Animal report and Happy 4th!

We had changing of the guard, so to speak, with the departure of Lisa & Charles (sniff, sniff) and arrival of Uncle Ralph for a few days. Mark & Ralph went fishing yesterday up to the high part of Spring Creek with great success. The people had not found it and lots of fish were caught. They're trying it again today - we'll see - there are massive amounts of people everywhere for the holiday weekend.
Been so busy with fun people things, I have neglected the animal report. We saw two elk on our morning walk a couple mornings ago. Maybe Nellie is still here - with a friend?
Seeing lots of doe + baby fawns, and we thought the group of bucks that hung around all last summer must have had something bad happen over the winter since there were no sightings, but hurray Mark saw a whole group a few days ago. And, we found a coyote den at the bottom of the our hill by the mine shaft. Now we understand the howling & yipping multi times a night. It's mommy bringing food to the babies. Sooo cute, I know, I know, wild animals.
And back to the hummingbirds. After having constant mania at the feeders, there's been a dramatic slowdown in the amount of birds around. Not sure what's going on, our friend Gail says they always have a slowdown in the middle of the summer and they think the hummingbirds are nesting & having babies. Maybe, don't know that we'll have the answer, all I know is that the mean orange Rufus hummingbirds have arrived, who guard the feeders with passion. All ye creatures live large!
Hope everyone has a great 4th!