Skunkin'

I saw a black and white blob enmeshed in some mid-height shrubbery alongside the road just as this mysterious little moving thing untangled himself, and I realized he was a skunk. "Andy! A skunk!" I hollered and pointed, thrilled to see one alive. We'd seen too many dead along roads over the years, and rarely a living one. I had no worries my squeal of delight would disturb him. We were inside a car with the windows up due to the 90 degree heat. Still, he definitely did not like Andy rolling down the window and sticking his camera lens in his direction; he popped right back into the motley crew of plants he'd come from before Andy could focus. Bemoaning the brevity of the encounter, but also rejoicing, I felt immense gratitude.

Driving further down the road to the spot where we'd found a White Ibis a few days prior, we found ourselves surrounded by hundreds of Great Egrets, Little Blue Herons, Snowy Egrets, a few Cattle Egrets, and a few shorebirds, but the rascally skunk was still dancing in my head. Unable to contain the urge to turn around and see if he'd dared to come out again, we slowly drove by his spot, but he seemed nowhere to be found. Pulling over to study a mudflat, I suddenly noticed him about a quarter mile down the road, sauntering along in a very carefree manner. I yelped to Andy to get back in the car. Following close behind his slow gait, we stopped and admired him numerous times, and he occasionally stopped to check us out. We did not get too close in order to avoid disturbing him and causing a stink - or cause him to dive into the ag fields he was surrounded by. Although Andy was disappointed that he was mostly getting shots of his rear end, it wasn't until we got home that we realized the advantage of this angle when I began editing them and upon examining one, noticed he was indeed a boy. My my. Be sure to check out both photos.

Posted on August 12, 2022 03:52 PM by