rosebee

So I think I've shared the story of the bird feeder we have on hanging from our deck, and how 4 or 5 times in the last few weeks we've woken up to the feeder being either on the floor of the deck (this happened once) or on the grass below (we're on the 2nd story).

The other night I was sitting in the living room, reading, when I heard a strange quiet noise from outside.

I turned off all the lights in the living room so I could see outside, pushed the vertical blinds apart a ways, and then turned on the deck light because I couldn't see anything otherwise.

The bumping around noises I heard were being caused by a pair of raccoons!! They had somehow climbed up to the deck and were pushing the cardboard plant flat (the thing that looks like a box lid that you put plants in when you go to the nursery) around. I use that cardboard thing to hold sunflower seeds for the birds that don't like to eat from a hanging feeder.

The darn raccoons shimmied up the deck spindles/railings, and sauntered back and forth on the top hand rail thing. The darn raccoon looked *really* intently at the hanging birdfeeder and the recently attached gravel-weighted plastic cone that's on the bottom of the feeder. The raccoon had this look in his eyes & this quick change of posture that made me just *sure* he was about to jump it and get to the feeder or the cone. This was a very well fed raccoon, too. His body mass would have absolutely NO trouble building up enough momentum to knock off the feeder (when the cone wasn't there anywyay).

I'm seriously thinking now that it wasn't the squirrel after all that was to blame for knocking the feeder off.
I think it was these raccoons! The squirrel I've seen on the patio at all hours of the day.
The only times we've found the feeder knocked off was first thing in the morning. And since raccoons are nocturnal creatures...

HTB & I REALLY wished we had low-light movie camera capable of taking pictures through the patio glass of the raccoons.