Spring might be springing after all

So many bloggers have been saying "Spring has sprung" but they've all been in different parts of the world. Today, however, a little critter we hereabouts call a gopher, but which is actually a Richardson's Ground Squirrel, ran across the Trans Canada Highway in front of our car as we were coming home from Medicine Hat.
I looked carefully as we passed the BMX track down the street from our house, because lots of our so-called gophers live in tunnels they've dug there, but I didn't see any. The one we saw on the freeway looked healthy, and it was certainly spry enough, as it got safely across four lanes of traffic.
Although there are a few small patches of snow left on the north side of our house, the outside temperature as I write this (3:40 pm) is 19 degrees Celsius, which is equivalent to 66 degrees Fahrenheit.
I'm submitting this post to Misty Dawn's Camera Critters as an extra this week.

There are three "gophers" in this photo, but two are hiding in last summer's long green grass and one is acting as lookout. It doesn't seem too worried about Dick and Lindy.

© Richard Schear, photo, 2011

Richardson's Ground Squirrel, Wikipedia photo

Camera Critters down by the coulee

Dick and Lindy like to take their daily walk at the coulee, where they meet other dogs out walking, and usually see many other different kinds of critters.

Photo by Richard Schear, copyright Kay Davies and Richard Schear

There are at least three of these critters in this photo, maybe five or six. We call them gophers in southeastern Alberta, but their real name is Richardson's Ground Squirrel. They come out in early-to-mid-spring for what seems like the express purpose of running around on our roads. They have underground burrows, many of which seem to be in the BMX bike park a block from our house. So far, they haven't caused too much havoc with the cyclists there. Lindy would chase these little fellas if she were allowed to do so, and more than once last year she put her head so far into a gopher hole she frightened her dad, who was walking her. He was afraid she wouldn't be able to breathe. She didn't do it at all this year.

Posted for the Camera Critters meme, hosted

each week by the very busy Ms Misty Dawn. Thanks, Misty!

To see other critters captured in the lenses of other cameras, please click

HERE!