Wildlife: Heidi Chronicles: The Next Chapter, 1 by DreamOfSpring

DreamOfSpring wrote:
Hi Ruth,

As alluded to earlier, I had an unpleasant experience with them earlier in the week. (More on this later when time allows. No one was hurt, but it left a very bad taste in my mouth so to speak. After getting to know this new group I now have all the more respect for Heidi and her extended family.) After that the buffet was closed for 2 or 3 days. When I reopened - primarily because I found that I really missed the regulars, I went out early to feed them before dark and have done so ever since. Basically, if I can't get out there before dark, I don't go. I may stay until after dark, but I don't start after dark. So far, at least, the new ones don't come out in daylight. I'm hoping that upon learning the new buffet hours, our gang will begin arriving earlier. After my run in with the bad guys, I also reduced the quantity of food back to the amount I had originally set. I'm hoping I can get our gang to arrive early enough to eat all or most of the food before those guys arrive.

Right now what I see happening is that, if I go out early, our gang arrives 1st and begins eating. Then the other gang starts to arrive and soon I notice that they are basically the only ones there. Essentially, once the party crashers show up the party is over. Then the thugs run rampant for a little while. They eat everything they can find and fight constantly even with each other. Then they seem to blow out of town as quickly as they arrived. Interesting thing is the more food they have, the more they seem to fight over it - like there is more to fight about. If there is no food they hang around and wait for food. If there is some food they seem to blow through like a plague of locusts gobbling up whatever is in their path.

This is only the 3rd day since I've resumed feedings and started watching them more closely, so I have only limited data from which to form conclusions. Right now it looks like they gobble everything up then leave and don't return. After they are gone our regulars start to come back to finish their meals and maybe bring their kits out. My hope is to get our group to come earlier, eat most of the food, and leave only a small amount for the others to clean up. As of 3 days ago, I am not giving any treats to members of this other group. I am keeping my treats on the table beside me and keeping a close eye on them. I feed them to our regulars and their kits before the thugs arrive. Then I put the treats away until after the thugs leave, except tonight when Dennis arrived and I gave him some while they were still around. But like I said earlier, he, I mean she, hid under the tables to eat. Dennis always stood in front of me to eat, but not lately because those nasty raccoons will attack her.

After seeing how the new raccoons seem to operate, I may try putting out only a portion of the food and holding the rest back with the treats until after the thugs leave.

It was last night after those 'bad' raccoons had left and I was just sitting there wondering what to do about them that 1st Dennis and then Fraidy showed up. That's how I got to spend time with them. I didn't see Fraidy tonight.

This afternoon I think it was the people sounds from across the street that kept Heidi from bringing the kits to the buffet before dark. They arrived at dusk then left twice due to the noise. The 2nd time they didn't return until after the thugs were gone. When Heidi and her kits were there the 1st time, I tried to give them eggs, cupcakes, and grapes. The kits ate some of the grapes and one mini cupcake before Heidi took them away leaving cupcakes and eggs in her wake. Later, when they finally came back all of the treats were gone and the thugs had long since eaten the eggs I'd given her. Luckily, I did have some cat food that I had been saving for Dennis and Fraidy.

Anyhow, when they came back, Heidi walked around sniffing her [now eaten] eggs then marched over and stood in front of me as though to request more eggs and complain about service at this establishment. I tried to tell her that the treats were all gone. She decided she would like to look through my bucket which was sitting on the ground beside me. I let her do so figuring that way she would know for sure that everything was gone. The bucket contained my bug spray, flashlight, and the empty packages from grapes and cupcakes. I expected her to look inside, sniff around, and walk away. I forgot how Heidi likes to display her unhappiness at not finding the desired foods in her dish (or the bucket). She snatched the bucket, tossed it across the lawn, spilling contents everywhere - and then walked away to go eat cat food with her kits. I took the pic below at the end of her little tantrum. Note that I am sitting in front of the picture and how far my bucket has traveled. (Since Heidi only has these small, harmless tantrums every now and then, mostly when she tosses her dish around, I find them amusing.)

If I make it to winter and those thugs are still around, I'm thinking about suspending feedings for the winter like I did that 1st year (back when Heidi and friends used to leave for the winter) in hopes that maybe the thugs won't return in spring. That probably won't work either, but...I don't know what else to do at this point especially since in winter when it gets dark earlier I won't be able to feed them early enough to avoid the thugs.

I just hope that maybe when the kits are old enough, our gang will be in a better position to fight for their territory and send these bad guys packing. Do you know who these new raccoons remind me of? Diva. They behave like Diva did when she 1st arrived. They fight over everything, constant, non stop bickering. They have lengthy scirmishes and even gang up on rivals - like they did that day with Trouble. This is the 1st I've seen of 2 or more raccoons ganging up to fight one opponent, but that's what these raccoons do. I don't mean working together like Heidi and her kits did in spring when they chased the others out of the yard. I mean 2 or more raccoons physically tearing into the same opponent at the same time. They are a vicious bunch.