Yesterday I was skunked by a terribly wrong weather forecast so I decided this was the day that I would share one of my Striped Skunk photos taken last year.

Striped Skunk butt, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, UtahStriped Skunk butt – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/800, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

All I got on that day last August were photos of the skunk’s butt. So, I got skunked, but not really stinky skunked by the skunk. It wasn’t the kind of skunked where you need to fumigate your clothes for days. No, this was a different kind of skunking – the kind that leaves you with a collection of butt photos instead of great images of the skunk’s face.

I suppose I should be grateful that I didn’t end up smelling like a skunk’s hind end. But let’s face it, a good story usually involves a little stink. Or does it?

The forecast for yesterday predicted mostly cloudy skies in northern Utah. That turned out to be as accurate as a fortune cookie. The clouds I saw on the radar were fashionably late and showed up much later in the day.

Because of the messed-up forecast, I stayed home, lamenting the faulty forecast and looked at a bright blue sky for most of the day.

So instead of being skunked because I couldn’t find birds or animals, I was skunked by an inaccurate weather forecast. It could not have been more wrong.

Today the forecast is for clouds all day and high winds after noon. I’m not going to trust that. Nope. Not going to happen. I’m going to troll through every weather-related site, including traffic cams, well before sunrise. I don’t want to be weather-skunked again.

It feels like it’s been so long since I’ve ventured anywhere but my local ponds that I might need a GPS to find my way to the other locations I know so well and love so much.

Life is good, even when the weather isn’t what it was expected to be.

Mia

Click here to view my Striped Skunk photo gallery plus facts and information about this species.