It Was My Fault

 Sometimes you get busy and you know there is something you are supposed to do but you put it off. Last night was one of those nights!

I bring in the sunflower seed and the nut mixture feeder and put the water wiggler on the deck floor stuck in a corner where, hopefully, the raccoons will leave it alone. 

I really did "think" about moving all the feeders around 7:40 p.m., but then, my second thought was, the birds still are feeding, well some were, so I left them out.  I was doing a project of typing up all my mom's recipe stash into my cookbook on the computer.  Of course, the time flies by! After finally finishing that, I decided to play a game and check some of my friends pages and a multitude of other tasks I enjoy doing on the computer.  It got way late. It was almost 11 p.m. when it dawned on me that I didn't bring in my two feeders.  Would you believe I took my camera with me. No, I didn't do that. Went to the door, turned on the light and there she was, eating sunflower seed out of the feeder. Picking them out one by one.  I didn't open the door, just walked into the back room, grabbed the camera and went back to the door. The lighting was awful but I attempted a picture through the glass of the door and the glass of the storm door. You can tell it's a raccoon for sure. LOL! The pictures are awful!  They are date and time stamped though, so you know it really was late. I opened the back door. Attempting to get a better picture. Not much better. Why did I not think of using the flash! I never use the flash, so it's not something I think to do! That's another thing I failed. I am now on the deck and told that old girl to get! She looked at me and finally moved on down the steps. Ahh, she left something behind!  It was her kid. What do they call baby or young raccoons, cubs? kits? little coon, what? Well, Google is a marvelous thing! They are called kits. Normally born in March and April. If the first litter failed, mom will have another litter as late as June. This kit, that totally ignored me, didn't realize mom was gone and left it, kept on eating! Did look over at me and it's like "don't bother me, I am busy eating!" I kept telling him/her to leave! Ignoring me just like a typical teenager!  Wasn't very old, pretty small so what do you think?  How fast do they grow? Was this one a teen like I think? Born in March or April? Would it still be that small? All this questions buzzing around in my head so early in the morning. 

I did another search. If you want to find more about how smart the raccoon is, their basic size and how and what happens from birth, I found  a URL for you to go to. Some great pictures too!  https://a-z-animals.com/blog/baby-raccoon-five-facts-five-pictures/             I did notice one thing about my raccoons. They are mostly brown. They aren't mostly gray. This little kit had a mask, so, after reading the article figured this one was born in March or April. I hope you go read about these smart critters.

 They have the ability to figure things out.  I could have told you that by dealing with them all the time!  The one time they thought they were going to beat me was the time I purchased the locking galvanized can. HA! They tried to get into that, knocked it around and one time pushed it down the steps and all the way to the back. Probably thought about hefting it up over the fence but finally gave up!  They didn't get that seed!  LOL! They just waited until I filled the feeder with that seed. Actually broke the first one I had so the top wouldn't seal down. Chewed on the wire cord holding it, or the squirrels did that. I put it farther away from the deck railing and they didn't seem to bother it anymore. However, since the new deck was built, it's closer and they just sat in my pot of Crossandra, crushing and breaking parts of the plant and pulled the feeder to them and finished off every drop! 

After running the raccoons off and bringing in the feeder, I still failed! I forgot to put the water wiggler on the ground. From my last dealings with them, they had broken the top of the wiggler off. I have been meaning to glue this one part but that hadn't happened, yet. Well, until this morning that is. I went out with the feeders to fill them and hang them back up and noticed the feeder with the hot seed in it was all askew, then noticed the water wiggler with the lid off and the part with the batteries laying on it's side, in the water.  At least this time, they didn't pull off the part with the rubber washers that move the water. I filled the feeders, all of them, even the ones in the back yard. Brought the wiggler in the house dried it off and glued that one piece on. Hopefully the lid won't come off again, after I get it back together.  

Mom

Mom

        He or she is a kit. can't see it well. Maybe next time I will remember to use the flash!  Oh, by the way, they pull this feeder over to the bannister so they can eat easier!