Silly Raccoon

We often have wild visitors on our deck. We feed the birds and find that the squirrels, wild turkeys and raccoons love birdseed too. The raccoons in particular make a mess and do damage so we scare them off whenever we hear them banging around out there, almost always after dark. We had a mother on the deck with 5 little babies one spring, the little ones were so cute. This was when we were building and there was no deck rail up yet. The mother ran for the hills shimmying down the deck support pole while the little ones ran to the edge, turned, and were slightly over the edge hanging on for dear life. They stayed there looking at us as if they feared they would be our next meal and considering their options. Five little baby faces peering at us, so adorable! One by one they either attempted to descend the railing after mom, simply jumped or lost their grip and fell. Being very small and having a soft landing on the forest floor they all survived. We were surprised that the mother deserted her children like that, but she must have stayed close & we did not see them again.

Last week we once again heard the banging and noise on the deck that meant a 'coon was at the feeder. This raccoon was on the deck when I ran out the back door making noise to send it running in hopes that it would be scared enough not to return for a while. Well, evidently I scared it alright. We can only imagine it is this years baby and still young and inexperienced. It ran to the corner of the deck and simply froze. It seemed to think that as long as it couldn't see us we couldn't see it either & it was safe. I stood not 4 feet from the critter as it peeked over the railing at me and then quickly hid its head again. Calling Joe to come and see I waited while he came up from the lower level, got his jacket on and come out onto the deck. I thought for sure that at any minute it would run along the railing to the edge of the deck and out into the night. That or, as the mother did some years back, head down the deck post to the ground and safely make its way into the woods. I didn't want Joe to miss seeing him up close and standing still. He had his chance and we both stood and talked with the raccoon for about 5 minutes. The raccoon did not respond, or move again for that matter. We went in and watched from the window for a few more minutes but the raccoon did not budge. Since we had all the lights on we felt that this was probably the reason for the continued game of 'statue'. Off went the lights and when we checked back a 1/2 hour later the raccoon was gone. Its been very quiet on the deck lately & while we enjoy having these up close experiences, we are happy for the peace as well.