Also, those fawns! Good grief. I’m amazed they let you get close enough to photograph them like that. Mighty pretty.

I don’t begrudge the coyotes their take — roughly equivalent to the number killed by black bears — but it doesn’t have a significant effect on the population.

Folks, if you ever leave a comment here and it doesn’t appear in short order, please drop me a line.

robin andrea – We have to go to some trouble to see golden eagles here, too — the bastards tend to fly on the far side of the higher ridge. But they migrate so late in the season, sometimes the leaves are already down. Twice my brother has gotten one for the Christmas Bird Count.

dale – I think you’re right about birding being an act of devotion, though many of the birders I know are conventionally religious as well. See, for example, this post from the Birdchaser.

striped twistie – You’re right; it seems I am guilt of hyperbole/outdated information in claiming that turtlehead is the only food source for Baltimore caterpillars. I’ll make a correction. Thanks for setting me straight!

Keith – They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Actually, I am sick of that cliche, but in this case it might be true. Just take a look at the idotic, Mickey Mouse expression on that fawn’s face. (Have I mentioned I loathe Disney, too?) I’d love to see a remake of Bambi from the forest’s point of view. The hunter would be the hero, and there’d be sinister music whenever a deer drew near.

Zhoen – It was my pleasure … sort of.

Beth – Jokes?

Dick – Butterflies are attracted to all sorts of disgusting things. And their typical method of ingesting said things is to throw up on them, so the stomach acids can get to work in breaking them down, then re-ingest the whole mess. I presume this was true of the foot fungus-laced salts that permeated my wet socks.

This, of course, just makes me appreciate butterflies all the more. Kind of like knowing that chipmunks, despite appearing cute as the dickens, are fiercely solitary and hostile little Napoleans.