Description
7:45 am • Three little raccoon cubs hang out. They are siblings and pals and right now mom is gone. What mischief to be had! The world is rich with potential for this lively threesome. The treetops are a veritable polychromatic jungle gym for these animated harlequins. They’ll play for as long as they can and among the Giant Leopard Moths and Fameflowers. Who knows which one could be Dusty Bottoms, Lucky Day, or Ned Nederlander? Like most siblings it is hard to tell the little squirts apart.
Every evening for a week Cassidy and I heard the sounds of a loud… bear? rustling amongst the trees. First it was to the left of the house and then in the backyard. One night we sat in the yard enjoying the birds and the noisy rustling started again, this time in our front trees. We walked to the front of the house carefully and we saw a couple of thinner twiggy fruit trees rocking to and fro. There was no bear, and we wondered quietly if it was a big squirrel. We let our eyes focus in, and caught sight of a raccoon cub at the top of a thin oak tree. As soon as that one was spotted another fell from one branch to the one below and then scampered down the trunk. We decided to grab the camera to capture the incredible sight and I knew it would have to be a painting. When we came back out of the house, camera in tow, Cassidy pointed the lens and we realized that there were two cubs in the trees and one on the ground scrambling back up! Cassidy lined up a good photo that would hopefully capture all three of the raccoons and once they were all in the trees, click. The movement stopped. The camera shy raccoons froze behind branches and somehow the photo was a dud. Since all the raccoons’ faces were hidden in that photo we decided to get another. We walked slowly in a large half circle as the raccoons moved around a bit more in the high branches. Click. And again the raccoons were covertly hidden. It was as though they were saying “no photos please.” We caught the moment in our memories even if not on the camera, and lucky we did because after living in our yard for a week the raccoons took off the next day. No photos please.
Featured flora and fauna • Raccoon, Giant Leopard Moth, Rough-seeded Fameflower, Indian Paintbrush, Wood Lilly, Butterfly Weed, Hawkweed, Wild Blue Phlox Hairy Woodmint
