This week while we were out doing a night time walk by the little river behind our house, we happened upon a couple of interesting characters.
I see interesting people and animals and birds and insects on my day time walks through the park and around the lake near our home, but we also walk at night along a small river (Okay, they call this a river here, but really, it wouldn’t rate as a small creek, large ditch? back home).
We always stop on one of the bridges on our way back and peer over the rails and look for fish. Sometimes there are catfish or carp that are 3 feet long swimming below. We’ve seen cranes, turtles, and ducks there, too.
One night we saw a small mammal there swimming in the water that got out of the water and disappeared into the shrubs along the back. We’ve seen it a couple of times and the best we can come up with is it is likely a type of weasel or mink.
Last night when we were walking we saw a larger animal on the bank below. It was looking back toward its rear so we couldn’t see the face or head clearly. We were trying to be very still because it was really only about 20 feet almost directly below us. After a short wait, we realized it was waiting on its partner and we could see the face clearly.
It was wearing its little mask.
Two, very healthy looking and a bit large, Japanese raccoons.
I tried to take a photo of them without creating too much of a stir. I only had my iPhone, so the picture isn’t all that good.
Maybe you can see them though.
