Peanut stealer

Although quite an attractive animal, and very photogenic, these can’t refrain from eating not only the peanuts, but also the feeders. It’s very tempting to take an air pistol down and create “Roadkill” to attract the foxes (tempting, but not acted on). On one occasion there were thirteen squirrels in a thirty foot diameter clearing, and they bully most of the birds off the food.

This was taken during the brief period of snow that crippled the South East of the country last spring.

All C&C welcome.

Nikon D300 with Nikon 200-400/F4. 1/2500 sec @ F4, ISO 200, EV 0. FF.

Lovely pose caught, but I would crop out the OOF foreground as it pull's my eye away from the subject,catchlight makes him come alive

These little beasties are a nuisance but are very easy on the eye.
I agree that the blue out of focus foreground is distracting and I think the image would be better without it

The snow makes the difference on this one Mike. I like the blue foreground as it immediately says cold snow to me and also gives the image some depth. Cropping it out would leave you with a funny stumpy looking squirrel. My only nit is it looks a tad soft on the face area though that could be a combination of compression and my works monitor.
Robert

I don't mind the blue as you have some perfectly good whites to counter it. Like Robert, I just think it conveys very cold snow. Great image.

David

He looks surprised to see all that white stuff! I'd be tempted to place him a little more to the right. Is it my eyes, or do the nose and ears appear to be sharper than the eye? Maybe a DOF issue.

Like this loads, it has a real sense of appeal to it, despite not liking squirrels - could be won over by this one. I like it as it is. Gives a good feel of distance