Raccoons and Baby Birds.

A new family of barn swallows had built a nest over our kitchen windows a while back..... when we left for our visit with my Aunt Dolly and DisneyWorld, the baby birds were covered in a patchwork of feathers and the mama bird was busy flying back and forth to feed the four tiny hungry mouths. When we got home from Florida, the babies were twice their size and fully covered with feathers and they were crowded into that nest without half an inch to spare.

Both the adult birds and the babies are used to us going in and out of the kitchen door and they were peering over the side of the nest to watch us come and go. So cute. Yesterday, the baby birds left the nest but stayed up on the moulding above the windows... brave, but not too brave...... always keeping the nest in sight. Today, the baby birds tested their wings, landing on the porch railing, flying from one porch column to the other... never getting too far from the safety of that nest.

My husband says I'm getting too emotionally invested in baby birds. Well, how can you not? They're out there singing and chirping and flying around all day long. I've been keeping Gatsby in the house so he doesn't bother them. I don't think he bothers the birds, though-- Sweet Pea is the bird-catcher here, but I haven't let him or Mickey outside since the snakes started coming around a few weeks ago. Mickey and Sweet Pea seem to be content now with their inside-cat status... and even if they're not, I don't really care. I want them safe, and if being safe means being in this house, then so be it.

I'm guessing that by tomorrow afternoon, the four baby birds will be flying out in the yard, happy to leave the nest for a while.... but they'll probably try sleeping in the nest when it gets dark. With all the baby birds we've had since living here, they always come back to their nests when it gets dark, all of them trying to fit into that small space, cuddled-up and close together like some three- or four-headed feathered flying machine. Okay, okay.... so I'm getting emotionally attached to baby birds here.......

The raccoons........ we have seen raccoons and possums on the back porch-- for weeks now. The raccoons look right up at you when you put the light on, with a look that says "Who are you and what are you doing on my porch?!" The possums are the opposite.... when the light goes on, they put their heads down and don't make eye contact, as if they're saying "Oooh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry... is this your porch? Pardon me.... I'll find my way out, thank you."

Last night, my husband put one of those cage-traps on the back porch, near the spot where we keep seeing the raccoon and possum. Into the cage went a small bit of dry cat food, along with an old egg from one of our hens that has been in that cage since we were trying to catch the armadillo a couple of months ago. My husband intended to re-locate the caged raccoon... driving it to the next town, to the woods around the lake there.

The raccoon, however, had other ideas. About 9:30 last night, we heard the door on the cage snap shut. We looked out the window, and there was the raccoon-- right by the cage-trap, but not inside of it. As we looked out at the raccoon, the raccoon was staring right at us through the window, with a supremely satisfied look on his masked face. Before we could get to the back door, the raccoon walked off the back porch and out into the yard. My husband re-set the trap, and shortly after that, we went to sleep.

This morning, my husband was the first one to look out the back door. The cage-trap, instead of being off on the side of the porch, was right up near the kitchen door. The little trap-door was shut, the egg was still inside the trap, but that's about it. No raccoon. Plus, right next to the cage-trap, face-down on the porch, was a statue of a frog that I keep on the porch. The frog is holding a "Welcome!" sign when he's standing straight up by the door. Poor frog was face-down next to that cage, as if both had been positioned there to make a statement. I'm wondering if the raccoon was trying to get the frog into cage, but of course, that's too Disney-esque.

We figure that the raccoon kept moving the cage around to get the dry cat food bits to come out of the cage, without him having to go into the crate to get the food. As for the frog.... it probably got into the way and the raccoon just knocked it over. But still... both the crate and the frog were lined up just as nice as could be, right by the back door. If we had gone out of the door in the middle of the night, we would have fallen over both of them.

Before the raccoon went on his merry masked way last night, he stopped in the vegetable garden and helped himself to the corn stalks. My husband had picked the best of the corn, so the raccoon didn't get much, but still...... he made a mess of the stalks.

To top that off, my husband saw a fox out in the barn this afternoon... big ears, pointed nose... he thought it was a cat at first (no thank you-- we have enough of those)..... but the pointed face and nose gave it away as a fox. The chickens haven't been around the barn in weeks now... they must know that a fox has found a hiding place in there.

So tonight.... the radio is playing in the barn and the lights are on-- which may force the fox to find another hiding place. The cage-trap will once again be set on the porch, hoping to catch the raccoon.... this time, we'll put the dry cat food in a little tray all the way at the back of the crate.... hopefully, the raccoon will be hungry enough to go all the way into the cage to get the food.

Wildlife adventures.... that's what our life has become... a series of wildlife adventures. I was in a bookstore today and right there on the shelf was a book on "Snakes of Texas." I could have bought the book, read through it, looked at the pictures, memorized the patterns of the snakes in this area. But I didn't. Didn't buy the book, didn't pick it up, didn't look through it...... I just tried to ignore it. Ignorance may not be bliss, but sometimes ignorance can let you sleep at night.