Posted: Thu, 10 Mar 2011 06:59 PM - 12,072 Readers

By: MIke Leggett

I'mm getting lots of skunk emails these days.

And why shouldn’t I? It’s skunk time in Texas.

People are wanting to know why they’re seeing more skunks suddenly and even why they are smelling them in their neighborhoods at night.

After spending the winter in dens - under old houses or rock fences, for instance - adult skunks are beginning to move around. They’re looking for two things: food and sex.

Skunks in Texas don’t really hibernate but they do go into a kind of lengthy period where they feed little and spend lots of time in communal dens. Those dens typically are mostly female.

As weather begins to warm and new grass to grow, the adults scatter out to take up territories where they can come into contact with other adults that could be prospective mating partners and where they can find plenty to eat.

They move mostly at night, which is one reason you smell them in suburban areas on still, cool evenings. Sometimes they’ve been killed by a great horned owl going after his favorite food or they’ve just been turned on by a dog or a car that causes them to hit the scent jets.

I especially like thinking that an owl has whacked a skunk, so the evening scent parade doesn’t bother me much at all. Unless one of my dogs gets sprayed and then it’s not so much fun.

They will calm down a little as the heat of summer catches on. Once fall gets here and they need to find a place to hole up in cold weather, you’ll start seeing them run over on the highway again.

FALCON PRODUCES ANOTHER LUNKER

Falcon Reservoir continues to be one of the top big bass producers in the country.

The huge border impoundment near Zapata just recently spun out its third Toyota ShareLunker of the season, a 14.16-pound fish caught by Gene Patrin of Zapata.

That makes three lunkers this season for Falcon, tying it with Lake Austin.

O.H. Ivie has six entries so far. No other lakes have produced a lunker yet.

*  Story Contributed by: MIke Leggett