Tuesday, June 30, 2020

OH NO!

Our raccoon family up at the cabin have been into mischief lately
as the babies are growing and turning into challenging teenagers.

This year we have two raccoon families.
One mother with 2 babies who seems to be managing them pretty well,
doing a lot of tree climbing and begging at our screen door at night.
Mommy #1 showing one of the little ones how to climb our tree outside kitchen window

And then a second mom with 4 underfoot.
Her young ones are at an age where they aren't wanting to listen and follow her anymore
and I feel for her.
No matter how much she scolds them they are constantly disobeying her,
and she is forever rounding them up and trying to corral them
with not much luck.
Second mom scolding her babies to come down out of tree

They've been tipping over pots, 
moving my well placed border logs to look for grub to eat,
digging in planters, 
and eating the Blue Jay's eggs and knocking down their nests.
I know,
all typical things raccoons do I have learned.
So every morning I have new surprises in the yard to deal with.
She finally gets them down so she can come down herself

The nest (top pix) belongs to my favorite Blue Jay family.
 The mother returns each year to make her nest under our front porch eaves
on a wooden platform that the owner before us nailed into place just for her. 
But the teenage raccoons found it before the eggs hatched,
made a delicious dinner of them and knocked down the nest for me to find on the ground. 
Needless to say I was very sad for the Jays.
Mommy #1 at our screen door at about 11:00 p.m.
not afraid of me

I don't know about all of you but I have loved bird's and their nests forever.
And this one is a beauty filled and woven with so many ingredients from our mountain community.
Look closely and you will see dried up thins of mud, 
dried wildflowers (I believe they are Fever Fews),
a piece of plastic string,
bites of cloth strips I put out every year for them along with dryer lint,
pieces of paper and lots of different sized twigs.
It is such a masterpiece of ingenuity.
I've got it displayed on our porch railing for Jim's grands to see.
Still waiting patiently for some grands of my own 
ha ha!

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