Cottontail rabbits are pretty scarce around the garden at the moment, unlike the winter of 2006-2007 when they were everywhere. However, I saw signs of at least one, with scat and chewed sumac stems.

Even these little guys were moving fairly slowly in this cold weather.

This handsome squirrel was too busy eating his walnut to be concerned with me taking photographs. There were many grey (and black phase) as well as red squirrels around. squirrels are always more visible in winter, mostly because they are not yet preoccupied with breeding, and because food finding is day-long occupation, except in really inclement weather when they wisely stay inside their nest site, be it drey or den (cavity).

Although this was taken in the Arboretum, it was just down the way from FWG so almost in our backyard. This squirrel had the tree to himself and was making the most of it.

Of course, it is not the pulp that the squirrels eat, you can see that flying away in all directions when they eat, it is the seeds.

You can see the small opening for this nest in the middle of the photo. The nest was made of some leaves, small twigs, some dried vegetation, but mostly fine strips of bark peeled off of conifers. Reds, like Grey squirrels, prefer cavities in trees, (though they'll also use nest boxes as a cavity substitute), and often use both in the winter, going from one to another for shelter. It sometimes seems that these nests are considered secondary shelters, but in some cases are probably primary ones.