I encountered this Armadillo in Frisco’s Grand Park.
The City of Frisco has grand plans for Grand Park! Included in the park’s design are a chain of lakes with fountains, a festival hall, a miniature railroad and depot, a bath house, a playground, and hiking trails. A pretty extensive reconfiguration of the 275 acre parkland is imagined: Grand Park Master Plan
Evidently, the early phases of this development have recently begun. On this trip to the park I discovered a number of temporary roads cut across the fields and into the forest. A bulldozer had led the way clearing debris and bridging wet areas. In one place a path had been cut deep into the woods. This particular road was considerable more destructive than the others.
The bulldozing effort seemed to be in support of some soil testing, as there were core samples scattered about at several marked sites along the paths. This undoubtedly is part of the work required to secure the Army Corp of Engineer’s permission to build the planned lakes.
I was following one of these paths when I ran into the Armadillo in the photographs below. He was on one side of the creek and I was on the other. Safe and secure on the far side of the stream bed the Armadillo was unconcerned by my presence, and I was able to take a number of pictures.
Then I had to go and cross the creek! I had a Scouting Camera set on the other side, and I really want to have a look at the pictures it held.
The Armadillo was not happy about this development. He grunted his displeasure and then jogged over an embankment and out of my sight. But, Armadillos do not have great situational awareness, nor do they have long memories. Once the Armadillo was over the hill he picked where he left off and returned to his noisy foraging.
Unfortunately, he had stationed himself right path I was planning to take. As I approached, the Armadillo moved himself further away from me, but each time he remained on my intended route.
This situation repeated itself over and over again until the comical Armadillo had led me straight to my Scouting Camera. This is where we parted company—or so I thought. When I examined the pictures recorded by my remote camera, this photograph of our friend the Armadillo was the first one on the SD card!