July 9, 2014
This morning I was in the blind on Bold Bluff Point for four hours. It is heaven here. I sit under a giant old growth Douglas fir tree on a rocky ledge that forms a perfect seat, and I am hidden from the boats that ply Sansum Narrows and also from the animals .. well, almost! I sit under a sloping branch, draped in an olive green net that wraps around my giant camera lens and tripod. I can barely see out of it.
This morning I changed the location of my camera and tripod, moving it farther out so I was more visible to the creatures that visit the rocks at Bold Bluff Point. A baby raccoon walked by on the low tide rocks, looking wet and scraggly and so cute with its masked face. I had just a few seconds of opportunity to get the photo. The coon heard my camera click and saw me staring at it through the giant lens, and scampered off.
Well, that was satisfying. It was my first sight ever of a raccoon on the beach at Bold Bluff Point. How many times have they slipped by me when I have been tucked away in the blind?
And why are we drawn to raccoons? They are warm-blooded mammals like us, and they are adorable to our eyes even though they raid our gardens. Perhaps they will be the next marine mammals, as they spend so much time in the intertidal zone, turning rocks over and eating tiny crabs.