Frail flowers and flourishing fawns

While the plants in front are doing well on the whole, some of our perennials in back are muddling along.

The hydrangea's blooms are pathetic.

I guess our chewed-up mystery plants were coneflowers? I think? Not exactly thriving, but at least blooming!

I really should weed. Yeah. I really should.

And if they're not all doing great, this may be one of the reasons: here comes the next generation of garden gourmands! Cute, but naughty.

Two fawns and a doe

Unrelated to struggling foliage, I have had my eye on a brown mystery bird when it has appeared very briefly in the yard a few times. It drives me mad not to be able to identify it. I am lately thinking it is a type of wren - perhaps a winter wren? It moves around so much that it's hard to get a good look, much less a photo.