Derald wrote:
....
The raccoons here eat baby squirrels in their nests. I sometimes
find a headless squirrel and had thought it to be left by one of the
cats who, I know for certain, eats heads first. Perhaps some of those
carcasses were left by raccoons. They occasionally dig in a garden bed.
They dig most often in newly tilled beds or those with small plants.
Most recent casualties are onions (a couple of years past) and mustard
seedlings that emerged a few days before Irma came through. The 'coons
got to them before she did but left enough that when I thin,the
seedlings may be transplanted elsewhere in the same bed.

they and the possums go for eggs in some of the
bird nests, they also eat quite a bit of the hornet/
wasps/bees nests that are wedged behind a lot of the
larger rocks we have around.


Don't let the Disney cartoon face fool you. Raccoons can turn
fiercely aggressive with little to no apparent provocation. At certain
times of day, in the garden, I keep a sledge hammer handle within reach.
It doesn't pay to kill them. They just increase production when
threatened or their numbers reduced.

i rarely see them during the day. i'm not outside at
night or in the early morning. the last animal that tried
to attack me was a very tiny snake in the palm of my hand
it was trying to bite me and would bounce off my skin.
good laugh. a few spider bites or mosquitoes. nothing
major. oh, except the stupid dogs that barked and one that
actually nipped. those were potentially serious but i didn't
escalate.

the air rifle gets some use once in a while but i try to
keep it to deterring animals instead of killing. not always
possible, but i try...


songbird