The Kings and the Raccoon
This morning was special, Lakeside Park gifted me with so many photo opportunities. Photos of an animal that I have not seen at Lakeside Park for a long time and also of some elusive birds that I had wanted to better my previous photos of. It was a cold but gloriously sunny morning, everything crunched underfoot from the nights low of -2 degrees. I followed the sunlight along the bank of the lake and was preoccupied, focusing on a northern flicker that was drumming on a hollow dead tree when I noticed a distraction off to my left as it climbed its way up a tree. The last time that I saw a raccoon at Lakeside Park was back in March of 2018, and that was a young raccoon ( https://wildlakeside.blogspot.com/2019/07/a-wet-and-cold-raccoon.html ). This raccoon was a large adult. I took a few photos before moving along. The northern flicker's drumming and calling had attracted a mate. It presented itself to its partner, tail feathers spread out in an orange fan, fri...