Skunks

Earlier in the year I was able to find skunks everywhere in the neighborhood and then they disappeared overnight. It looks like at least one skunk survived and is still active in the neighborhood.  I found this skunk within a hundred yards of the pipeline valve assembly.

Skunks

I haven't seen my "White-backed" skunks at our cabin for the past couple of evenings but I did find this skunk looking for food below our barn this afternoon.



This is the first time I've seen this skunk but I decided to see how close I could get to this little guy. Within a few minutes the skunk was eating out of my hand.

Skunks

For the past four evenings I have seen the same skunk near our cabin but today I saw at least four more skunks in the lawn. I wasn't able to get close enough to the other skunks for photos but this one, with the all white back, is a little more friendly.



Skunks may look like a member of the cat family but they have been classified as a subfamily within the Mustelidae, or "weasel family", which includes ferrets, weasels, otters, badgers, stoats, and wolverines.

Skunks

If you've followed my blog for any time you'll know I like to take pictures of wildlife, and one of my favorite animals to photograph is a skunk. Today was a good day for photographing skunks.



In the early evening, while driving my old John Deere tractor to our cabin, I spotted this young skunk searching for food along our driveway. Over the years of photographing skunks I have learned how to approach skunks to get close-up shots. I was able to get within a couple of feet of this skunk which was more concerned about its tasty snack (it didn't want to share) than it was afraid of me. After about 10 minutes of photos, we each went back to our prior activities.



As I approached our cabin with my noisy John Deere tractor I spotted another skunk. This was another young skunk, about the same size a the first one but this one had a totally white back and tail. I was also able to get within a couple of feet of this skunk before it wandered to a hiding place under a tree. I continued to see both of these skunks for the rest of the evening as they hunted for food.

Skunks

Within the past week several skunks have been seen near our barn and cabin. The following photo was taken this evening in the hay field near our barn and a mother skunk with 5 little ones crossed the cabin road a couple of days ago.

A close encounter with skunks

I was returning to the barn from the back field this evening when I spotted a pair of skunks in the field to the south of the barn. I quickly rushed to the truck to get my camera and headed for the south field. When I got within 20 yards of the skunks I could see it was a mother with a younger skunk and they were looking for food as they headed in my direction. I stopped and waited for the skunks to come closer. The younger skunk stopped to feed on something and the mother continued in my direction. The mother skunk in the following photo walked within two feet of me as it continued looking for food.



After the mother passed by the younger skunk was still busy working on his catch. I walked closer to the young skunk but when I got within 10 feet I could see him take a more defensive position. I held my distance but saw the skunk react each time the camera flash fired. After a couple of pictures I moved back to the location of my close encounter with the mother skunk and waited to see where the younger skunk would head. To my surprise the young skunk would sniff the ground and took the exact same path as the mother had taken. The young skunk was only a couple of feet away when the following photo was taken.


After the second skunk walked by I decided to see if I could get some more photos by getting ahead of him and waiting at a spot I had last seen the mother skunk. My plan worked, too good in fact. I had stood in the exact path the mother had taken and the young skunk had followed the tracks and stopped within 3 inches of my shoes. I was close enough to hear the skunk sniffing my shoes. I was going to take a picture of the skunk next to my feet but then remembered how the camera flash would make him jump each time it went off. It would have been a great picture but I didn't want to pay the price if I spooked the little guy.

I returned to the truck and spotted a third skunk but didn't want to press my luck.

Another critter at the farm

I found this critter in the lawn at the farm. I think it may be living under the trailer.





I got within 10 feet of the skunk to take some of the pictures but it started to get annoyed and started charging at me in this picture.