Why you don't just take the camera to bed with you

After the circus of Friday morning, I'm sure a lot of you probably ask that question of me.  Okay, here's why.

I snuck down at daybreak Saturday to get the camera, hoping to see the same kind of mischief I saw without it the day before.  In an hour of waiting, Mr. Woody made a brief appearance.

Then about 20 minutes later, Mr. Cardinal flew by, checked things out from a nearby tree, and had a bite.

For the remainder of about an hour and a half, we were bored.

It wasn't until Scrappy's suppertime (and no, we didn't spend that whole time up on the bed) that we got more vistitors- and they weren't birds.

That was young doe with Mr. Bunny- whom I actually took pictures of before I spotted him!

Now, the night before, we had got to watch Mr. Skunk hop playfully across the back yard on his nightly rounds.  Last night, it was Mr. Humpty Back (AKA the raccoon) sprinting back to the woods after dining in the dumpster, followed by an owl going from tree to tree and and a rare late-night bat appearance (usually they're back to bed before it gets pitch black).  But I had brought the camera up with me, ready to capture scenes of the latest bird festival.  And here it is:

Yup, after 20 minutes of watching, a sparrow showed up.  Oh, and about 15 minutes later, he was joined:

And in an hour and a half, that was all the birds that showed up this morning.  However, just after the first sparrow showed up, we heard a crash from the woods.

There's an "animals-only" trail about fifty feet down the parking-lot side from the main trail, and Mama deer came bounding out, paused for a second (the one pictured above), and then headed east.  I assumed that she was headed for the river, this not being that unusual a route.  Then came a second crash.

This was young miss again.  She tore out after Mama, stopped behind the pine trees, and sauntered back into the main trail.  Just as I was musing that it was odd that they weren't sticking together, Mama comes calmly back, a sense of accomplishment on her face...

...which, of course, she turned before I could capture it...

...and then she made her way back down the main trail.  Seconds later, we saw what she had accomplished- faster than I had a prayer of snapping, the two fawns, who had been in the east end of the yard out of sight the whole time, came charging as fast as they could, back to the "animals-only" trail and back with mom and big sis.

So, while we did get the benefit of the great deer run-around, I think it safe to say that bringing the camera up to bed is definitely NOT for the birds.