Masked Marauders

Admittedly these are not the best pictures, terribly actually but it’s all I have so they’ll have to do…

They are pictures of raccoons. A mother and I believe five babies.

I noticed them, from my bathroom windows last night about 8:30, walking along the woods line, headed towards the pond. It looked like they started climbing up a small tree, so I headed down to see if I could get some pics.

Well, they were not up in the tree, instead they saw me and headed into the pond and started swinging away, all of them in a neat line -

You can make out one’s face in the pic below -

Suppose I should be thankful they were headed away, instead of coming up towards the chicken pen.  Of course since they’re obviously in the area the chickens will always be at risk.

They were awfully cute raccoons 🦝 

I Named Him\Her Ranger Rick!

Well, well, well, what do we have here?!

So, at just after 4AM this morning, as I'm waiting for Trixie to do her "business", I hear this unique noise coming in my back yard.  I thought perhaps it was an owl, so grabbed my flashlight and started scanning the area where the noise was coming from but couldn't see anything.

With Trixie safely back in the house, and sporting nothing but a flashlight in hand and wearing only a pair of tighty-whities, I made my way down my deck stairs and towards the noise.

Very much to my surprise was this youngster, Ranger Rick, snared in my hav-a-heart trap!  Seems this pup has a hanker'n for strawberries.

I waited till daylight, took some pic, then opened the trap door to set him\her free.  Even though I no longer have chickens, a couple of my neighbors do, so I gave him\her a stern talking to about leaving them alone and sticking to raiding trash cans!

He\she was extremely cautious and wouldn't move even though the door was propped open.  I was hoping to capture his\her run to freedom on video but he\she wasn't having it, so I made my way back onto my deck and within several minutes he\she darted out and off.

I hope he\she, or what it's pronouns are, listens to my advice.

Also, pretty sure the neighbors think I'm odd already, so me parading around my backyard at 4AM in my skivvies is not something they'll think twice about 😉... 

Rocky Raccoon's Visit

Spotted this youngster running across our front lawn the other morning.  Clearly, past it's curfew, up it went into one of our big oak trees.  Up, way up it went, then down it came until finally finding a suitable spot where it curled up and slept all day. 

Hoping it moved on elsewhere and stays away.

A Young Ranger Rick Perhaps...

Caught this youngster using a piece of broccoli as bait.

Would much rather of nabbed a woodchuck but I'm happy just the same.

This little fella was carrying on screaming and yelling so loud that a neighbor came over to see what all the fuss was about.

One Little, Two Little, Three Little...

And then there was a fourth...

These vermin have a hanker'n for leftover Maine steamer clam shells but then again they were delicious!!

This dude has been the most ornery and vocal of the bunch.  He announced his presence and his intentions as you approached. 

It was comical to watch him attempt to climb this White Pine tree.  He wasn't making much upward progress, guessing the bark was too much, but as he tried he circled the tree numerous time.  I'll give him an A for effort.

Neener-neener-neener

I see you!

Do you see me?

Raccoon Infestation?!

I suspect this little fella was looking for his mommy...

I'm sure there are others out there too.  Considering ourselves lucky that they've not fussed with any of our chickens and rabbits.

This Is NOT Ranger Rick!!

Well surprise surprise!

Here is our bread thief.

I consider myself, but even more so, the rabbits and chickens lucky that this dude was only pilfering bread.

He was climbing up the chicken coop, to the rabbit cage level, and pulling loafs of bread, wrappers and all, through the spare cage used to hold extra goodies for our animals.

Our chickens were in the coop below and a rabbit on either side of the storage cage.

I guess I jinxed us as I was recently saying how lucky we've been that in the 15+ years we'velived here we've never had an encounter with a raccoon.

Boy has that changed!!