Red Squirrel: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, October 2026 — I was standing on the bank of the river taking a scenic landscape of the fall color and the tumbling water when this Red Squirrel ran down the edge of the embankment and literally hopped right over my foot on its way. I followed it, but it kept well ahead of me until it disappeared in the band of trees lining the small tidal creek that comes into the river just there. I kept expecting it to get up on a branch and chatter at me, the way they generally do, but no. So I continued on around the pond and was taking another landscape of fall foliage over the marsh, when I glanced up and saw the squirrel sitting on a horizontal branch right above me. I can only assume it was the same squirrel. It did not chatter at me even then, though it sat there on the branch until I got enough photos already! from all the angles I could comfortably get to. I really like the hint of fall foliage behind it. I guess in the end it did not want to disappoint me. Sony a7CR. Sony FE 100-400 f5.6-8 at 400mm. 26mp crops so about 600mm effective field of view. My custom birds and wildlife mode. Processed in Photomator with some shadow recovery against the bright sky.