These are a few photos made of wildlife I found in the early evening hours within the last month.  I found morning hours offer the most encounters but the evening is good as well.  This is a Great Blue Heron perched above a shallow part of Lake Arthur.

Great Blue Heron

Killdeer numbers are still high in western PA.  I found a small flock in a gravel parking lot.  Click on the photo to be taken to the gallery for more pictures of this flock.

Killdeer

Here is a little groundhog fattening up for the winter.

Groundhog (Woodchuck)

My first Striped Skunk photo.  After I photographed a porcupine last year I said I'll probably never be close enough to a skunk to photograph it.  It happened.  This is not an adult as an adult is up to two feet long including the 7 to 10 inch tail.  This skunk was a little smaller.  Here are some interesting facts about their defense quoted from the Pennsylvania Game Commission's Wildlife Notes. 

"Skunks are armed with a potent defensive weapon: a pair of large scent glands found beneath the skin on either side of the rectum. These glands have nozzle-like ducts, which protrude through the anus. Skunks discharge their scent, or musk, through these nozzles, powering the stream with a strong hip muscle contraction.  Musk is an oily liquid, creamy or yellowish in color. Its active ingredient is a sulphide called mercaptan. Field guides refer to the musk as “highly repellent to all mammals.”  In short, it stinks. Musk can make a predator sick or, if the skunk has been able to direct the substance into the animal’s eyes, temporarily blind.  A skunk can shoot musk about twelve feet, but will use it as only a last resort, preferring, instead, to bluff an enemy. If threatened, a skunk drums its forefeet on the ground, snarls, arches its back and raises its tail. It can spray in any direction by twisting its rump toward the target. And, contrary to popular opinion, it can discharge when hoisted by the tail."

Striped Skunk

I'll leave you with a photo of the September Harvest Moon.  The largest of them all.

September Harvest Moon

Check back early next week for my elk pre-rut photo blog.

Take care,

Dan