Meeting Animals on my Spring Walk

We have a really beautiful botanical garden in my city and with all of the bad news it can do wonders to go outside and enjoy the beauty of nature...

I had my camera with me to snap some shots, but I didn't necessarily expect to meet some wild animals. But as it turned out there were plenty of animals sniffing the air as well and I managed to get some good shots (I think). The first is a goose (if that's not true, please point it out!) and as it was swimming there it looked for some food under the water and so its feathery behind poked up into the air, which looked very cute!

Some minutes later I passed the sequoia trees in this garden and there was some thick underbrush as well. This is where I met the squirrel, rascaling about and scavenging for its nuts which it probably hid in autumn. They are so fast that I it can be quite a challenge to take a shot of them and I was happy that it just sat there for a few seconds eating its food. But soon it jumped off into the trees where I managed to get another shot.

And last but not least there was a mouse. This was probably the least expected animal which I thought that I would get a picture of as they are so fast, scurrying about and hiding in the leaves. It was only some meters away from me and I very carefully took my camera and before I could take a shot it ran 1 or 2 meters in a direction, but when I moved it came back again. So I tried to stay as quiet as I could, but again it moved in this way. I realized that this was probably how they move in general: when they see a threat in the middle of the way to their new destination, they go back again if they are not half way there. In this way they minimize their exposure to potential predators.

And so I actually had quite a few opportunities to capture it. It's so cute just sitting there! :))