In our neck of the woods... Raccoons are proliferating

Our deck and yard are visited frequently by a mother raccoon with three youngsters, another with four youngsters, and even one with five. We have to bring our bird feeders in every night, or these little bandits will knock them down and destroy them. One night, I looked out on the deck, and a raccoon was standing on its tippy toes on the railing, reaching as high as it could to tip a hummingbird feeder sideways in such a way that the sugar water was pouring down into its mouth. Points for creativity, I suppose.

A few nights ago, we went out onto the deck to find a mother and four kids crawling all over everything. Adult raccoons will run off when you shout at them, but we have found that the youngsters simply freeze, and they hardly budge even when you nudge them along with your foot. This photo shows one that refused to move.

Raccoons exist over an astoundingly wide range, including all of North America, Central America, and into South America. Unfortunately, they have been introduced in Europe and Asia, and since raccoons are incredibly adaptive, and they even thrive in cities, they have proliferated in these other places as an invasive species.

Personally, I like seeing raccoons, but they can be persistent!