What is it Wednesday archive: fall 2017

Can you identify what's in this photo?

Each Wednesday morning 

on Camp Lutherlyn's Facebook page

 the Lutherlyn Environmental Education Program posts a photo. 

Readers have all morning and afternoon 

to make their best guess about what the photo is. 

Around 6 pm LEEP provides the answer and a brief explanation.

Each week's What is it Wednesday post 

will also be posted on the Nature of Lutherlyn blog, 

 after it is posted on Facebook,

sometimes with additional bonus information. 

In addition to bringing you current editions of What is it Wednesday 

on the Nature of Lutherlyn blog, 

we will be reposting old editions,

creating a What is it Wednesday archive. 

This photo was posted as a What is it Wednesday 

sometime in the fall of 2017. 

And the answer is....

This is what is left of a spruce cone after a red squirrel has been eating it. 

We often find these littering the paths through patches of evergreen forest at Lutherlyn. 

Gray squirrels predominantly hang out in deciduous forest, while red squirrels prefer evergreen forests, which are also known as coniferous forests because they produce cones. 

The seeds in the cones are hidden at the base of its “scales” so a squirrel has to peel off the scales to get to the food they want, leaving behind a litter of scales and  something that looks a lot like a tiny corn cob!