Day 214

There is a park located on a canal off of the St. Johns River system called Mariner's Cove. It is not a particularly interesting park, some tennis courts, soccer field, picnic tables and a boat ramp, but I decided to go there to see if there was anything worth photographing. As I was approaching the dock, an older gentleman with what I believe may have been a very prominent Greek accent started pointing to a tree on the other side of the canal and was saying "big raccoon". Sure enough, on the other side of the canal was a raccoon that was probably 2 1/2 feet long (not counting his tail). He was in the very top of what was about a 30 foot tree. After a couple of minutes, I heard a snap as a small limb broke and, hanging on for dear life, he pulled himself up and avoided landing in the water. He immediately began his descent and disapperared into the woods. Truth be known, in reality he was climbing down at the time of this photo. I just found the picture a little hard to look at turned that way so I rotated it so he looks like he was going horizontally. I also gave this shot a sandstone finish so it would have a "painting" feel.