Out on a Twig

The fierce weather here on the east coast kept me in Washington DC at Mary's place an extra day. Not hard to take at all. The impossibly tall, narrow trees that surround this sun-lit apartment are filled with squirrel nests made from, it looks like, loosely put together leaves. They build them way out at the end of these small twigs. Amazingly they survived the storm and wind gusts. They are little engineering marvels.

Back in the 1930s when it looked like the local grey squirrels were going to vanish due to a disease that was killing many of them, the zoo released 8 pairs of black squirrels into the city. Although smaller and a bit delicate looking, it turned out they were extremely territorial and a squirrel war commenced. (It turned out there were plenty of grey squirrels left.)

The black and grey squirrels have their own city blocks. Where I am visiting is a black squirrel block and those are the ones whose nests are still perched on the end of the twigs.

The storm has passed and I am heading south.