Have you ever seen a porcupine with a death wish? One came visiting here, just at dusk, last Thursday. I happened to glance out the window to see the shape of a heavyweight porcupine, 6 feet up a tall 90-year-old maple tree and climbing fast.
With so many dogs around, it’s quite rare for a porcupine to risk coming quite this close to the house, so of course I grabbed my camera.
The light level was low, because it was overcast sky as well as late in the day, but I think you can see that this was not the smartest mammal in the world — skinny tree branch, fat porcupine!
The close-up view was taken from a second-storey window, if that gives you an idea of how high he climbed… Those sure must have been some mighty tasty twigs that he was after, up there.
Shortly after I took these photos, the wind picked up and the tree started swaying quite wildly back and forth, with the chubby porcupine way high up and clinging on for dear life… call me insensitive, but oh, how I laughed!
Our fat spiked visitor did manage to get himself back on terra firma without incident, no worries, and scuttled off through the middle of my daffodils towards the safety of the woods.
An otter playing on the swings? That would be so funny, what a lucky sight! I’ve always heard that they were playful creatures…
Cool photos! Doesn’t it always give you kind of a jolt when you see an animal nearby that you don’t usually see? My favorite visitor ’round here recently has been an otter that I’ve seen twice, playing on the slide on my daughter’s swingset. There’s no water in the immediate area, though we live just two blocks from the Des Moines River… it’s always just a little amazing to see him so close by!