Rita's Got Possums, I've Got Raccoons

For the past few weeks, I have been reading about the ongoing saga of my friend, Rita Harmon, who has been dealing with Possums that took up residence under her porch. Eventually, she put out traps to catch them. Not sure how many she's caught at this point, but know it's been a bunch, some of whom she has posted pictures of on Facebook such as above.

I have found myself with a somewhat similar problem with Raccoons. I tend to be a night owl, often times not heading to bed until the wee hours of the morning. A couple of months ago, I started hearing noises coming from the roof of my house late at night sometime after midnight as I sat watching TV and browsing the web. Then, shortly after that, I noticed what appeared to be a bunch of animal droppings along one of the valleys in my roof. Closer examination confirmed that's what it was.

Then one night, shortly after that, I forgot to put the garage door down when we came in for the night. Around 11 PM, I suddenly remembered I hadn't closed it. Since I keep both dog food and bird food in the garage, which the neighborhood cats and at least one skunk have partaken of in the past, when the door was left open, I got up to close it. As I opened the door leading from the house into the garage and started to flip on the light, I heard a rustle and observed the rear end of something sticking out of the dog food bag, but before my eyes could adjust to clearly see what it was, it skampered to the other side of the car and, I thought, out of the front of the garage. I thought it was a cat which I have caught in the dog food on numerous occasions. In any case, I closed the garage door and went back to my comfortable lounger and watched some more TV and played on my laptop. About an hour later, however, I started hearing quite a racket coming from the garage like things were being knocked over. Not sure what I had out there and not wanting to open the door into the house in case it was a skunk, I walked out my back door and around to my pickup which was parked out front, turned on the headlights and hit the garage door opener. As the door began to come up, an adult Coon, which I apparently had trapped inside when I closed the door, scampered out and around the corner of the house. He had scattered things around pretty good including the dog food, and to add insult to injury, had gotten up on my work bench and pooped on it, something I decided he had been doing on my roof for some time.

Then a couple of weeks ago, I discovered he/she wasn't my only visitor. I knew something had been coming in during the night and eating all of the suet in my feeder if I didn't remove it from its cage and bring it in at night. I had been pretty good at doing that, but on occasion I would forget and leave it out. This particular night, I had forgotten to do so, and around 11 PM, thought about it and went out to get it. As I turned on the backyard lights and stepped out the door, I saw two little bodies scamper up the tree where the suet was. One went all the way to the top where I couldn't see him, but the other ran up a limb that didn't extend more than about 12 ft. from the ground. As I walked out and looked up, I found myself staring at a baby Raccoon who was clinging to the branch and, I assume, hoping I didn't see him.



I eventually walked back in the house, but left the lights on and watched to see if he and his sibling would come down. After an hour or so, I walked back out and the one I could see was still clinging to the same branch. I finally turned out the backyard lights and went to bed, so don't know how long they stayed in the tree.

Then last night I forgot and left the garage door open again. Went out to close it around 10:30 and discovered the two youngsters scampering away from the bird food bag and trying to hide among a bunch of stuff I had stacked in a corner. I finally flushed one of them out and saw him run out the door, but wasn't sure about the other, so I left the light on and the garage door open and came back in for a while. Went back out later along with our dog and walked around and decided both were gone and closed the door.

This morning, a little after 6 AM, my wife woke me up and said there must still be a Coon in the garage, because the dog was at the door going into the garage and acting excited. He and I went out and I rummaged around pulling boxes and other stuff out to where we could see behind them and finally worked our way into the far corner where my golf bag was leaning up againt the wall. As I started to move it, a little masked face popped up and took off between my legs and out the door. I followed him around the corner and saw him scurry up a Photenia bush onto my roof. He ran and tried to hide under a cornice of an eave.


When he realized I was right below him, he took off again and ran up to the top of the roof next to the chimney and hunkered down there.



I left him alone thinking he would surely move from there and go someplace cooler if he didn't see me, but, when I went out about almost two hours later, he was still there and appeared to be panting pretty hard from the heat. I then decided to get the ladder out and go up and see if I could get him to run to one of the many photenias that are around my house and scamper down it to the ground. Instead, he ran to the other side of house and hid under another cornice of the eave above my front porch. I thought I'd try one more strategy to get him off roof, so I grabbed a large fish net with a handle and positioned the ladder where I could crawl up and try to get him to run into the net. Instead, he avoided the net and jumped from the edge of the roof to the concrete porch about eight ft. below. He hit pretty hard, but bounced up and took off around south end of house and ran back into the garage again into the same corner I had found him to begin with. That's been about two hours ago and last time I looked, he's still hunkered down out there. Guess he's just scared and doesn't know where to go in the daylight. Felt sorry for him and put out some water just in case he would like a drink. Hoping he will decide to leave when it gets dark. I've got friends who would solve the problem with their 22 rifle, but guess I just don't have a killer instinct anymore. My dad gave me a 22 rifle for Christmas when I was 14. Was on the creek at our farm one day about a month later and spotted a Coon walking down the creek. I shot him, but didn't kill him on first shot. I still remember him looking at me with a sad look that said, "Why did you do that?" Finally shot him again to finish him off, but felt awful guilty, and haven't killed another animal in last 50 years and probably not gonna start now.

Fall Migration of Birds Has Begun

It's kind of hard to believe, considering how hot it has been in our part of the country, that many birds have begun their annual Fall migration south, both those that spend their Summers here and those that spend their Summers north of us, but I have noticed several changes here in past couple of weeks that seem to verify they're on the move. During the Summer months, we keep out hummingbird feeders and typically have three or four that come to our back porch feeders on a daily basis to feed.


In the past week, however, that number has grown as they start coming through headed to the Rio Grande Valley and points South where they winter. Not uncommon to see a dozen to two dozen or more at a time at our feeders between Labor Day and late September, with the ones you see one day moving on South and another group coming in to take their place the next day.

Also have noticed that in the past week that I have not seen a single Mississipi Kite flying overhead or perched in the trees.



This Summer, we have had a colony of about two dozen of them nesting in the trees of our neighborhood and soaring overhead during the day catching insects mid-air that comprise most of their diet. Their Winter range is down in South America, and it appears they have begun their long journey that way.


Also had a new bird in my backyard a few days ago that I had never seen except in my bird guide, an Olive-sided Flycatcher.



During the Summer, these birds live in the Western and Northwestern Mountain states and Canada, and they winter in Central America. The Guadalupe Mountains of the Trans-Pecos region of Texas are as close as they get during the Summer. However, when the time comes to migrate South, they do come across this part of the county on their way to Mexico and points South, and I was informed by another, more experienced birder in Missouri, that they are on the move South, and he had one come through his location last week.

For at least the next couple of months, birders in North Texas are likely to see several species at backyard feeders that they don't see at any other time of the year outside of early Spring, when northern migration takes place. So, if you're a birder and want to see some birds that you won't see during the Summer or Winter, now is a good time to start watching your feeders. The Olive-sided Flycatcher is the latest one I've seen, but during Spring migration, I have had both a Rose-breasted Grosbeak



and a Black-headed Grosbeak



stop by on their way to the Northern part of the Country and Canada, and we should start seeing the return of our Winter birds in about two months or so. Always enjoy the return of Goldfinches,



Pine Siskins,



Juncos



and several varieties of Sparrows including the White-crowned Sparrow,




White-Thoated Sparrow,




Lincoln's Sparrow,



Fox Sparrow,



and Harris Sparrow, just to name a few.