Yes, you look a little too healthy.......like all the critters I feed around here.....even some of my birds are too fat to fly.

Shot him through my side office window (dirty and with glare) last night around Midnight...they come every night for a late snack.

Frames are for card fronts...I send out a ton of cards , just add a caption and your done! I keep a file of about a million!

Regards!


Can I get a steak instead of this dry dog food?

[eddie1960]

Man my neighbours would kill you for encouraging them Rupert. they are a complete menace downtown Toronto. (good for the roofers and animal removal companies though)
I don't feed them except inadvertantly when they get into my Wet Waste recycling bin (usually i can avoid that though emptying the cat litter in the same bin )

[Rupert]

Yeah Eddie, I know, I hear that a lot. But.....any night I want a free Circus I just turn on the yard lights and let them perform. They roll around on the ground, climb the trees, bathe in the bird bath and chase each other up and down the cedar fence. Sometimes we have Fight Night...and it gets pretty exciting. I've never had any damage from them...but then again, I have that Devil Squirrel that patrols the place night and day.....

You want a show....cut a small hole in a watermelon and put it on the ground.....watch three or four of them try to get their little human-like hands int there all at once! Hilarious!

Regards!

[tuco]

I had a raccoon turf war gang fight in front of my house one night. It was hilarious. Two large coons fought off about 5 smaller ones and, man, do they make some crazy sounds. The next day I saw one with its tail practically bit off and it was just hanging by a thread.

[eddie1960]

The big issue up here is they need to get shelter to have their broods in winter. I got woken up at 3 am one morning with my dog going absolutely batsh*t. I went out to see what was the issue looke up at the dormer on the bedroom saw nothing then all of a sudden up pops a head and throws insulation down at me and disappears again. $600 later (removal and repairs) I had another come in the back of the house, $400 this time. now i've fortified all entry points replacing wood with sheet metal. now they get in the neighbours attached to me there is no winning this war just small victories (now my neighbour is paying the bills )

[eddie1960]

I had a raccoon turf war gang fight in front of my house one night. It was hilarious. Two large coons fought off about 5 smaller ones and, man, do they make some crazy sounds. The next day I saw one with its tail practically bit off and it was just hanging by a thread.

my dog goes insane for them, fortunately i have him leashed most times we come across them, he may be a tough little bugger but i have a feeling they are tougher

[Rupert]

Tuco...They really get after it in a fight. No holds barred, they are viscous when agitated. A neighbor lost his Pitt Bull last year to one about the size of the one I posted. The Doggie went after one of the babies and daddy coon got on his back and went for the jugular...he got it. Many a Doggie has died at the hands of a Raccon. If there is water around the coon will drown a Doggie most every time.

I don't get too close, although they all know me fairly well and never offer any threats. Teeth are like razors, powerful jaws, and nails like knives......no need to push my luck. Only the Devil Squirrel would want to tangle with one.
Regards

[magkelly]

Well, let's see. We humans come in and chop down all the trees, put up houses and make cities. So where I ask you are the little creatures that lived there supposed to go exactly? Of course they're trying to get into houses. Houses are warm and there are probably not enough places left for them to hide in these days to have their babies in relative safety and warmth. Simple solution. Don't want damage from these creatures? Make things like raccoon houses, bat houses, and bird houses. When they're there they do use them.

My backyard is a lot like Rupert's at night. We have raccoons, opossums, weasels, bats, rabbits, the odd stray cat, tons of corvis birds, song birds, cranes, and quite a few big prey birds, mostly hawks and eagles. Yes, I said eagles. We live near a salt bayou and one of the biggest nature sanctuaries in my area is only a few miles from here. We see golden eagles and bald eagles all the time. It's like an episode of Wild Kingdom around here sometimes. Supposedly we have big cats, and bears, and I've seen coyote and deer. I live in a smaller city, a big town really, but not really all that far out into the country.

This is the burbs pretty much. We do have some bat houses et all on the premises. The place where I live got the nature park people to help us put them up. As a consequence you rarely see anyone here having major problems with animal damage.

I like it actually seeing something that isn't a house cat or a pet dog walking around sometimes. My pets don't much looking outside the window and seeing a raccoon or a coyote out there, but I do. I find it pretty fascinating actually that I can live in a small city and still see all that nature right here. That we can co-exist with all these animals in an urban setting is pretty cool, I think.

[eddie1960]

i'm right downtown in the biggest city in the country lol

but there is a river a couple of blocks away that brings in the wildlife as it has a good patch of land surrounding it all the way down through the city. I've seen foxes and coyotes as well. but the big thing in the core isn't the coon population from there they have tons of garbage to get at with a large number of restaurants plus every house having a green bin full of food waste. loads of squirrels as well. i've seen birds of prey flying downtown from the skyscrapers hunting pigeons (Rats with wings )
and nearby we have a conservation land with a large variety of birds at different times of the year

[Rupert]

Mag, I'm with you...I love to see the wild animals around my place. Here is a shot with the K5 at ISO 6400 of my little shop buddy that comes around fairly often. Friendly little critter too!

Regards!

[magkelly]

We had one of those crossing our roof every night for quite a while there. I finally caught a glimpse of it a couple of weeks ago. He was just jumping down off the roof onto on our old air conditioner and didn't like being spotted. He sort of made a noise at me and jumped down really quick. Ran away and I have yet to see or hear him again since. He was cute little thing. He did try to get into our roof at one point I think but that wasn't possible. Metal roof, sealed around it, no attic in there for him to climb into. I think he settled up into the trees behind us for a while, a critter house is up there somewhere I'm told, but he didn't seem to want to remain once he knew a human had figured out where he was sleeping. I do hope he is okay now that it's colder. Silly, but I worry about the stray cats when it gets too cold. No way you could catch any of this bunch, way too wily, but still I just hope they aren't sleeping in car engines and all...

[Heinrich Lohmann]

That are three very nice images of an animal that thankfully does not frequent our backyard. Unfortunately neither do Otis's cousins but the birds make up for it.