I was looking out my bedroom window this morning at the chickadees flitting from branch to branch in the nearby ravine trees, wondering why they haven’t yet found (or are ignoring) the two new birdfeeders we put up earlier this week. Then, something caught my eye in the middle of one of the larger cedar trees, and I spied these guys:
(Four of them)
We haven’t seen any raccoons since moving to this new place, but we’ve seen plenty of raccoon foot prints since the snow. They seem to take the same route every night, their tracks like invisible ink until the snow reveals their secrets.
raccoon paw prints
mark the ice on our fish pond
washing thwarted
Note: Although it looks like raccoons “wash” their food, they don’t actually do it to be fastidious. Scientists used to think raccoons didn’t have enough saliva and needed to wet their food to swallow it. It’s since been discovered that raccoons do have enough saliva. They may simply be wetting their food to soften it or to enhance the tactile experience (they like to feel their food, and their hands become more sensative when wet).
