Outdoor Nature Hour: groundhogs & other mammal sightings

I do love groundhogs so I was looking forward to this week's study from Handbook of Nature Study. Groundhogs are very family oriented and take about three years to complete one of their projects.
After we bought this place last year, we saw a momma groundhog and her two babies outside our neighbor's barn. They would "pour themselves along" (run like the loose skin on their bodies was trying to catch up) into this hole in his barn. Hayes and I guess one or more is still hunkered down there now in all this cold and snow. I am looking forward to seeing him/her again in the spring!

So, since we weren't going to see a real live groundhog, I asked my Uncle Dean to send shots of "Bruce," the groundhog making its home near Aunt Melinda's place in St. Charles, Ill. Dean takes the best pictures and he was patient about getting Bruce several times before Dean and Melinda left to winter in Tucson. (See my link to The Ketelsens at right for fabulous astronomy photos by Dean!)

But our most exciting news is that we saw a coyote at dusk today when we headed out to get Alex. I just couldn't believe it. We've heard plenty of them, seen a few hit on the side of the highway, but this was the first real live one and he was just trit-trotting across the road and into the cemetery in town like he had all the time in the world.
We also slowed to allow a doe to cross to meet up with her friends and last week along this same road I saw a skunk make a mad dash for hiding. Alex came in a night or two before that and he distinctly smelled skunk close by. We were a little wary that there would be a dead skunk to attend to, but it just must've sprayed when a car came too close.