Unexpected animal

Tuesday evening, after I unloaded the second and final load of branches from the second tree that had gone down in my yard from the storm over a week ago, I decided to walk along the river.  I hadn't been there for a few days now.  The river level has peaked and is now dropping.
It was dark but the moon was pretty full and shining brightly. 

I was walking along a high bank in the north pasture when I heard an animal right in front of me making noise.  Previous days I noticed goose and duck poop in the grass on the high bank.  In the darkness I looked for the animal making the sounds.  I saw light and dark colors and thought it could be a duck or goose in front of me.   Then the animal hissing at me came into focus.

It was a skunk!  The white I had seen was its back and tail.  The tail was up.  Fortunately the skunk was facing me and not  away from me.  However it was mad and hissing at me.  Even in the dark I could see its small head and teeth.  I was about five feet from it.  Waaayyy to close!

I stopped and started to slowly back up.  The skunk kept hissing at me and moved towards me.  Before the skunk could turn around and spray me I turned and ran like a bat out of Hell yelling all the way.

I outran the the skunk and never got sprayed.   Now I know why I occasionally see duck or goose bones and wings along the river in this pasture.