I saw only one other person on the trails at Sapsucker Woods on Wednesday, and I saw more birds than I photographed. It was brutally hot, but I was in town and couldn’t resist a quick walk.

This fellow was fishing — and scratching an itch.

Immediately across the small bay was an unexpected sight — a deer cooling herself in the water, the first of two I saw.

There were bees busy in the wildflowers.

Quite a number of these pretty flowers poked through the rails of the first boardwalk. I believe it’s called pasture rose.

As usual, there were many chipmunks to be seen. This one was climbing rather than scurrying across the trail, squeaking.

I haven’t been out and about much this week due to a bout with what I believe was tularemia, a disease transmitted through a deer fly bite. It was an unpleasant experience involving a bull’s-eye like irritation around the bite, a high fever, and achiness. Thankfully antibiotics did the trick.