I Needed This...

So, after the horrors of Sunday (see previous blog); I decided to set out on the next available opportunity and hopefully find some of my masked friends, in much healthier states, in my regular stomping grounds.

Tuesday was the day. It was my final day of vacation and I really should have stayed home and got at a few things that needed to be done, the things neglected while off for two weeks. But tomorrow is always a day away...

I left the house shortly after 8am. Pulling out onto Scarlet Road, and what do I see, but one large adult Raccoon who unfortunately did not make it across the road sometime in the middle of the night. Argh! Not how I wanted to start this adventure.

I continued onward and was amazed at how much some of my favorite spots had filled in with foliage in a mere couple weeks since my last visits. I walked some trails and kept my eyes open to a few known resting spots and none were to be seen. On my way out, something caught the corner of my and I stopped for another scan and found this guy 30 ft or so off the path... when the wind blew and moved the leaves, his coat gleamed in the sunlight. I watched him for a couple minutes, waiting for another gust of wind and do what I like to do... take a photo.

It was otherwise rather quiet in these woods this morning. Barely a bird singing. So I moved on to my next area. I guess the one tree I was heading for is almost like a sure thing for seeing these guys (you can't always predict nature). I do enjoy the thrill in finding the wildlife in my travels and these almost certain spots I will normally pass for a quick peek, to monitor and basically check in that things are going okay.

And I was happy to see this one spot indeed had a little family within. The following pictures tell the story of my next ten minutes or so with them before I moved on with my day and a smile on my face, a glow in my heart...

First glance.

His sibling was rather curious about what was going on with the outside world.

And finally mom stirs for a moment to have a look as well.

Mom rolled back over while the little ones looked on.

Passing the tree about 45 minutes later, everybody was back asleep. A silent "thank you" sent out as I continued my way out of the woods.

Note, the shots are cropped, even with my 500mm lens, as I make it a habit to keep a more than respectable distance from all wildlife.