5.13.12 Flowers and Wildlife

5.13.12    What started out to be a normal walk on a beautiful sunny afternoon turned up some surprises.  First, I encountered my first Blue-eyed Grass of the season.   As I rose up from a crouched position where I'd been examining the purple dots on every blade of blue-eyed grass and started to turn around, I was startled to see a raccoon, also in a crouched position, not 15 feet away!  Knowing that finding wild animals like this out in mid-afternoon can be a sign of illness, I backed away slowly, keeping a steady eye on the animal.  It continued to remain frozen in that position, perhaps as surprised as I had been that the crouched form it had been watching turned into a moving two-legged creature.  Nonetheless, I continued my backward exit strategy until the raccoon waddled off into the vegetated tangle. 

         About to come home, I found several Starry False Solomon's seal in blossom; the plants varied from 2 inches to more than a foot in size, each with a blossom appropriate to its size.    Just below my house (this time in the car!) a bob cat darted across the road and paused briefly in the open woods and looked back over its shoulder.