This is how is usually goes down...

Danny thinks he is bigger than Jake.

Danny realizes that he is not bigger than Jake.

Mommy wins.

Not for the Squeamish

Hawks are one thing that I have a hard time getting a picture of. They are pretty standoffish as a rule. On my way home from the conquering the fawns, I saw this guy on a post.



There were a herd of magpies on the ground around him just waiting for a chance to steal his dinner away. I've got a hunch that's why he chose to stay on the post and give me the evil eye instead of flying away like countless of his hawk friends. What was for dinner, you ask?



Mmmmmm. Gopher.

Mission Accomplished.

It was beautiful here tonight, so I decided to head out again in search of the elusive baby deer. I am nothing if not persistent. I bundled up despite the heat, bathed in mosquito spray, and headed out.

Maybe two minutes into the walk, I see these guys. I say guys because there was two of them, but you can only see one in this shot.



He didn't look nearly as happy to see me as I was to see him. He was giving me some pretty dirty looks, or what I can only assume were dirty looks. He was getting a little too close for comfort. The video where that hunter is getting his ass kicked (ahh, here's the one) by a deer kept running through my head. That is one scenario I wouldn't want to explain.

Then I scared a mallard off the shore.



I always feel bad when I scare an animal trying to get a picture. I try not to intrude that much, but in this case she surprised me as much as I surprised her.

Then I saw a little chickadee.



It is amazing how friendly these little birds are. They almost pose for the camera. And they will even sit on your hand. It helps if you have a little something in it for them, but I know that you really aren't supposed to feed them. I have trouble remembering that when they are looking at me with their cute little beady birdy eyes.


And no doe, no fawns. Hmmmm. I decide to make one more loop around, as I am losing daylight. And lo and behold, who do I see?



Now this doesn't look like the itchy doe. She is a lot more cautious. I am still a little bit of a chicken after the buck incident, but she is a lot smaller. I could probably take her if I had too. And it turns out, she is a lot more cautious for a good reason. Two good reasons, actually.



Oh, the cuteness. Look how soft and fuzzy they are. And those white spots. And teeny little deer feet.





Then some other people came along and Mama Deer moved her babies along.

I feel like Ahab

I took the boys to the bird sanctuary today to try and show them the deer and the owl. They have people that walk around, I am guessing they keep an eye on the people visiting and the migrating birds. Anyway, we walk by them and Jake tells them we are looking for baby deer. I had told him on the way that when he was Daniel's age he saw a doe and her two fawns.



I also told him that the deer I saw yesterday didn't have any babies with her, so we likely weren't going to run into any today. The bird sanctuary lady told him that there was a mama deer with two babies around and if we hurried we might see them. We didn't. With Danny and his non stop commentary, I didn't blame them for hiding out. We also missed out on the owl.

We did some ducks synchronized swimming



And a rare moment that didn't involve pinching, slapping or a "hug down"



Danny insists on wearing those glasses anytime he is in the sun. In Jake's hand is a compass that he got from McDonald's, so he can tell which direction that we are going.

So, I wondered if my chances of seeing the fawns would be better if I went back later in the evening. I headed back there after the boys were in bed, but still didn't see them. I did see the itchy deer from yesterday, but no sweet little baby deer. I heard that owl too, but he wouldn't show his face today. So I had to make due.

My little diving duckies were ready for sleep



I wonder if these are good eatin'



Alas, tomorrow is another day.

Damn that pixel.

I heard back from Nikon, did what they asked, and submitted some sample pictures back. I am still not sure if I want to send it back yet. I think I might keep it for the rest of the summer, and into fall and then mail it to them. I'm still pretty happy with the camera though.

These kids are driving me nuts, and we are only into week two of summer vacation. They are such good boys, and I love them so much, but seriously. 24/7 is a lot of time to spend with anyone. I need to start getting them out and about more. I am tempted to bring them to Drumheller to have a peek at the dinosaurs, but I am not sure if I am up for it.

My lovely mil took the boys to work this morning, so I busted my ass to get some shopping done so I could go take some pictures. There is always quite a few people snapping shots there, and I saw a woman pushing her kid in the stroller, and gave her a smile. She looked right through me. Okay. A little while later, I stopped to take a picture of a momma bird feeding her baby (which never turned out) and this chick walks by me again. I finish what I'm doing, about a minute or so, and then keep going along the trail. I hear a noise, look over, and see this:



After I get over my awe at being maybe six feet away from this beautiful deer, I think "ha ha, Miss Snootypants didn't get to see this". Is that wrong? The doe just stood and looked at me for a few seconds, and then took a few tentative steps forward. I stepped back, since it seemed like she wanted to cross the path I was on. Sure enough, she did, about three feet in front of me. Crazy. There were mosquitos all over her, and I felt so bad for her. It must be awful to have mosquito bites that you can't even scratch.



In that picture, if you look at the larger version (click if you feel inclined) you can see the mosquitos are so full of blood that they are red. Makes me itch just looking at it. Poor thing, I wanted to cover her in mosquito spray. But it would probably make her sick.

She headed down to the water, and I thought I had better leave her to it. I headed further down the path, and heard a "hoooo hoo hoooo". I looked up, and saw this:



I know it's a crappy picture, but it's a freakin' owl. I think it's a great horned owl, but I am not sure. That is the second time I've ever seen an owl outside of a zoo, and the first time I snapped a picture of one. Really neat animals. Danny was impressed, as owls are a personal favorite of his.

Then, I was rushing back to the car (I only had an hour there) and I saw some baby loons with their mom. Man, can those things dive. And they were soft and fuzzy, and I have a serious weakness for little ducky feet. I wonder if loons would make good pets. So I'll leave you with these.