Swimming Raccoons

It's getting tougher all the time now to squeeze in a walk after work. It's fully dark by 8:00pm now but with a cloudy and overcast day, you can be out of daylight even sooner. Before I explain the crazy title of this post, I did see a couple of moderately interesting sights. I parked and started on the east side tonight and quickly noticed a bright blue bird perched near the edge of the ball fields. This is the very first Bluebird I've seen at the park. Despite stalking it from tree to tree, I was unable to get any good photos. During my walk I saw a crazy amount of deer. They were on the move near sunset and were popping out right in front of me on the trail every few minutes. Due to the low-light conditions though, I didn't get a single blog-worthy photo. But a bit later I spotted one more a long ways away out in the cattails. I could barely pick out a set of antlers but my camera in fact showed a nice young 8 point Buck! As I got to my favorite part of the park, the sun was just starting peaking out underneath the overcast sky. For only a minute, everything lit up a golden green. As some geese flew by I took two pictures before I turned my attention back downwards. When I did, there just ten feet in front of me was a Raccoon! The second, he realized that I saw him, he did a full-on belly flop right into the water! I couldn't believe it. I heard quite a bit of rustling of cattails and then just silence. I stood there dumbfounded waiting for him to come back or make some more noise but there was nothing. I even sat down and waited a while before finally giving up. When I finally did, I walked past the thickets of grape vines near the mouth of the creek and saw a sight that I didn't really believe. Something large was swimming down stream in a "beaver-like" fashion, only it had a bushy, striped tail. I went downstream a bit to hopefully capture a picture but nothing came by. I was so intrigued that I went back to grape vines and peered again through the spotty openings. Again I saw a large creature but paid special attention to the tail floating on the water behind. It was indeed a Raccoon and I would have never believed it if I hadn't seen it for myself. They're as good a swimmer as any Beaver!

72 photos in one visit!

I got to the park around my usual weekend time this Saturday morning. My last couple of visits have been somewhat boring, resulting in only 15-20 photos per visits. I was expecting more of the same today but could not have been more wrong. In the end I took 72 photos in one visit and saw some great things that won't even make this post; including a Bald Eagle, flowers and lots of other birds. To start off, I spotted a Doe up ahead of me on the south side wood chip trail. She was curious and stood still for lots of great closeups before a fawn came out to join in. The fawn was obviously a bit older with barely a hint of white spots on it's hind quarters. I looked for a second fawn but never saw one. Then on the north side I spotted another Doe busily munching away. She only looked up at me a couple of times but all the while was eating her fill of green leaves. A short while later I came up to the northeast side where I'm now pretty much expecting to see fawns laying in the thin brush just outside the trail. Sure enough all three where there again, two fawns and the mother just lounging in the sun. I was pretty sure before that there are in fact two sets of fawns in the park this year, and now I'm positive of it. These two were obviously smaller in size and with tons of white spots trailing down from behind their ears, across their back and sides. This one was very close to the path and sitting among all these tiny white flowers making for a good photo. Later on the south side I took a different trail to avoid the standing water that's been on the normal trail due to recent rains. I noticed a guy and girl with some pretty fancy camera equipment out near the edge of the ball fields. He was pointing his camera upwards and I was trying to find out what he was taking photos of. I scanned the sky without seeing anything but then noticed something out in the corner of the ball field. I was so far away I thought it was a woodchuck so I zoomed in as far as I could with my camera in order to see. Then I knew it had to be a HUGE Snapping Turtle! I went over and talked to the couple to ask if they were taking pictures of the turtle and he said "What Turtle?" We all headed in that direction and sat down, taking some incredibly close photos of the biggest Snapper I've ever come across. His shell alone was about 2' long. He let us get very close -as close as I'd dare anyway. After a while he poked his head out quite a ways making him look even bigger. I really wanted to see him get up and walk but he never moved anything but his head. I was a bit worried about how obvious of a place he picked to catch some rays. I sure hoped no one would bother him the rest of the day. There was a small pond about 50 feet away so maybe that's where he came from -and might go back to later. Near the end of my walk I spotted a late season Monarch and snapped just this one photo -and a decent one- before it flew off towards Mexico for the winter.

Extra Day

Today is Labor Day so I was able to sneak in one extra morning visit to the park. Apparently all the wildlife was also on holiday as I saw barely anything of interest. I have noticed over the course of the summer that the Egrets are in much smaller numbers than last year. I think the most I saw at one time this year was 2 or 3 compared to groups around 15 last year. I wonder if their numbers are being affected by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. About the only thing I saw a lot of today were Bumblebees. They are everywhere on the bright yellow flowers -which I think are Goldenrods. I actually don't remember seeing so many of these yellow flowers in years before. Maybe that is due to all the rain we've had this year. The timing is certainly right though as referenced on Wikipedia: "In Midwestern states in the mid-twentieth century it was said that when the goldenrod bloomed, it would soon be time to go back to school—the blossoms appeared in mid- to late August, shortly before the traditional start of school on the day after Labor Day."

New Birds!

My first visit this September revealed two brand new birds I've not before seen in the park. That is, assuming I've correctly matched up my amateur photos with my field guide. This first one I'm still not that sure about but I think is a Female Red-breasted Grosbeak. I'm basing this almost purely on the white "eyebrow" patch across the eye along with it's otherwise drab, rust coloring. The shape of the beak does also fit, so I think this is right. I have seen the more obvious male Grosbeaks in the park before but have never managed a photo. Later on I spotted a super bright red patch among the green foliage and thought it was a foil bag or something. By the time I realized it was a Cardinal, I was too close and scared him off. As my camera was still focusing though, a small yellow bird popped out into view. At first I was sure it was just a female Goldfinch but upon closer inspection of the photo I'm pretty sure it's a Yellow Warbler. Both male and female Goldfinches have black wings and this one's wings were mostly the same yellow color. The shape of the bill is also more slender and narrow. Near the end of my walk I grabbed this pic from the water overlook. The water level is again nearly even with the lowest railroad tie due to two heavy rainfalls in the past week.