Squirrels!

I haven't had enough time to sketch this summer, since we're building a tiny studio in the lot next door--but every morning I sit on the little deck with my coffee and watch the birds and squirrels and other wildlife before starting my workday.

This is a young volunteer mulberry, which attracts many visitors when it's in fruit.  Mostly, it's just a quick stop on the squirrels' superhighway, between the woods behind us and the neighbor's oak tree.

We have fox squirrels and grays here, normally not at the same time--and of course they have lots of names, in different parts of the country.  My husband calls our reds, Sciurus niger, a red squirrel, but it's a fox squirrel to me.  (This little guy with the big ear tufts is what Wikipedia calls a red squirrel.  He's Sciurus vulgaris.)

They can BOTH cause a lot of damage, as they have at our old cabin, chewing the red cedar trim...

I guess I won't keep a feeder too close to the new shed...don't want a repeat of this!  They've gnawed the screens right down to the nails that hold them together...