LET IT BE!...LET IT BE!...LET IT BE!

A while ago I posted this photo of our night-time visitor, the Striped Skunk (Mephitis mephitis). It was eating seeds left over by the birds.  It also gave me a good scare the night before and made me run the fastest 200m dash since my athletic times million years ago.

The moon was full and bright and there was a very light layer of fog gently hovering just about the grassy lawn. It was strangely beautiful fog, only about one to two meters thick allowing me to wade through it with my torso floating above it, all illuminated by the full moon. The fog swayed gently but mostly, everything was quiet and peaceful as if there was not  a single worry in the entire world.

Nights like that do not happen often and when they do it is impossible to stay inside the house. For me at  least...



Such nights always drag me out of the bed, in my night gown (no we do not live in a city), and take me, like a White Lady for a walkabout in the silver light. We live on three acres of rural land.

I was at peace with everyone and everything I could think of; walking from tree to tree, telling them quietly how beautiful they were. Just then I noticed a white piece of paper underneath that translucent silvery fog. 

Ah, people! Why can't they just keep their trash in their own space? I started forward to pick it up and almost did so when, suddenly, it moved!

Huh?

The air was still, not the slightest breeze disturbed my surroundings. My feet somewhere down under the fog came to a stop.

But the paper kept on moving; TOWARDS me! Only then did I notice the dark shadow that was outlining the white.
My brain took two more seconds to register! A skunk!

Three meters away and coming closer!

I whispered something. 
Maybe "hi handsome" or "wow, you fooled me" ....in any case it wasn't offensive and definitely not loud.

The skunk seemed to like it because it kept on moving closer. 

"No, no, no," I said, my feet down there finally starting to back up. 
.....

"No, no!  YOU go THAT way, okay?"

More I tried to shuffle backwards more enthusiastically the skunk advanced. Maybe it liked my shiny-white sneakers moving in the fog. Maybe it was a social creature and needed company. Or maybe it had rabies. 
It was hard to tell.

It all ended up by me taking a mad dash across the two-acre property with the skunk happily trundling behind. Emerging from the fog I cleared the front steps by two at a time, dove into the dark safety of the house and locked the door behind me. 
Silly, I know. 

But it was memorable nevertheless.

A couple years later I met another one - in the morning. No self respecting skunk works during the day! But this one did. Probably a hungry teenager still having to learn a lot about the world.

It was interesting to watch it digging in the dirt, pulling out fat larvae and enjoying the feast. 
That was it! That's why the lawn often looks like someone ran a semi-automatic across it.

Heavy digging was rewarded with a healthy snack. Large fat beetle larvae live underneath the surface, feeding on grass roots all year long. They are active at night; that's when they come closer to the surface (and that's why the skunks hunt mostly at night).

The would-be ground beetle would never see the world in its adult form - not that one anyway. 

Who else might fall a victim to the skunks nightly escapade? Mostly insects but also frogs, worms and earthworms, snails and slugs .... any protein small enough to tackle will do. But fruits and berries, seeds and fungi will do also. Skunk is an omnivore.

Mephitis mephitis. Those words should serve as dire warning. Mephitis means stinky,.

Really, really stinky!

The skunk is like a living weapon equipped with a double barrel positioned right by its rear end. There are two glands underneath its tail that make a weekly supply of very, very, VERY foul smelling gunky, putrid, noxious liquid that can deter most enemies. (Add your own adjectives.) Bad!

And the skunk is also a very accurate shooter! Not only that, it shoots with its head facing in the opposite direction - MOVE OVER Dirty Harry! It can get you with its eyes closed and as far as four meters away!
So ... really ... MOVE.
I certainly did when this one turned its barrels at me - nobody wants to be on the wrong side of this creature!

Mephitis mephitis. How suitable.

Thanks to its rear end charges, skunk does not have to worry about too many predators. I don't think that any creature will try more than once. Bobcat perhaps. 

But they say that Great-horned Owl will take a skunk for dinner. 

A question arises then: do owls have a sense of smell?