Great Skies for Kites and Kayaks Everywhere
My Wandering Blog
Tailey is out early looking for food while her kits are still asleep in the den. I left four slices of old bread for her by the fence.
After grabbing the first slice, she takes it into the field. This requires a bit of parkour as she tries to go under the fence and over a log someone put on the other side to block the opening.
For the next slice of bread, she stays on this side of the fence.
I’ve seen cats jumping off the top of the fence, but this is the first showing both in and off.
Baby raccoons are unbearably cute.
Sadly, they grow up and start to fight. I’ve seen one or possibly two raccoons whom I named “Stu,” for its short stubby tail. At first I thought it must be a birth defect, but apparently they lose their tails in fights with other raccoons. In the following videos we see two raccoons coming back to the lair with damaged tails.
The first comes across the fence from the field, with a tail suspiciously bent at a right angle. The damaged portion of the tail seems to dangle lifelessly. The raccoon considers entering the den, then returns and enters the tunnel of tires. From here it disappears, possibly returning to the field.
Another raccoon arrives a half hour later. The black tip of its tail appears to be nearly detached, dangling helplessly. The raccoon enters the den multiple times, but appears unable to rest. As it paces outside, the raccoon keeps shaking, as if to free itself of the damaged tip of its tail.
After staying in the end for over an hour, the raccoon comes back outside.
That evening, a raccoon with a short tail climbs the fence. It starts to step onto the tree that will take it down to the field, then clumsily turns around on top of the fence like it’s having trouble keeping its balance. After greeting another racoon, it climbs down the tree into the field. I’m not sure if this is Stu 1, Stu 2, or Stu 3.
The following afternoon, I found tufts of white and black hair scattered across the lawn, not too far from the raccoon den.
It’s been cold, so the water I put in a dish by the fence has mostly frozen. We’ll call the raccoon in this video Target, because of the nicely even rings at the end of its tail, but I’m not positive this is the only raccoon with that design on its tail. Anyway, Target starts by drinking a small pool of water on the low end of the dish.
Using its paws, Target removes the block of ice from the dish and drinks the bit of water trapped underneath.
Once the water is gone, Target picks up the block of ice with both paws for a moment and licks it.
Then Target wanders off.
This black and white cat went under the fence into our yard . . .
. . . and, two minutes later, over the fence from our neighbor’s yard back into the field.
With the raccoons staying in their dens because of the snow, our next sighting is a deer on the other side of the fence.
Cal climbs the tree from the field, then hesitates at the top of the fence. Like the raccoons, he probably wanted to use the tires leaning against the fence to help on the way down. Snow covering everything apparently made him re-think his destination.
After surveying his options, Cal returns to the field.
Four raccoons come up the fence from the sheds, but the lead raccoon is hesitant to descend the tree, creating a bottleneck.
Fifteen minutes later, two raccoons climb the fence. It’s unclear if two raccoons circled around and climbed the fence or if there were six separate raccoons.
Two raccoons cross the fence from the field after snow began to fall.
Twenty minutes later, two raccoons climb the fence.
Ten minutes later, two raccoons cross the fence from the field.
At 3 AM, the camera covering the entrance to the den was buried under snow.
A robin on the fence decided the top of the camera was a better place to sit.
Widey crosses the fence from the field in daylight and joins maybe two raccoons under the shed. Coming from a different colony, Widey seems less concerned about traveling without the cover of darkness.