Scentless apprentice

I was just outside doing a bit of stargazing and satellite-viewing. The sky is slightly hazy and a little bit cloudy, not as ideal as last weekend. Plus my binoculars totally fogged over, which was a bit of a pain. I cleaned them with my T-shirt.

I tracked a very bright satellite that passed almost directly overhead - that was pretty cool. I think I saw one of my Messier objects again, but it was hard to be sure - it was just a fuzzy gray blob against a slightly darker fuzzy gray background, with pinpricks of stars here and there. On a darker, clearer night it would be easier to tell.

So. After a bit of neck-craning and lens-cleaning I decided to take a little break. Just relax my eyes, gaze along the ground. Look at the "thing" tree that I will have to eventually cut down before its runners take over the world; look at the corn stalks mysteriously and incongrously growing around it - hey, I didn't plant them!; look at the bird feeder in the foregound; look at the large furry thing moving along the ground towards me...

I let out a quick Hsssst. Universal tongue, means I am here. The thing picked up its black head and noticed me. Was that a shock of white I saw?

It turned away from me, largely, longly, blackly.

I couldn't see it. My eyes are good for seeing in the dark, but it was better at not being seen in the dark. But I had light-gathering devices hanging around my neck. I picked up the binoculars and swept along the ground.

There is something amazingly beautiful and graceful about the way a skunk moves when it is trying to move with stealth. Its wedge-shaped head with a slim shock of white was turned purposefully, perpendicular to my position. Its tail - black, unadorned by a white stripe, thankfully not upright or pointed in my direction - seemed to go on forever. It carried no whiff of scent - even at ten yards, I should have still smelled it.

It left me alone - disappointed, no doubt, that it didn't get a free meal of cat food. I'm sure it will be back.

I'm glad I didn't surprise it too much. Sitting in my Adirondack chair, black sweatshirt and pale white legs against the milky-green paint, I was a pretty easy target.

Maybe next time.