We saw a Baltimore Oriole the second day at the park. We very seldom see them, and he was brilliant orange. We walked the park a few times with the camera looking for him, but we never saw him again. One of the campers put out a bird feeder, and they said the orioles hung out near them. Since it is a bird feeder, it would not count for the bird catalog, but it would be nice to get a picture. We only ever heard the orioles on our walks. We did see some of the residents behaving no better than animals.

We saw a bunch of black squirrels with red tails running around in the park. They are most likely a melanistic Eastern Grey Squirrels. They have a genetic mutation, melanism, that causes higher amounts of dark pigment (eumelanin), which results very dark body fur. The cinnamon pigment (phaeomelanin) of the tail is inherited as an independent trait. This mutation for Eastern Grey Squirrels is common in the Great Lakes Region, Northeast US, and some areas in Canada. Northeast Ohio, including Cuyahoga Valley National Park, is known for them. A similar mutation can also happen with Fox Squirrels, but they have ear tufts.

Sadly, the prettiest one was too skittish for pictures. The cinnamon on the tail can appear as speckles on the body, almost like a tortoise shell squirrel. It also varies for how where the cinnamon on the tail stops. Some have black bodies with cinnamon tails. On others, the cinnamon stops halfway up the tail or part way onto the flanks. These are some fancy squirrels.

There was also, what we presume was, a mother groundhog and baby groundhog. The baby groundhog was maybe 1/3 to 1/2 the size of the mother. The baby was too skittish to get pictures. If you opened the door or window, it would dive into the poison ivy beside the camp site. They would eat clover and grass about ten feet behind the RV. They are really cute out in the woods; they are not so cute burrowing under your house steps.

Speaking of not so cute burrowing under your steps, they also have chipmunks there. We did not get pictures of it, but one drainage ditch had a very territorial chipmunk constantly chasing a robin away. We watching him rush the robin at least three or four times chasing him away each time. Clearly, the robin did not find him that threatening because the robin kept returning.

This guy looks like a sparrow of some sort. We thought it might be a Lincoln Sparrow, but it turns out that it is a female Rose Breasted Grosbeak. This would be awesome, if it was not on a bird feeder. We heard of these singing the first day we arrived. It sounds like a Cardinal, but it is not quite right.

And this one appeared to be some sort of black bird, but it turned out to be a Catbird. These walks were in the evening, so the bird looked all black in the shade. Once you adjust the exposure, you can see the black cap. You can also see that it needs to brush its … beak? It has bugs stuck between its … teeth?

One they way back from the last walks on Friday, we saw a rabbit. We thought it might be something new because it looked like it had spots like a fawn. It turns out to be an Eastern Cottontail. They can have light grey on them.

We heard a bang one night followed by a second bang a little later. John went out to see if someone was stealing the bikes. When he opened the door, something disappeared into the poison ivy and bushes, so he was a bit concerned about thieves. It turns out he was right to be, but this was a four-footed masked bandit. The lid of the grill had been tossed off, and something was trying to get to the beef fat covered tin foil. We had been warned about the park having the fattest raccoons on earth, but we forgot to clean up the grill.

A different day, Kate found a stolen bag of bread in a ditch. With a diet of carbs and grease, the raccoons probably look like typical Americans. We bet they will get voting rights in a few years.