Those Rascally Squirrels

Last week, I was taking photos in the garden, when a squirrel ran along the fence, climbed the neighbour's house, and hung sideways, screaming, with some large object in its mouth. So I snapped a quick photo, and then continued with my garden photos without any further regard to him.

Then a couple of days ago, I saw a squirrel (seems to always be that same dark character) hanging from my espalier apple tree, stripping off an apple. That little bandit! Suddenly it all came together... I had wondered how I had counted 5 little round apples forming in the tree at the far end of my yard, and yet last week I was walking through, and found not a single one, and no sign of any having prematurely dropped to the ground.

I'm thinking those little bandits probably got our early pears, too. There were maybe 6 tiny pears, but they disappeared also without a trace.

So thinking of this squirrel screaming the other day, I decided to crop & get a better look at what was in his mouth, and sure enough, that looks like an apple to me.... What do you think? (Click the photo for a larger image.)

If I had known, it should have been me screaming at him, not that rascally character screaming at me!