Saturday, July 7, 2012

Young Raccoons

The female raccoon has finally brought her young ones out into the open.

Earlier in the week, I got this shot of her visiting the feeder for sunflower seeds.  She was obviously still nursing her young.  Her daylight visits to the feeder have been a regular event during the past few weeks.  She has also cleaned up any organic scraps that we’ve thrown into the field and one morning I found her dining on a freshly killed Wild Turkey hen.  The hen frequently slept in the yard near the feeder and often remained asleep as I walked past on my way to the barn.  I think she was just old.  She showed no signs of disease and reminded me of pet poultry I had raised that had lived long enough to die of old age.  This was just a classic example of what happens to the weak and infirm in the wild.

Here's Mom with her four youngsters.  That’s about average for a raccoon litter.

She fled when she spotted me peeking at them from around the corner of the house.

The little ones headed for the tree.

Unfortunately, instead of going up the stout trunk of the dead Silver Maple, they chose a spindly Black Walnut sapling.

If they were capable of such emotions, embarrassment would have been top of the list when their tree bent right into the face of the thing they were trying to avoid.

Eventually they got themselves sorted out, so they were at least in an upright position.

Then they began to explore for a possible escape route.

A more mature Raccoon would have been showing signs of fear and aggression.  The youngsters just kept trying to perform their instinctual behavior.

I finally left them to sort themselves out and reconnect with their mother.  Later in the evening I saw the whole family cross the backyard to visit one of the shallow containers of water set out for the birds.

A Camera Critters submision.

18 comments:

  1. they're so cute, but destructive, too. :)

    we had 5 treed in our bird feeder tree here for 2 days a few summers ago. it took standing on a ladder in the truck bed shooting a water hose at them to finally get them to come down (while the dogs were secured in the house).

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  2. Wow, adorable photos and critters. But, they are little devils. They eat all the bird seed and destroy your birdfeeders and plants.

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  3. They are beautiful little animals in the wild - not in the attic!

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  4. Hi Steve...Gosh these are adorable and funny photo..love the embarrassment one how cute!!
    They sure can be disruptive, but you can't say there not smart intelligent animals!! : }
    Grace

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  5. What a fantastic series of photos, little beauties for sure.

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  6. I can imagine the fun you had following these little devils with your camera, Steve. A delightful critter series of mama and baby racoons.

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  7. There's no doubt, they have cute faces :)

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  8. Cute little guys, but yes, they are a destructive lot.

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  9. Fantastic photos. They are a favorite photography subject of mine, as you can see from my photo portfolio. ;-)

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  10. Marvellous captures! They are adorable.

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  11. Hi Theresa. If these guys get out of hand, I may have to invite your dogs over for a visit.

    Hi Eileen. I seem to have a batch of young Raccoons show up at the feeder each year. In most years, the mother takes the youngsters away from the yard soon after they become mobile.

    Hi Pat. You can say that about a lot of animals.

    Hi Grace. Hopefully they won’t start acting like your problem Raccoon.

    Thanks Denise.

    Thanks Francisca. I did have fun, but I also kept a close watch in case the mother decided to return and protect her babies.

    Hi Lina. They’re so cute it’s hard to take a bad picture of one.

    Hi Terri. That feeder is virtually indestructible. The worst thing the Raccoons are doing now is putting mud in the bird bath every night. I clean the bird bath every morning anyway, so that’s not really a problem. I just hope the Raccoons don’t find some other type of mischief to get into.

    Thanks Misty. I’ve seen several of the Raccoon shots in your portfolio. Some animals are just designed to be photographed.

    Thanks Karen.

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  12. Great pictures you show of some "small raccoons" - they look really "sweet" out. Wishing you a good Sunday :) Hanne Bente / hbt.finus.dk

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  13. They are so cute. It looks like mama raccoon will need to do a little more teaching in the fine art of climbing and hiding.

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  14. Hi Mama Zen. I think their innocent expressions add to their cuteness.

    Thanks Hanne Bente.

    Hi Judy. Yes, they need a lot more practice.

    Hi EG. Your four look to be a little bit older than mine. They'll become more wary as they age.

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  15. My goodness me, that's a lot! Late visiting from Camera Critters. Hope you can still visit my


    Bunnies and leave comment.
    Have a week ahead..

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  16. Oh my, this post needs a "cute alert" warning! Thanks for sharing, Steve. It made my day.

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  17. Hi Rose. Your black-and-white bunny is really cute.

    Hi Cheryl. I am cute, but my wife says not so much that a warning is necessary.

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