Too much ground to hog

I can't think about Groundhog Day without recalling our backyard groundhogs, and today I have been imagining them snug in their burrows deep under the snow.

A surprise encounter with a groundhog when I went to photograph its burrow entrance.

Last summer we had two frequent groundhog visitors -- or rather, at least two, since I'm not very confident in my ability to distinguish between individual groundhogs.  However, I was sure it had to be at least two.  Though we only ever saw one groundhog at a time, the conspicuous difference and rapid alternation between big...

The big groundhog.

 ...and small groundhogs was enough to convince me that there was more than one.

The little groundhog.

I was especially worried that the small groundhog would make a tempting target for the red foxes, but it grew steadily larger over the course of the summer, while the squirrel population steadily declined.

Here is a video of the smaller and larger groundhogs for comparison: