have a choice, hunt into the sun -- This sounds like screwy advice, but it's a lot easier to spot the movement of a squirrel in a tree if he's silhouetted against the glare of the sun. The trick is to stop in the shade instead of the full sun, so that your eyes are shielded from the sun by a tree trunk or cluster of leaves.

Look closer early in the season -- When the leaves are thick, concentrate most of your attention on the trees that are within 40 to 50 yards of you. You can often hear an early-season squirrel farther than that, but you're not as likely to see them. As the season progresses and the leaves begin to fall, start looking farther out.

Look for movement or for squirrel parts, not whole squirrels -- Many rookies fail to see squirrels because that's what they're looking for: squirrels. Instead, look for the sudden, ponderous shake of a branch as a fox squirrel jumps on it, or the quicksilver trembling of a clump of leaves as a 12-ounce gray squirrel reaches for an acorn in its midst. If you've seen or heard a squirrel in a tree and he's stopped moving, stand quietly and watch for movement while at the same time scrutinizing every knot, fork and irregularity in the bark of every limb of the tree. A squirrel will often ease one eyeball around the side of a limb to keep tabs on you, and he can't do this without showing you his ear. If you know that to look for, you'll add a lot of bushytails to your annual harvest.

Use whatever is available to minimize the noise of your footsteps -- Use game trails or hiking trails, or even little-used ATV trails, as you hunt. The leaf cover will be less noisy there. Likewise, a lake or stream bank will usually afford quieter footing. You can even wade along the stream in some cases, or ease along the bottom of a dry ravine or draw where leaves aren't thick. Watch ahead and alter your route to avoid big-leaved trees such as sycamores and cottonwoods.

Keep to the low ground -- There are exceptions, but more often than not, most of the mast will be found along the creek drainages. Also, you'll be showing a lower profile, and that's another advantage.

Make noise, but with a pattern -- This is another strange-sounding tip, but it sometimes works when it's impossible to move quietly. What you want to do is imitate the sounds a squirrel or other wild animal makes when it's rux`mmaging around in dry leaves. Make a series of quick but erratic steps through the leaves, and then stop as usual to scan the woods for movement before repeating the process.

Don't pick up your kills too quickly -- When you drop a squirrel, don't rush to pick it up unless you think it might be crippled and capable of escaping. Instead, pause for a minute to search the nearby trees. Quite often, there will be another squirrel or two within range that you haven't seen, and the commotion of the kill will sometimes bring it out for a look-see.

There are dozens, maybe hundreds of other little tricks that can improve your squirrel stalking abilities, but space is limited here. Anyway, part of the fun of doing something well is figuring it out for yourself. I know that for a fact, because after more than 40 years in the squirrel woods, I'm still learning.