Wednesday, May 24, 2023

Apple blossom

 

When the snow finally left I noticed that my bird feeders wouldn't have any seed in the mornings.  Figured it was the deer until I hung the oriole feeder and I'd have to go looking for the empty jelly cups in the morning.  That kind of dexterity usually means a raccoon.  Strangely the feeders on the tall shepherd hooks on the other side of the deck  remained untouched.  A small coon maybe.  I brought the feeders in every night after sunset for a few weeks and then started leaving them out again.  Made it through two nights before something ate it's way through hummingbird feeders, platform feeder, oriole feeder, and tube feeders.  So I went back to bringing them in nightly.  I'd just stepped out the back door to do that last night when  I heard the sound of bare feet running toward me.  It was a raccoon and she wanted to get to where the deck was far enough off the ground so she could hide under it.  That meant running right past me.  I let out a scream.   A healthy scream but not good enough to be on Svengoolie.  The last thing I saw was the coon's tail disappearing over the edge of the deck.  Weighed the possibility of it coming back out to fight over sunflower seeds but decided that was pretty unlikely.  I brought in all of the feeders.  The dog wasn't overly interested while she sniffed around the deck this morning so I assume the critter took off for the woods sometime during the night.  I do a really good witch's cackle but will have to work on my blood-curdling scream.    Maybe lower in tone w/ more diaphram?

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