Lake Skinner

Lake Skinner Recreation area and RV site is run by the local council, at the entrance office a large sign on the door states "you are now in mountain lion country" ! The huge flat area is bounded on three sides by thick scrub covered hills, not a house visible in any direction, only the shop / laundry / toilet block.

I was sorry not to see or even hear a mountain lion, they are about, and they are dangerous, human deaths do happen but what I did see, I did not like one little bit, I was sitting outside in the warm sunshine, just thinking how nice this is and how lucky I was when I became aware of a movement off to my side, I turned to see what it was, in the split second it took me to look, I was up out of that chair and twenty feet away without my feet touching the ground, just like in a cartoon.

The movement I saw was to me, the biggest snake in the world, it turned out to be about 4 feet long, fortunately, the man living next door was a part time worker on the site, I told him what was visiting, he called the wardens who arrived a very long ten minutes later with a large red bin, they just laughed, oh he is just an old gopher snake, he is not poisonous, he would bite you if you annoy him, but he is a good guy, he eats rats and mice, we will release him further away. I now look everywhere I walk and sit.

The other wildlife I was aware of on site consisted of many "cotton tails" our rabbit, also "jack rabbits", our hare, and small flocks of Californian quail, they rush about at great speed, groups of seven or eight, the males with a tall curved feather sticking up from their heads, most attractive and so busy.

When I could not sleep one night, I got up and poured a glass of milk, it was a lovely moonlight night so I did not switch a light on, I sat there looking at the world through my vast windscreen, as I sat there I became aware of movement, I watched, hoping it might be a mountain lion, sadly it was a full grown skunk, going about its own business, moments later another couple of them, I was delighted to share my evening with them. Glossy black, two broad white stripes running along the back and up the bushy tail something a little different to my foxes and squirrels.