Posts Tagged ‘garden’

My wee little friend has returned. This morning I found him napping in the tree above the food area. He was sound asleep, but when I opened the third-story window to snap this photo, I woke him.

Tired and Full of Bird Seed - Napping Raccoon

Everything in the forest thinks my house is the ultimate pit stop. I currently have a bunch of grackles in the trees, and I’m quite shocked they haven’t driven the raccoon to a quieter place to nap. They are unbelievably noisy!

We are getting some of the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee today, giving us some lovely tornado watches and straight-line winds. The storms just passed my property, and I looked outside to survey the mess only to see a very wee raccoon trying to eat some birdseed underneath my feeder. I’m afraid the photo isn’t great because I was taking it through a screen door. I didn’t want to frighten him.

Wee Raccoon

It’s strange to see raccoons in the daylight.The photo doesn’t convey how small he is because of the perspective, but his size indicates he could be an orphan. That might also explain why he’s wandering around alone at this time of day. I’m such a sucker for orphaned critters! I certainly leave plenty of leftovers for critters, but this little one may be too small to elbow his way between my other nightly visitors: the four foxes, opossums, and larger raccoons.

As soon as he saw me snapping photos, he scampered away. That’s a good sign; it’s normal for a raccoon to be afraid of humans, and if they aren’t it could indicate rabies. I think this is just a little one without a Mommy. I know from all my other raccoons that they do tend to stay with Mommy until they are quite a bit larger than this little cutie is. Hopefully, he’ll make it on his own. He at least seems to have figured out that my house is the place to come for food.