Crown Vetch

I took Tom for his labs this morning and his platelets had only dropped a tiny bit, so they're not transfusing him today. On the way home we stopped at the Prairie restoration area alongside Grant Park Beach so I could see what flowers were available to photograph. I was dismayed to see multiple paths trampled through the area, even more upsetting because there's a sidewalk that goes through the middle of it so no reason to be trampling all the plants down. Some people just have no common sense what-so-ever. At any rate, the monarda was in bloom and attracting lots of bees, there were some black-eyed Susan's, a tiny patch of Prairie Fleabane, Common Milkweed and a few tiny patches of some pink flower I didn't recognize. I don't know if it's been our lack of rain, our hot temps, or the people trampling them, but there are not a lot of flowers in bloom. I went with this photo of the Crown Vetch because it was still in the shade and covered with dew. We came home and I cut and trimmed the front and back lawn after cleaning up all the debris the squirrels are leaving everyday. We have 5 young squirrels that are always together, playing and getting into mischief......like a squirrel gang! They go in our large Maple tree in the back yard and they start gnawing off  small clusters of leaves held together on a little tiny branch & of course they all fall on the ground. I was standing out there yesterday, watching them do it, and one cluster of leaves fell on my shoulder--I swear they were laughing! I got the hose and shot the water up into the tree and they left......for the time being.  This morning when I went outside I picked up over a dozen of those leaf clusters off the grass. Does anyone have any idea why they're doing that? If so, I'd love to hear it. Tom thought it was for making nests, but if that were true they'd take them and use them, not just leave them lay.  Big thanks to Anni/BikerBear for hosting FlowerFridays & to Miranda for hosting WildFlowerWeek. Hope you all have a great weekend. :)