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chalutplease — A Masked Surprise
Published: 2011-06-25 18:22:34 +0000 UTC; Views: 551; Favourites: 26; Downloads: 0
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I set out on a walk yesterday at Chestnut Park, which is one of my favorites and about a hundred feet into the trail I stopped to assess the ferocity of the mosquitos. I hate wearing repellant and since they never seem as bad in the parking lot this was deep enough to know if they'd be a problem and close enough to go back and spray down. As I stood there in contemplation I heard some rustling behind me that was louder than a squirrel but not enough to be an alligator and could possibly have been a deer except for it's sudden appearance in such close proximity. I turned slowly and spied absolutely nothing at first so I froze and waited for the sound to start again. What a surprise I had to find a little black mask partway up a tree looking at me. I almost laughed out loud but was able to hold back so that I didn't scare him and within minutes he seemed to warm up to me enough to crawl the rest of the way out of his knothole home. We watched each other for a little bit and then he climbed down and wandered further into the bush leaving me with some really wonderful shots.Related content
Comments: 30
Hello!
This work is featured on
The Under-appreciated of June 2011 - part 2
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I'm so sorry I was away in the wilds of Canada without internet when this happened. I do really appreciate this and send a big THANK YOU your way!
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Lucky moments always come out as amazing pictures,kudos!
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Thank you very much for commenting and I'm very sorry I haven't answered sooner but I was in the wilds of Canada with no internet.
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Glad you like it. I just posted another shot of him in a different position. I can't decide which I like best.
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Personally I like the second one for some reason o.o idk y though
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I'm kind of leaning that way too.
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Outstanding natural portrait 
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I knew the instant I spied him that I was lucky whether or not the shots turned out well. This one I think is more unusual than you usually see but I have another that I'm going to post that I like a little better.
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Oh how gorgeous!!! I'm so pleased you got to spend some time together with this mischievous little darling. Lovely shot!
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Thank you very much. He was quite a darling but even so, as he started climbing down the tree I silently prayed that he wasn't coming to get me!
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I'm with you on that one! Glad you got only the photo as memories
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Very good photo, You isolated the subject and composed it very well. Your racoon is one of the prettyest and healthyest I've seen.
Florida's racoons frightened me at first. In NY a racoon that is out in the daylight is most likley rabid. Besides that NY's are much more easily frightened and larger. Here, they just live by the tide. No worries, we all live together in a plam tree and life's a sushi bar.
Glad to see your out, you told me once that is your favorite thing to do.
We seem to be looking at a nice time to work on lightning photos, weather too threatening/lighting is too flat today. If you wan't to give it a try, lean the ladder up against the side of the house. I might be up all night.
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It was great to get out again. I agree with you that it took a while to get used to the raccoons here. In Canada they act the way you describe and if you see one in the daytime it needs to be shot.
I've contemplated trying my hand at lightning shots but I have a very protective husband that doesn't like the idea of me being out there in it.
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Thanks. Below him you can see the lip of the big knot hole he crawled out of. I debated cropping it down to just the raccoon but haven't come to terms with taking his home out of the shot. I did use fill flash so I had to fix the reflections in his eyes but other than that it's right off the camera.
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That is so cool, I love shots like this. I call them artsy, LOL. Leave the home in the pic, it really makes the overall look.
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I think it's about as artsy as nature gets as long as you believe in leaving things as they are. We've had many a conversation in our camera club about cutting plants to make them look "nicer" or getting rid of vegetation to make the scene more ideal. About as far as I go is to bring a soft paintbrush so that I can clean cobwebs off.
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I am so with you on that issue. It wouldn't be nature if we manicured it. It would be a backyard garden...LOL
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Exactly. If they want to do that in their backyard I have no problem with that but doing it in a park just seems wrong to me. It may only be one seed head but there may be a bird that goes hungry because of it. You just never know.
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We have several so called nature parks that all of a sudden they think needs to be manicured. They no longer have the abundance of insects and birds they did have. Go figure.
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We have one where the county decided to improve the water flow so they tore through the ground and joined the brackish water from a natural spring that met saltwater and formed a lake, with a stagnant marsh of saltwater. Many of the mangroves are now dying, the shore birds are almost all gone, the osprey didn't nest in the park for the first time in years and we now have dolphins and sharks coming right into the lake. Aside from that the bridge they built across it pinches bike tires and sends you flying and the railing is right at eye level for a person of 5 foot. I don't see what the improvement was supposed to have accomplished.
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Sounds like ours, it was supposed to improve things, they put in sprinklers and irrigation. why? we live in a desert. If it is supposed to be a nature park why the sprinklers? I think it is all about bugets, and how much they can get next year.
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Yup. Mine was a park that two semesters ago I did an ecology paper and presentation on for my biology class and boy did I learn a lot. My conclusion was the question of whether we were actually fulfilling the mission of "restoring the park to it's natural habitat" which is what it's stated mission was and I think that question is more valid today. There's still over 100 acres that is totally wild but they have a budget for the restoration of and part of that budget includes removing the coyotes and relocating them. Seems counter indicative to the stated purpose. I think they're just gearing up to bring more people in and start charging for admission or parking like most other parks in the area.
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I did not know parking lots where part of the natural inviroment. But it all boils down to the almightyt dollar.
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I didn't know it either! 
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