Hi makj,
Glad to hear that you aren't getting that nasty CA whether I hear about on the news right now. I didn't realize the squirrel would climb on you. How fun! I guess I wouldn't get anything done either in that case. In fact, were it not for the raccoons leaving after they eat, I'd probably still be out there with them even now.
Which reminds me of something I forgot to share about the experience last night. As I was sitting out there alone staring at the rather bleak winter scene, the hauntingly desolate look of trees stripped bare of leaves and yet not cloaked with that lovely layer of snow and ice seen in most winter pics; I heard the slightest sound - a rookie error, no doubt - and then the slightest suggestion of a face appeared under the protective branch of the Heidi tree and just over the fence. I can't really find words to articulate the sheer joy I felt at that moment, seeing one of the raccoons again after a few days without them. To my logical mind it really doesn't make sense that an animal who barely acknowledges my existence could bring me such joy, and thus it is impossible for my left brain to find the words with which to explain the sudden burst of emotion that overtook me as I grinned ear to ear watching Rupert descend the fence. I wanted to talk to him, to tell him how excited I was to see him... but again, words failed me.
Heidi Chronicles: The Kids are Still Here For the Holidays
Hi tetleytuna,
Everybody, everywhere, always, always refers to Widget as a 'she' - which BTW doesn't bother me at all - until and unless they hear him BARK! Then they do the same double take I did the 1st time I heard that giant roar come out of that tiny little fluff ball. That's how he says, "Hey, I'm a guy!" He doesn't exhibit the expected, shrill, 'little dog' bark. Oh, no, when Widget barks you look all around for the hound dog you hear baying loudly in that distinctive 'I'm on the trail of a deer' sound. You know, that "OOOOooooorrf, ooooooorrrrf, oooorrrrfff' sound.
You look around and go, "Whoa, where did THAT come from?" It is hard to believe that such a tiny body could modulate sound in such a manner as to make that big, big sound; but he does. The 1st time I heard it, I just burst out laughing at the little shrimp with the huge, deep voice. Other people do the same thing. When we are in the front yard and he barks at passers by you can hear them exclaiming to each other about how unbelievable it is to hear that sound from such a little fella.
This message was edited Jan 6, 2008 4:49 PM
Hi Judy,
Glad you are back. Hope you had a great holiday/trip. I have no doubt the critters missed you and those wonderful meals! Glad you don't have those nasty house sparrows. I'm enjoying great diversity of birds here too, so I hope they never find my little 'queendom' here.
Hi KyWoods,
Yes, busy and off line, plus not a lot going on with the wildlife. I'm not sure about the color thing. I posed that question myself once with respect to the raccoons, and Terese replied with a few very observant quotes from early posts in which I had indicated how quickly the kids found and grabbed the bright and colorful toys I put out for them and how Dennis always enjoyed playing with my loud and bright turquoise shoes when I wore them, the implication being that the apparently they do have some notion of color and seem drawn to bright color - like the bright red ornament they lifted from the neighborhood and hung in the tree for Christmas, lol
Someone, and I think it was Karen whom we haven't seen for quite some time now, used to point out back when I was trying to find ways to keep the kibble dry in rain storms, that no matter how soggy it gets, they always eat every last bit. Still, I'm with you on that. I try to keep the food dry if I can - although I don't have a roof out there in the feeding area. I'm sure the critters enjoyed all of the food. I'm surprised about the oranges though. I read that citrus is the one thing raccoon really don't like at all, but there is probably some creature out there in the forest that does.
Yes I know the sheer joy that they can bring you, both wild and domestic, one would not think that feeding a squirrel and watching her very carefully find the perfect place to dig and bury a nut but she will come over time and again to get whatever you have and and sometimes sit in front of you and carefully shell it and eat it, it is amazing to watch her use her little thumbs to eat:), and I feel the same way sometimes you feel your eyes well up and you think what is wrong with me. We also have a cat at work who is basically dying and it is really tearing my up and this is not like this is the first time, but it is really getting to me. I work at a veterinary hospital, sometimes I wonder why I still do this work, anyway I won't continue. have a good day.
Oh, makj,
That must be such a very rewarding and yet at time heartbreaking job - but, remember, to feel and feel deeply is to live and live deeply. And I know that you bring great comfort to the lives of the animals you touch there.
My last dog, also a Maltese, died very suddenly and unexpectedly while at a veterinary hospital for a checkup. She was sick, but no one imagined how sick until she just keeled over. Two years later when I was there with Widget (for routine stuff), the Dr still remembered [Sassy and] me and that event saying, "Are you kidding. To this day, I'm sure Sassy took years off my life!" [indicating how traumatic the event had been for her as she struggled to revive Sassy, lost here again, revived her again, and got her into an Oxygen cage before loosing her for the last time.]
I've no doubt it must be very difficult at times. (I was heartbroken when the sick hummer I found last summer died before I could get him to a rehabber. I had only just 'met' him, and I knew it was irrational to feel so torn up about his demise, and yet it took 2 weeks and the cajoling of another [healthy and hungry] hummer before I could bring myself to even hang the nectar feeder out again.) Still, I envy you; what you do really matters.
I was just outside. It is a positively gorgeous day, skies of brilliant Manganese with a hint of Cobalt near the horizon all punctuated by big, puffy, crisp white clouds and kissed by the warmth of gleeming sunshine, the mercury holding at a near perfect 73F. I have SO much to do and will no doubt be penalized for failure to do all of it in a timely manner but I could not help but spend some time out there enjoying the gift of this lovely day, so I did some pruning and am now in for a drink and a rest break.
The 1st handful of gold finches have shown up - oh, but you wouldn't recognize your little beauties now as they don't really look like gold finches now in their drab winter garb. Still I do so look forward to the few short weeks they spend with me each winter. Soon there will be more, many, many more as they descend upon the thistle feeders in droves and eat like a plague of hungry (albeit lovely) little locusts. I stock up for this event each year (as the birds here shun thistle the rest of the year and I would otherwise never by it). Just after Christmas each year I order a scant truck load (artistic license taken) of the freshest, 'nuttiest' smelling thistle seed I can find and hang out one feeder to await their return. Once they arrive and start fighting over positions at the lone thistle feeder, I hang all of the others. Each year more birds arrive and each year I add more feeders, but I never have enough. Last year I had 5 or so thistle socks including some 3ft ones, a few make shift pantyhose legs (it's the back yard), a large brass feeder, one side of the 3 part regular bird feeder, and a few thistle tubes, including one that's 3ft long. Still there were countless hungry birds lining the tree limbs and vying for a covetted spot at the feeder. They eat from sun up to sun down. At there peak they can eat a large bag of thistle in a day, and since I read that they some [these] come here because food is scarce this time of year in their normal habitat, I do my very best to keep the thistle flowing. Last year by the time they left they had eaten a ton of thistle and all but demolished those panty hose legs - the little darlins'.
While I was out there one of the mocking birds stopped by - to keep an eye on me, keep me out of trouble. That started me thinking. I know the mockingbirds gave the bluebirds a hard time, chasing them to and fro all day. I don't know why they disliked the bluebirds. They don't seem to bother any of the other birds in the yard. Still, I wonder...could the mockingbirds be the reason I don't have house sparrows? Did they chase away the house sparrow scouts who came here? The mockingbirds are, after all, quite territorial and more than a little 'mean' and scarey looking. (Don't get me wrong, I like them and have a few lovely pics of them somewhere, but up close they are scarey looking. I would not want to be an insect in their presence.)
Congrats on the article Doccat! I look forward to reading it.
I'm so excited........wheee! I've got 2 more coming out, one Jan 14, Feb 7th, I think.. They were doing some article shifting. I have one ready for De Boss's approval and two on the drawing board. So I am a writing fool...........LOL Any ideas, suggestions or things you'd like to see would be greatly appreciated............Thankees
doccat,
I'm going to check for that article at 12:01 AM EST! I wasn't kidding about framing a copy of the check. If I am so lucky as to every see a check from the Heidi book, I will surely frame that thing - in a big, BIG frame - on the LR wall maybe!
Very happy to hear that the article writing is going so well for you - and De Boss. ...waiting impatiently for 1-7-08 to get here.
Oh Cheryl --- remember my "blurred bird" ?
I finally contacted "E" and as it turns out, her DH is the bird person ... he suggested a Peregrine falcon... and from the description and images i saw... looks like that was probably it.
mystery solved.
doccat -- WooHoo on the Broccoli. I'll be reading it when i get my Dave's Email in the morning.
Thanks so much for all the encouragement, I actually did make a copy of the check and am picking up a suitable frame on my next shopping go round. I'm so pleased to have been invited to participate.......:) Dave is a sweetie.
Hi Terese,
Ohhh! Peregrine Falcon. That does fit the picture. What a beautiful bird, and how nice to have him in your area and visiting your yard. Hope you get to see him/her again.
Just yesterday I saw a large predatory type bird in a tree at the forest edge behind my neighbor's house. It seemed to be surveying the little birds in my backyard but was too far away for me to determine the type. It appeared to be a med to dark color with a lighter color on the 'bottom', by that I mean the legs, underside, and possibly the breast.
Enjoyed the article, doccat!
I didn't get to read it until tonight. Last night I got sick rather suddenly and had to go to bed early. (Oh, well, I've been feeling so much better lately, so I can't complain about an occasional down day.) I used to grow broccoli some years back. Here we grow it in winter. It stands up quite well to our low temps, and, as you pointed out, growing in winter means virtually no weeds or bugs - or sweat. I need to clean out that veggie patch so that I can plant some again - and this time I'm going to try your idea of under planting it. I hadn't considered that.
Congratulations!
well... i hope some of these predators take care of the over population of House Sparrows i have.
though i do have a feeling the predatory birds [hawks and falcons] are looking for varmint, as in mice, voles, bunnies and squirrels.. not other birds.
Thank you, scutler, I wish you great success. It just keeps the ground covered with good things and I have to mulch a little less. Eats or mulch?.......not an issue here..........LOL
------ This just in...Something New From Heidi Land!!! -------
Tonight I went out to the feeding area and as I stood pouring food into the 2 dishes in Heidi's area, I heard a slight rustle nearby which I immediately understood to be a raccoon. I called to the raccoon welcoming him or her to come forward and eat. I expected to see Rupert or perhaps Dennis step out of the shadows and was quite surprised when a rather stout Heidi moved into the light and walked right up to my feet to eat from the dish there. She was amazingly nonplussed as I walked around the area filling the other dishes and then sat down near her.
As I sat there watching her, I couldn't help thinking how very plump she had become - and so suddenly. When last I'd seen her, Heidi had been well fed but svelte and now, well, I guessed maybe she was wearing a very bulky winter coat or something. Or maybe she had just done an awesome job of bulking up for winter - such as it is here.
Rupert and Cissy also showed up. Heidi left twice, running away from loud neighborhood noises only to return a bit later to eat some more. These 2 departures and most of all the subsequent returns afforded me a greater opportunity to observe her bulk as she made her way down the fence post. Even in the dark I could easily identify her rolly-polly outline against the post. Each time I new it was her even before I saw her face, and each time I was right.
Then as Heidi dealt with the presence of the [now grown] kids in the feeding area, I noticed that once again she was huffing and puffing and grumbling and just generally sounding like a cross between a wild boar, a bull, and a grizzly bear. And that's when I realized it. That's when I understood why Heidi had been so abrupt in turning Dennis and the other kids away that night a few weeks ago...because apparently Heidi is already carrying the 08 litter!
Oooo, Congrats, Heidi, congrats, Cheryl! More babies to look forward to!
Oh my goodnes, Congratulations!!!!!! Can't wait now!
Hi KyWoods,
I hadn't realized it was time yet, but the more I looked at her the more convinced I became that Heidi looks just like she did when she was about 1/3 to 1/2 way through her pregnancy. Then when I did the math - using 2 months instead of 9 weeks just to be lazy - I realized that she would need to be working hard at making those kits if she wanted to make the late February 'date' she set in 06. If I recall, I believe that's when she 1st showed up and the rehabber guessed that she was likely already nursing babies. So, if it takes 9 weeks to hatch a bunch of kids, she would actually be somewhere right on schedule about now. Yippee!
Hi nanny,
I know! Isn't it exciting! I was expecting a little down time, but I guess Heidi's in a hurry to get the show on the road, so to speak.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that Cissy walked WAY around Heidi to come over to me. She stood upright at my feet and with her little paws, felt the fingers of my outstretched hand. Then she walked around to the side of my bench where she stood upright again with one paw on the bench and the other on my arm as she looked and sniffed around to see if I had brought her any treats. They are still so very, very cute, and so friendly around me.
Awww, now that is just way too cute to picture. It will be nice to be able to follow along from the start with these kits, since I didn't find your threads till late last year!
This message was edited Jan 8, 2008 10:31 PM
So -- if gestation is roughly 9 weeks, and you feel she's half way through.... then, what -- another 2-3 months until they show up?? OH what fun!!
>>brought her any treats
did you forget the marshmallows again??
Thats so exciting! Do you think if she is already showing that some of the other females are in the family way also? How many of the kids do you know for sure are females? I am sure Widget will not be pleased at all..........he will be thinking "no, tell me its not so!" Does he watch you interact with the coons from inside?
Oh wow! That is so cool, scutler........more babies, more pics, more fun!
If she is "with Raccoon" how fun that will be, our pet squirrel could also be "with Squirrel" as she and the male well, it was obvious they weren't "playing" so we are very excited about the possibility of more squirrel:)
Cheryl,
How fun - Heidi's preggers!!! I'm thrilled that the raccoons are retaining their comfort level, despite fewer visits - love the mental picture of Cissy touching your hand...
I'm reading this thread on a daily basis & feeding my raccoons every other day. Note to self - don't put food outside in containers I want to keep - sometimes they disappear! LOL! My husband forbade me to feed the raccoons about a week ago, but hasn't mentioned it since (smart man!) - just asked me not to put peas out there again, since the don't seem to appreciate them & leave a mess!
Liz
Hmm, note to self: "No peas for raccoons". First thing I've heard that they actually don't like!
nanny,
Great that you will be able to "watch" the kids grow up in real time this year. The little tykes are so cute.
Terese,
I don't recall exactly. That sounds about right. However long it takes for real, I do recall that it seems like forever when we are waiting. I think this year Heidi is closer to her prior schedule. Seemed like she was running a bit late in 07.
Terese,
I haven't been shopping lately but have to go very soon - like tomorrow if possible. The raccoons have been eating Widget's food for 2 days now - and now that's getting perilously low.
well, when you mentioned she may be pregnant already, i did a quick google to find the length of gestation period.
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Procyon_lotor.html
63-65 days
Young are born blind and helpless in a tree den, their eyes open at 18 to 24 days of age, and they are weaned after 70 days. By 20 weeks old the young regularly forage with their mother at night and continue to stay in the den with her.
---------------
so if you figure 65 day + 70 days = is about 19 weeks
if she is roughly a month in ... you could be seeing them mid -may ?? wow, that seems early!!
LOL. better start getting stocked and ready.
Judy,
Hard to say if any of the others are also knitting booties. I don't see any of the raccoons as often as in summer, but have noticed that since late summer I haven't seen any of the 06 group: Juliet, Fraidy, Panda, Sugar, etc. That seems odd to me, like more than a coincidence, especially since Juliet and Fraidy came by almost daily before. It seems as though the 06 group disappeared around the time the 07 group reached adult size (or close). I'm wondering if the others were either run off or pushed out by the presence of so many new 'adults', perhaps because many of the new adults (07 kids) had the protection of Heidi. Or maybe the 06 group went on the 'customary' (for these guys) winter vacation. It will be interesting to see if they come back in spring. I'm inclined to think (and hope due to crowding issues) that many will not. Perhaps this is how the numbers will be kept under control, with only Heidi and 2 generations of kids staying around each year.
Widget can't see the feeding area from the back door due to all of the shrubs, small trees, rose arbor, etc. Still, given that dogs get more info from smell than from sight, Widget probably knows about the coming blessed event(s). !st thing every morning - and no matter how rushed I am - he has an appointment to go out there and smell every square inch of the feeding area.
I don't really know for absolutely certain the gender of any of the 07 kids except Dennis; that I saw when zooming and cropping pics one day. I'm fairly sure that all but Dennis, one of Juliet's kids, and maybe Rupert are girls. We know for sure that Juliet and Diva (if she's still around which I doubt) are females. So I think their are 3 girls from the 07 group: Cissy, Blondie, and Juliet's other kit. Not sure about Panda and Sugar. I often thought that Panda might have been an immature male. I'm pretty sure that Fraidy is a female, although Ruth thinks that due to her stunted growth she is unlikely to bare kits.
doccat,
I can hardly wait for the chance to watch another group of wide-eyed fluff balls as they get to know their new world, and I'm especially excited to think that maybe Cissy will also have babies this year. Since she is so comfortable around me, hopefully, I will get an even better opportunity to get to know her kits.
makj,
Since the [mom-to-be] squirrel is so comfortable around you, maybe she will let you get close to the babies as well. That would really be fun.
scutler, that gray squirrel, is something else, today she was pulling filling out of an old pillow outside and stuffing it into her cheeks, hungry as a little bear, seems to be eating more nuts right there in front of us, more eating then stashing away.
Liz,
LOL about those missing containers. Near the end of summer I gave up and started putting the food in Juliet's area on the ground because no matter how many dishes i put over there, they would drag them into the veggie patch - and I wasn't about to venture into that potentially snake infested area in search of them. Now that the vegetation has died down, I need to go over there and round up all of the containers and toys for next year.
I have basically learned that nothing is safe outside unless it weighs 50lbs or more and/or is securely affixed to something which does. One afternoon while working in the garden, I took my shirt off (wearing tank top under it) and left it outside by mistake. When I got inside it was dark out and I was almost too tired to live much less walk. I was tempted to leave the shirt outside and pick it up the next day. Then, as I recalled how those cute little bandits love to play with things and even carry them away, I decided I'd better drag myself outside to save the shirt. I liked that shirt and didn't want to loose it - and I have lost quite a few things out there already.
Often, when I am late getting out there to feed them, one of the raccoons, and I suspect either Dennis or Cissy since they often come up to the house to look for me, will amuse him or herself by playing with my newly planted and freshly rooted irises which are in 2 large pots on the patio. I ordered the irises late and planted them even later such that I was concerned that they might go dormant before they could generate roots. For about a month now I've been waiting and watching and hoping for signs of life (and roots to anchor them to the soil). Every few days or so and almost always when I'm late with dinner, I'll go out to find one (always just one) of the irises lying on the patio floor, it's bare (new) roots shivering in the cold night air. I'll stop to tuck the poor thing back safely into it's spot in the soil. A few days later, another iris will appear on the patio.
I'm pretty sure I managed to save all but one of the uprooted irises. I saw the dead one on the mat by the back door one night when it was raining heavily. After a brief period of mourning for my newly departed plant, I left it there expecting to move it later after the rain stopped. By the time I thought about it again, the dead plant had vanished altogether, and then about a week later during the cold spell, it reappeared once more but this time it was in an empty cache pot filled with rain water on a bench on the far side of the patio. I had to sort of chuckle to myself about how raccoons love to play and will play, will make a toy out of just about anything, and cannot resist the opportunity to play in water.
Tonight, again, I was running late, and this time I walked out to find tiny and delicate little Dot Com, a miniature iris that I have pampered for a month and finally got rooted, lying belly up and slightly shrivelled on the patio. (crying...) It's a good thing I am so fond of Dennis and Cissy.
Good idea not to leave anything outside if you really like it.
ROTF, makj! What a funny image.
Thanks for the link, Terese. (In a rush right now but will check it out later.)
I think it takes a bit longer for the kits to make it into the yard because they have to learn to climb the fence which is more difficult than a tree even for the adults. Last year (07) it seemed like Heidi waited even longer to bring her kits to the buffet. I wonder if the presence of all of the other adults vying for food in such a relatively small area makes her nervous about bringing the kits when they are really small and vulnerable.
Tonight, hoping for an opportunity to see Dennis or Cissy, I took out some large green grapes and a container of candy corn. In case Heidi showed up, I stuffed 2 large, brown, free range, organic (no hormones, etc) eggs in my pocket.
Rupert was 1st to show up. I tossed him a grape. These were particularly large, oblong, green grapes, maybe 1.5in long and very sweet. At 1st he ignored it and went on eating his dog food. Then when he walked over, picked it up, and bit into it you could instantly tell he was his mother's progeny as he stood upright, arms bent at 90 degree angles and stretched out in front of him in that same manner we all so enjoyed in the photographs of Diva eating marshmallows. After that 1st grape, he kept standing up, hands outstretched as though to catch the next one, and I kept tossing him more. As he ate each one, he was just every bit the picture of Diva - except for his behavior. He didn't get all freaked out or annoying. He stayed over there by his dish waiting. It was one of those unexpected "where is my camera" moments.
Rupert ate a belly full of grapes and left. The next raccoon to show up was - well, honestly, I'm still trying to figure that out. It wasn't Heidi or Cissy or Dennis. Of that much I'm sure. It's comfort level with me indicated one of the 07 kits, so it almost certainly had to be Juliet's boy (the girl never came to me) or Blondie, probably the former. Since Heidi hadn't shown up, I chipped the end of one egg and tossed it over to him while he was eating. He LOVED it. When the shell was empty, he bit it in two so that he could lick the inside clean. Then after looking around his area a bit and confirming that the last molecule of egg was gone, he promptly walked over to me in search of more. I offered him a grape which he sniffed before turning to walk away in disappointment.
Quickly, as he was walking away, I reached into my pocket, withdrew the 2nd egg and said, "here! Come here" not really expecting him to respond to my attempt at communication; but, unlike Dennis who totally ignores my ramblings, this raccoon turned almost instantly to come back. I held the egg out to him in my outstretched hand. I was 'showing' him the egg and had intended to put it down on the ground for him. He put his nose to it and his demeanor said, "Oh YES, That's it". With that he sat back on his haunches and reached up to gently grasp the egg in his little paws. HE was SO CUTE as he walked away a step or two still holding his egg.
I hadn't had the chance to dent this egg for easy opening so it was more than a little amusing to watch him try to hold on to the slick, round egg while trying to get inside. At times I feared that he might give up as I had seen some of the kids do in the past (the non-Heidi kids). But I had underestimated his determination. He had, after all, clearly enjoyed that 1st egg, and wasn't about to stop short of eating this one.
He sat back on his haunches holding the egg on the ground before him. When he tried to apply enough pressure to bite through the hard shell, the egg slipped from his grasp and and ended up between his back legs, too far back to get any leverage for biting. He backed up, grabbed the egg, and this time lifted it into the air and to his mouth. Maybe that was the way to bite it. But again, as he applied 'biting' pressure to the shell, the egg slipped from his paws and tumbled to the ground its shell still intact. After a few more rounds of "do I squat before it, stand over it, hold it in the air, etc" he finally found a way to hold the egg firmly in place. Then I heard all manner of scratching sounds as he tried repeatedly to bite the requisite hole in one end of the shell, but with each attempt his teeth just slipped over and off the edge of the smooth, round surface. And then I heard the crunch that signified success at last. Again, he savored every drop of the egg, breaking the shell to lick it clean after he had sucked the last drop from inside. And then...
He came right back over to me to ask for yet ANOTHER egg. Of course, I didn't have another egg, so, turning his nose up at my other treats, he walked off to sample the food in all of the dishes before leaving.