See What's Missing?!

Look carefully.

All of the pointy things, sticking up roughly from the ends of branches. No, not the needles, the longer brown things. Those are the remains of subalpine fir cones, still on the tree, after the squirrels have removed the scales and eaten their fill of the seeds. You can see some partial cones still in tact.

Just another sign of animal activity in the subalpine parkland at Mount Rainier.