Wildlife – Day 1003

Cutie – Photo: L. Weikel

Wildlife

I’ve had three surprisingly close encounters with wildlife in the past 24 hours – and that doesn’t even count the eight fawns (two of which popped out of the brush beside the road to scamper in front of my car – twice) and 5 does I passed.

I only managed to get photos of the first encounter. But as you can see, s/he was a cutie!

First

This little raccoon was on the side of the road as I was driving home last night after taking my photos of Jupiter and Saturn. I may not have succeeded in seeing any Perseids, but – what was that? As I passed by several clusters of leaves littering the side of the road, I caught sight of what looked like a small cat-like creature scratching its ear with its hind leg. I was tired and realized it may have been just another clump of fallen leaves, but I turned the car around in a driveway and headed back for another look.

As my headlights washed a broad beam onto the side of the road, I could see that it was indeed a small animal. My window down, I pulled up slowly to see if I could snap a photo of it before it ran away. Well, didn’t this little creature come walking right up to me? It looked lost and a little like it just wanted to be held, to be honest. (Yes. Of course I was talking to it the whole time. And no, I had no intention of holding a wild animal.) But it bothered me that it had moved into the road as it responded to me.

I drove down the road a piece and turned around yet again. I hated having my headlights trained on it, but I needed to be able to see it and hoped it would want to retreat from the lights. In fact, that’s what happened. S/he crossed the road in front of me and descended into a culvert.

Next Encounter

I was sitting in my car following the tremendous thunderstorms that went through the area early this evening. Half in and half out of the car, my right leg was inside the car and my left on the ground. I was looking at something in my lap when all of a sudden a squirrel ran from behind my car and almost bumped into my left leg! It just stood there on its hind legs – sort of taken aback by the encounter as much as I was. I yelped involuntarily and it ran off.

It was an odd encounter.

Final for the Night

About an hour later, Spartacus and I were taking a walk on our usual ‘walk around’ route (our shorter, two mile excursion). He’s getting older and it shows: he’s developed cataracts and his hearing is not what it used to be either.

Thus he missed the coyote that loped across the road about 20’ away from us. What a gorgeous animal! At first I thought it was an adult fox, but the tail had more of a look of a dog than the fluffy, sticking straight out tail of a fox. And its coloring was more brown and dark gray as opposed to the usual rust-colored fur of a fox. Needless to say, it didn’t ‘say’ anything to us as it passed!

Spart may have missed it as it crossed, but as we approached where it disappeared into the bushes, his nose got him all sorts of excited. And historically, he has not had quite the same reaction to foxes. So, again, my sense is that the creature that padded across our path was definitely a coyote.

What a wonderful day, filled with close encounters with the wildlife that share our habitat. And just as I write this, a screech owl serenades me just outside my door. Wow.

(T-108)