A few weeks ago, Layanee posted about how the birds relish the fruits from her 'Prairiefire' Crabapple. I also have a 'Prairiefire,' but the birds never get the chance to sample the fruits. The squirrels have staked out the crabapple as their territory. Over a week ago, the gray squirrel my children named Crabapple harvested all of the easy to reach crabapples from the tree. To get to the remaining fruits, Beggar had to engaged in some squirrel acrobatics.
I find this rather entertaining. What is not so amusing is that when the only remaining fruit is on the tips of the branches where that fat squirrel can't reach, it clips off the branches to get at the fruit. Then I have to prune those clipped branches to remove any stub ends. Too bad squirrels don't care about proper pruning practices.