Orange Zest, Manomet, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA

So, how does this squirrel high up a tree come to have the remains of a zested orange in his possession you ask?

Long story short - A few months back, a raccoon managed to chew his way into our compost barrel. At first, I was indignant that we (well, technically the compost barrel, not us personally), had been violated in this way. On second thought, all wild critters are hungry, winter is upon us, survival is a strong drive; I'll just leave the chewed hole as it is and see what happens. After all, it's just fruit and vegetable matter that decomposes without any objectionable odor; if these hungry living creatures want to eat it, why not? 

Well, turned out I left the hole open. The critters don't pull much out except to get to the new stuff on top so there hasn't been much mess to cause me to issue a cease and desist order and plug the hole.

Orange zest? Well, this particular orange was used by Amy to fix some New Year's Day-vegan-chocolate chip-oatmeal cookies - which included zesting an orange skin.  

So, apparently, the squirrel pulled this piece of orange from the compost bin, dragged it across the yard, carried it 25 feet or so up this tree, and then sat in front of my window and ate it. What a great little show!



He changed his sitting limb for this second image. I made both of them through double pane glass with the tree about 10-15 feet away. 

Note 1:  Orange Zest sounds like it should have been a band name during the 1970's.

Note 2: And yes, the cookies were delicious!