Skunks in the Snow

The Centreville skunks have been out and about in the snow.  Like the raccoons around here, skunks are a lot more active in the night than in the day.

I was surprised that I didn't smell the noxious odor of a skunk when checking the camera on a large plot of land in Centreville, Virginia yesterday. I usually do smell it first.

We can clearly see here that there are two individuals walking in front of the camera.  One is a lot darker than the other, with most of its coat being black.  The other contains lots of white.

The coats of skunks vary greatly in color, but they all stink terribly.

A Real Stinker

Let's all take a minute to appreciate the skunks of Northern Virginia.

One of my biggest surprises so far in my experiences of camera-trapping has actually been a lack of skunks.  This is only my third event of getting a skunk on camera in all of northern Virginia, ever.

I know there are many of them around because I see them walking in the daytime, see them dead on the road, smell them in the air frequently, and see them at least once a week in my backyard in the summer,

So why are skunks so camera shy?   Well,  I don't really know.  I never thought it would be this hard to get a skunk on camera in the woods at night.

Leesburg Bear Gets Into Garage

The power and strength of a black bear is incredible.

One local homeowner had a black bear rip through a garage door just to get some food that it smelled inside.  I wonder if it could have been one of the same bears that I have gotten on camera in the past few weeks.

Check out the story at http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Bear-Crashes-Through-Leesburg-Garage-Door-205756511.html?_osource=SocialFlowFB_DCBrand .

This story comes courtesy of nbcwashington.com and NBC Universal.