They're everywhere, they're everywhere...

Perhaps the cooler weather is playing a part, I don't know, but there seemed to be an unusual flurry of activity among the woodland critters in our back yard today.

(The squirrel post is doing double-duty with my photo blog today.)



Our resident back-yard rodents have been frolicking and chasing one another (and the birds) pretty much all day. At one point, one of the local stray cats slinked (slunk?) ... whatever... snuck over to see what was going on. Too late! The squirrel saw it and scurried up the post to safety while the cat waited and watched from under the Japanese maple below. No dummy he, the squirrel just outwaited it until the cat finally ran off to chase something else.

(click photo for enlargment)

Later on, I noticed some movement across the yard at the fence. At first glance, I thought it was a couple of dogs playing but as I continued to look, realized it was two deer. On closer examination, I discovered it was three deer -- a mommy with her two little ones, a he and a she!! How exciting!

You can't really tell so much from this photo (Lew's Pics has a darling series of better photos) but the little buck on the left has tiny little antler buds forming and the doe on the right still has her baby spots.

They munched on the vegetation along the fence for a while and then disappeared into the cornfield.

Still later, our resident hummingbird made one of its several daily visits. I've actually discovered we have at least two of the little hummers -- saw them both together a couple of weeks ago but wasn't quick enough to get a photo.

I've been snapping away since I discovered the little guys in July and have almost 200 (!) photos of them now that I really should do something with... maybe a mosaic. Some day.

So, anyway, it seems to be getting busier in our backyard -- I also saw a chipmunk earlier this week which, of course, disappeared before I could grab my camera -- and Mother Nature's little beasts are providing me with a great deal of photo ops and viewing pleasure. :)