A mouthful

I believe this is an eastern fox squirrel but I'm not 100% positive. I usually like to shoot larger wildlife of the type found in Yellowstone or other national parks but they are noticably absent where I live in Dallas, Texas, so lately I have become very serious about photographing birds of which there are plenty around here in some of the more wildernessy urban parks. About the only mammals I see when I'm out shooting birds are squirrels and rabbits which I mostly ignore but I thought the pose, the mouthful of acorn and especially the nice rim lighting made this shot well worthwhile. This little guy was nice enough to pose for about a half a dozen shots before he went about his business. The OOF circles of the specular highlights in the BG don't really bother me too much but I would prefer the BG to be all evenly dark. I don't know what the little white spots under the squirrel are but I think they maybe water droplets. If you look at a blown up version of the shot it looks like a few water drops are clinging to his fur or maybe he is relieving him/herself! I am pretty happy with the shot.

D300s with 200-400/4 @ 400mm
ISO 400
1/250 @ f4 manual exp.

Robert Bunch
Dallas, Texas ---------GO RANGERS!