Squirrel Surprise!

Took a walk this morning in drizzle and rain from remnants of Tropical Storm Fay headed our way. Colors look so rich when it's cloudy, and everything looks good with raindrops on it, even the spent heads of an agapanthus.


Birds were out; ducks, geese, another couple of anhingas (also called water turkeys -- their tails look turkey-like, a little when they spread them to dry), egrets, herons, etc. No good bird photos today because I took the little water proof camera that doesn't have much zooming ability. Look hard at this photo and see anhinga (black on left), egrets, and perhaps a black crowned night heron in the middle?
Rainy days are great days to look at lichen too. These were on branches that had fallen out of the trees. Healthy lichen is said to be an indicator of good air quality, and there is plenty of it around here.

But what surprised me most on this walk was a squirrel eating rose hips. I didn't know that squirrels ate rose hips. But it was eating multiple rose hips, and maybe pulling the seeds from the inside or eating the hip too. I walked up and took pictures of a chewed one -- the squirrel didn't seem to care that it was green. I wonder if it gets vitamin C from the rose hips. More on this another time, but the squirrels our yard are stripping all of the green pine cones and pulling out the seeds. We picked up hundreds of "pine cobs" prior to mowing the lawn yesterday. Who knew that a pine tree even made that many cones?