Or really the whole family is back. Yes, it’s groundhog day. The real groundhog day, that is. The return of the sub-porch pirates. But not under my porch, because I filled it with rocks. Still, they like to hang out on my porch steps. Go away!

Something about this guy perched on the roof made me smile. It seemed so incongruous. At least he didn’t brain himself flying into one of those mirrored windows. (You can click on the pic to make it bigger.)

I had an earlier Wildlife post of a skunk. I’m quite proud of that post, as skunks are not the easiest critters to get a picture of. I got lucky with this guy though, as I was out walking early in the morning and saw a pair of skunks (probably up to no good) just walking down the sidewalk together. When they saw me they split up, and this one went down a sloped driveway. When he got to the bottom he was faced with a steep climb.

He had a lot of trouble, which is what gave me the time to get my phone out and take his picture.

Really, he kept climbing up part of the way and then sliding back down.

Finally he seemed to get the hang of it.

Then off to do more skunky things. I suspect making baby skunks. Glad this wasn’t my driveway or backyard.

One of my neighbours got a kitten last week. The breed is a Ragdoll, which I’d never heard of before. That shows how much I know about cats. Anyway, his name is Caspar and he’s quite the cute little puffball.

Almost walked into this guy. Didn’t see him or his reflection. But he stayed cool and let me take his picture.

I hope you appreciate this Wildlife instalment. There are a lot of these guys around, but they are very camera shy and tend to keep odd hours, so getting a good picture is difficult. Once this one heard the shutter on my phone camera he turned around and trundled off in the other direction.

I don’t like groundhogs. They were the one animal I would hunt while living in the country. But in my last years on the farm they had all but disappeared, hunted to extinction by wild dogs.

Unfortunately, when I moved I discovered that they had relocated to the city before me. And now I can’t even shoot them.

In my ongoing attempt to capture all the various fauna living in my neighbourhood, I had this little fellow pose for a picture. After I thanked him, he slowly hopped away.

This is bold behaviour. Foxes in my neighbourhood don’t have any problem with just hopping up on the porch to smell the spring flowers. Then loping off for a walk down the sidewalk. This fellow even let me take his picture. Or her picture. Not sure which.