This weekend I have a little mini-vacation. I needed to use up my leftover vacation from last year, so I took four and a half days off, giving me a six and a half day weekend.

Today I decided to take advantage of the warm sunny weather and so I spent a couple of hours wandering around Waterloo Park. My goal was to photograph as much wildlife as I could, and hopefully get something worthy of a Picture Of The Week.

In the end, I didn't really get a single fantastic photo, so instead I put together a collage of four of the best pictures I got.

The first critter I came across was a groundhog. I didn't notice him until I was less than six feet from his home, so I backed off a bit and waited to see if he would come out. Sure enough, he popped up and gave me the evil eye, so I took the hint and left.

Next I found a little chipmunk, and I chased him through the woods trying to get a picture. Eventually he turned around to see if I was still after him, and that's when I got this shot.

Next up was a bird that flew by and landed on a branch not to far away. He hung around just long enough for me to get a photo.

As I was leaving the park, I noticed that the pine trees were making a strange popping sound, so I decided to inspect one up close to see what was causing the racket. I noticed that there were hundreds of flies buzzing around the tree, so I went in really close to see what they were doing. It turns out that they were all bees! I guess they were pollinating the tree. I took a couple of pictures and then decided not to bother them anymore.

Hopefully the weather stays this nice for the rest of the year. ;)

Technical details: These photos were shot using my Rebel XT + 70-300 IS at 300mm, ISO 200, f/5.6 for (clockwise from top left) 1/250th of a second, 1/250th of a second, 1/500th of a second, and 1/100th of a second.