September 16, 2018: Rocky Raccoon

We took a road trip to Newport this week, which of course included visits to a couple of wildlife refuges on the Rhode Island coast.  The highlight was the Sachuest Wildlife Refuge at the tip of Middletown, Rhode Island.  There are beautiful coastal views of 360 degrees around the park with lots of bird watching opportunities.

Harlequin ducks, I think

Mockingbird

Butterflies too (Monarch)

Pastel Easter candies for them to eat

Another nice refuge is the Emilie Ruecker Wildlife Refuge over on the Little Compton side of the bay.  There we saw egrets perched in trees and lots of fiddler crabs on the banks.

Egrets in trees?

Fiddler Crabs

While we were there the surf all the way from Hurricane Florence kept building, and by the last day it was pretty impressive.

The surfers certainly were enjoying the high surf, especially with calm winds as the storm was so far away, and with warm water temperatures at this point in the season.

Surfing off the rocks along the Newport Cliff Walk

Now back to New Hampshire and our little raccoon.  I say little because I think it was a young one based on its size and its behavior.  It didn't seem fazed by my presence, of which it was clearly aware.

It also made quiet calling sounds as it poked around on shore.  It decided it was concerned enough about me to head down into the lake to swim along in a little more protected position from land predators.

More of a raccoon's body is exposed when swimming than a beaver, muskrat, or otter

But it let me follow it along for a good 15 minutes, all the way along the shoreline, occasionally coming up on shore and then hopping back down into the water.

It was as comfortable on the water as it was on land, paddling along, climbing up and down the bank as it pleased, on occasion rummaging around under a hemlock looking for something to eat. 

As I watched I thought how easy it would seem to be for a coyote to catch it.  Here I was, large and clumsy, crashing through the woods, yet I was able to walk ahead of it and then watch it come up towards me and swim or waddle by.  How hard would it be for a much smaller, camouflaged, deft coyote to hide by the shore and grab it on the way by?

Eventually I went on my way, allowing it continue its morning safari around the lake shore.

If you were in the area this weekend, I hope you enjoyed the beautiful, calm, days - the water is still nice and warm.  But the lake is also quite high, even before we get the dump of rain from the remnants of Florence.  At least we won't get seven foot waves on Wicwas!