Skunk fun!

Here is a picture of my new little backyard buddy.

About a month ago I started putting some sunflower seeds on the ground under the bird feeders for the ground feeding birds. The doves and dark-eyed juncos in particular like to scavenge on the ground for seeds even though the platform feeders were full. Every once in a while, late at night, I would turn on the backyard spotlights to see if any thing exciting was going on in the yard. I started seeing a skunk on a regular basis under the birdfeeders eating the seeds that I had left for the birds. Actually, it was 3 different skunks. I only ever saw 2 at one time but I could tell that there were 3 different skunks by their markings. This one has lots of white on its head and some narrow stripes down its sides. Another one had very large wide white stripes down both sides and the third one was almost entirely black with just a little line of white on it forehead.

I couldn't get a picture because I only saw them long after dark and they usually didn't hang around too long after I turned the lights on. However, this little guy started coming under my neighbor's bird feeders while it was still light outside. He (or she) was limping badly with some injury to his left leg, possibly both left legs. I figured that he risked coming out early in order to get some easy pickings. With his injury it probably made it harder to get food. And he did get lucky...he found a dead bird in the ground under the feeder and sat there and ate the whole thing.

I slowly walked across the yard until I was about 20-30 feet away and I just sat down and snapped pictures. Most of the time Mr. Skunk just continued to eat but every once in a while he looked up at me. He knew that I was there but he must have felt that I was not a threat. I felt perfectly safe because skunks only have a 10-15 foot spray range and also because they don't like to use up any valuable chemicals unless they really need them for defense. As many times as I have seen skunks in the yard (probably 10 times in the last month) I have never smelled one once in that time. Besides, if they are going to spray they usually give you a warning by stamping their feet and then balancing on their front feet, and they finally turning their business end in your direction. Now if you would run up and surprise a skunk you wouldn't get the benefit of all the nice warnings.