So today I thought I would take a little adventure down in the creek with my little brother tagging along. The sun was shining, the air was warm, and the American Robins were caroling cheerfully; they seemed to be encouraging me sweetly to come outside and soak in the fresh breeze and maybe get my feet a little wet journeying through the creek. Once we got there, as we started to go upstream, we thought we heard people. There usually aren't people down here other than us, but today was a nice sunny day so we weren't too surprised. It seemed to be 2 families with little kids. As we were walking along we heard a little girl scream, "EW YOU STEPPED ON IT!" I wondered what it was that they stepped on. Trevor said to me, "Someone probably stepped on a dead raccoon." He was totally just throwing it out there. Buuuuut.....
As the group passed by us, one by one a little girl would inform us something, with the details changing a bit each time. The first girl said, "Just to warn you, there are 3 dead raccoons up there." "Thank you," I said, and then turned to Trevor eagerly. About a minute later, another little girl walked by and said,"Just to warn you there are 2 dead raccoons up there." Hmm. Now there are only 2. A couple seconds later, a third little girl splashed by and said,"Just to warn you, there is a dead raccoon and a dead fox up there." Wait, so now one of them is a fox?! Trev and I exchanged looks. This is getting more exciting. "Thank you, We'll check 'em out," I said, winking. I think she was slightly confused and maybe even a little creeped out as to why we were excited about this.
As we started to get further upstream where we had heard them screaming I said, "Listen Trevor. Someone stepped on one of these raccoons. That means that we are going to have to be really careful and keep an eye out for them so we don't step on them." Great plan. Now what does it say about my "great birdwatcher's observation skills" if it didn't work quite as well as we planned?
Right as Trevor stepped directly over this guy, I said, "Whoa Trevor! There's one of them
right there!" This spooked Trevor a bit, as he had stepped right over him (her maybe?) without noticing. If you look closely at the photo above, you can totally see the shoeprint where someone else
did step on the raccoon. A little further along, I found the second one. I can see why someone might have mistaken this bugger for a fox, but if not anything else, the hand-like paws are a dead giveaway.
This picture is out of focus. Humph.
Now what I am wondering is how did these dudes die? And while we are on the subject of dead animals, here is a photo of a dead House Sparrow I found on the side of a road:
Always makes me a bit sad. :(
Anyway guys, I thought I would check out the lake and see what the geese have been up to.
The above photos courtesy of my mother, Susan Seabrook
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