The Awakening 2020

The winter here in southern Ontario for 2019/20 has been a mild one. It started off early in November with some bitterly cold days and snow. The weather people were all predicting a long snowy season. Then it fizzled out. We've had cold spells, warm spells, a few snow storms but overall really not that bad compared to a few recent past winters.

For whatever reason we are really lacking in bird activity. My counts for feeder watch have been getting worse every weekend. The pigeons have not been here in almost 2 months now. I am not used to a quiet backyard with my mornings at home.

Over this past weekend we got into some spring like temperatures, hitting around +8 Celcius. Even with the mild winter, hitting this temperature for a good part of 3 days was still quite nice. It must have stirred the mammals as I've been enjoying some furry sights in the morning light.

I guess the best was this Opossum coming around at 8 am for a couple mornings. Look how healthy he is, no signs of frostbite on his ears and zooming in some other shots, none on his toes or tail either.

Cat kibble, peanut bits and a bit of apple magically appeared when he disappeared under the shed. I wonder what goes through his mind when he comes back out and finds it? "SCORE!!!!" perhaps. I find that opossums and skunks don't take to associating people and food to the extremes that raccoons, squirrels and chipmunks do; meaning they will run and hide, and not charge at you for a handout.

What is really cool is I've been watching the cam captures the last week with the critters, especially the opossum. I noticed that in a few of them, the fur looked darker in some captures. I suspected that we had two coming around. Then the other night I lucked out and did catch both on the cam at the same time.

This excites me. It gives me hope that maybe this is the year we will see a mother opossum with her young clinging to her, coming through the backyard. I've only ever seen photos. I'd die if I saw it with my own eyes. A cam capture would be a distant second to having this happen here.

Borrowed image from a Google search...

We have a small wood doghouse down back as some of you are aware. It's packed with hay. I narrowed the entry hole to make it more appealing to the animals to use as shelter. Last weekend this happened...

Who did this? Were they still inside? There was no way I was going to put my hand in there and have a feel around. Kneeling down and pointing the camera to the hole showed nothing but hay. I decided to set up the trail cam in the late afternoon and hopefully see someone come out. Then, near dark, I'm looking out the kitchen window and see this guy.

After he left, I brought the cam inside and checked the images. No, he did not come out of the house. I set the cam up again and left it out for the night. I never did see anyone come out but I did catch these images...

He sits inside for a few minutes before he leaves again.

Most nights the cam catches a steady flow of raccoon, skunk and opossum activity in this part of the backyard. Another night I may see something else.

The following morning, I see this raccoon down in the area. Which brings us back to the title of this blog... The Awakening.

I know not everyone will think these day time sightings are something to be enjoyed. But why not? This is their home too. Learn to live with them, especially those clever raccoons, and life will be easier as a home owner.

Then along came this skunk late one morning. I took a couple photos from the back door as I did not want to spook him out of the yard, have him run out to the street with the traffic, or freak out any neighbours outside.

The autumn season has us seeing the skunks quite a bit at all hours of the day and night, as the young ones wander about on their own. I never tire of seeing them at any time of the year.

Lastly, I've been seeing the rabbit on the cam quite a bit. There are fresh tracks all through the backyards after a snow fall. The other night I was shoveling when winter reminded us it was still winter and the bunny was just watching the world go by.

The winter is such a cold and dark time of the year. The birds and animals are good for my spirit. Not having the birds around, my mood is being effected. Seeing these creatures this week has given me a bit of a rise in spirit and a hint that spring really is just around the corner now.

Trail Cam Captures Vol 3

It's a very quiet winter here for birds in the backyard. I'm hearing this from a lot of people actually. Even the few big snow storms we've had haven't helped bring much in. If I watch long enough, I can usually spot 9 or 10 species of bird in a day, all just doing very quick visits randomly. My pigeon buddies have yet to return.

So the trail cam set up after dark here and there gives me a little something of a boost even though I am not seeing these creatures with my own eyes. Usually I set it up in the garden with a few treats, nothing that they wouldn't find under the bird feeders for the most part. Some nights there's no activity. Some nights it's creatures all throughout. I've caught 4 raccoons, 4 skunks, 2 rabbits and 1 opossum.

The other night I decided to set the cam up pointing to the gate at the side of the house. I wanted to monitor who was coming and going from up the side of the house. That's what these captures are here below. What's interesting is the time stamp with some, how close in time the creatures pass through gate from one another.

A not so striped skunk. Obviously something has caught his eye.

Ah yes, of course, a raccoon.

40 minutes later, here comes another skunk.

9 minutes later, a raccoon.

1 minute later, an opossum.

Please pardon my ID'ing the creatures in the photos as I am sure most of you know what they all are.

Currently I have the cam set to take shots every 20 seconds.  It helps me track the movements more closely than my usual once every minute.  I tried every 5 seconds one night and ended up with almost 1000 captures.

Anyway, it was very quiet the next 4 hours from that opossum photo.  Then as night was coming to an end.  The creatures were heading off to bed.

Good night raccoon.

Good night skunk.

Good night raccoon #2.

Good night raccoon #3.

Good night raccoon #4

Perhaps not all that exciting to someone reading this blog but I find it very interesting.

Here's a few more recent captures.

The rabbit is seen most mornings after 7 am but disappears I'm up around 7:30.

Amazing there's tolerance here with these 3 animals.

I've seen 2 rabbits out back with my own eyes. Not on the cam.

A good place to wash one's privates,  Do you see the other raccoon?

Same 2 still around half an hour later?

The rabbit doesn't seem to care for any of the other night visitors. It's always alone.

This particular night, the opossum spent an hour here in front of the cam.  I'm not sure what he's getting to eat because anything I purposely set out is long gone.

Even with the raccoon coming through, the opossum stuck around till after 6. 

I look forward to milder nights where I can sit out back and watch some of the animals with my own eyes again.