UPDATED TO ADD: Those of you who guess vole are correct!
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This little critter seems to be living in my front flowerbed:
I'd caught quick glimpses of him hustling across paths between flowerbeds, but the other day while we were eating lunch on the patio, he popped out of the sage onto the sidewalk. He appeared to be enjoying his lunch of swept-off-the-patio-birdseed as much as we were enjoying our pesto chicken pasta with roasted tomatoes.
He's about five inches long with only a stumpy (non-mouse-like) tail. He's shy enough that the sound of my camera shutter clicking was enough to send him diving back into the herbs, although he'd reappear a few seconds later to nibble the sunflower seeds.
Do you know what he is?
