Mama Coon prepares dinner for her little ones

In my post of July 8 I noted how we had seen Papa Coon and Mama Coon, so Baby Coons couldn't be too far behind.

They're here.

Every afternoon Mama Coon climbs down from her poplar tree with her two babies trailing behind here. Mama climbs up in the small maple tree and shakes the sunflower seeds out of the bird feeder. The babies nibble away as the black oil sunflower seeds shower down on them. Mama occasionally slips in a seed or two for herself.

We haven't seen Papa Coon lately. He's probably out playing golf while Mama Coon takes care of things.

Speaking of golf, I have to get back to ESPN's around-the-clock-coverage of The British Open.

Wearing out their welcome -- again

Our raccoon family in Deerfield is being bothersome once more. We don't mind them cleaning out the bird feeder so much. We don't even mind them making Willie bounce off the living room windows.

Last night, however, they broke the hummingbird feeder which is about the 6th one they have trashed over the years. We have a mama and papa coon (mama is pictured), so probably we'll see baby coons before too long.

We like to live and let live, but I also have a live trap. I don't like to break up a family, but if they get too aggressive they may find themselves taking a trip to a park about five miles away. Fair warning.

'Coon's-eye view

Folks often ask us if it isn't a little lonely living in the woods on a one-lane road in the middle of 10 acres. Not so much.
It turns out we have at least one pair of eyes on us most of the time.

A large raccoon has taken up residence in a large poplar tree at the side of our yard. From that perch it can see when we fill our bird-feeders. Give it about a half an hour and its eases down the tree from its 60-foot perch and helps himself to the black-oil sunflower seed.

Feeding techniques are varied. Sometimes it unscrews the top of the rusty bird feeder (with much less difficulty than some of us.) Or it jumps on and jostles the seed to the ground. Or if Mr. Coon is really hungry, it can upend in the feeder in the fork of a branch and just let the seed pour on the ground.

If we happen to interrupt dinner, it slinks back up the tree to its post and watches us until the coast is clear.

We once tried to outsmart the non-birds (raccoons, turkey, squirrel) with ropes, pulleys and fancy feeders. Now we just set a place for everybody. Live and let live. As Betty says, they were here first.

Famous pumpkin is vandalized

Readers of the blog will remember the mystery vine that appeared in the summer and then grew into a nice fat pumpkin. The big green ball turned into granddaughter Keaton's "punkin" and its story made it onto our church's Advent calendar. We have had the pumpkin on the front porch since early December.

The raccoons are apparently back because they dug into the still-healthy pumpkin last night just like they did with all of our Halloween pumpkins. Apparently 'coons like pumpkin seeds. They also managed to ravage all of our bird feeders.

We don't mind co-habitating with 'coons at Deerfield, after all, they were here first; but they need to be less destructive.

'COON WARNING: I still have my live trap in the garage.

The Ballad of Three Feet

We have a raccoon with just three feet who keeps raiding our bird feeders each night. His short left rear leg is without a foot. We see him in the mornings hanging off the feeder outside the kitchen window.

I try to get a photo, but he's too quick for me. As soon as I open the kitchen door, he's gone. (Note: Accompanying photo is a regular four-footed coon from last year's crop.)

I've penned these lines for our three-footed friend:

A coon is quick on all fours
And not too bad on just three.
It fills its belly with birdseed
And grins at us from a tree.