A few nights ago The Advoc8te woke up at 3:30am and looked out the window and was delighted to see a deer (a doe to be exact) foraging in her neighbors yard. This isn't the first time that deer have wandered into the neighborhood (our particular neighborhood is bordered on two sides by a national park) but it was the first time I actually saw one in a backyard foraging. It was something nice and peaceful about watching that deer but the show wasn't yet over. As the doe moved from the backyard and out of sight a raccoon came around the front yard to the same backyard. At this point I was sure I must have been hallucinating on all the flu medicine (you don't see your own personal wildlife show everyday) so to convince myself later indeed wasn't seeing things I took some pictures with my phone but they all came out too grainy to post here. The raccoon came into the backyard and after hanging out for a while crawled into my neighbors trashcan and settled down in the trashcan (lid closed) for it's dinner - for anyone who hasn't seen a raccoon their paws are just like hands it is amazing. Right after Ronnie (as I have now named the raccoon) left for the evening right after him came two of the neighborhood feral cats (sorry no names for them yet) and I watched them hang out for a while before going off to hunt for the evening. I waited a while for the neighborhood fox to show up but he must have been off hanging out with the deer. By the way my neighborhood is also home to a pair of bald eagles. When have you ever heard of bald eagles nesting in Southeast? Never. This is one of those really unfortunate things that go overlooked when one talks about Southeast - the amazing wild life. When you think of great national parks in DC most people think Rock Creek Park - they never realize that Southeast is full of really great green spaces with it's own wildlife. Southeast has several National Parks. You can get the million dollar views of upper Northwest in Southeast WITHOUT the million dollar pricetag or the traffic. If you don't live here already - come see what we are all about.

This is Congress Heights.

This is River East.