Look who was visiting the bird feeder this morning

[mnhtnbb]

Snowy went absolutely nuts when she realized it wasn't just another squirrel!

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Those are really weird looking things, aren't they?

They come onto our deck looking for fallen seeds from the feeder, but usually waddle away when I yell.
The raccoons, OTOH, have been climbing a trellis to reach and pull down our feeders!

[mnhtnbb]

2. I usually look out and see deer nuzzling the feeder or eating from the ground around

it. We used to have a big raccoon that was living in a tree on our lot, but haven't seen
him for a long time.

[Scuba]

3. I occasionally get a rooster pheasant feeding under mine.

[mnhtnbb]

4. At least your visitor has wings instead of whiskers!

[Agschmid]

5. It's a cat!

Haha...

[mnhtnbb]

8. I know...visiting from the LOL cats thread this a.m.

[Solly Mack]

6. Cutie!

[NV Whino]

7. One of those critters used to visit me when I lived down south

He would come up on the porch and crack walnuts under my bedroom window... at midnight.

[alfredo]

9. They are incredible animals. They have adapted to the point that few

diseases affect them. They still haven't adapted to cars.

[mnhtnbb]

10. Fortunately for this guy, we're on a dead end lane.

He should be able to get around on the hills pretty well without venturing into any busy streets.

[alfredo]

13. Possums might help keep down Lyme disease.

http://www.denimandtweed.com/2009/08/that-possum-you-just-ran-over-it-might.html

But the real impact of this result comes into focus in a mathematical model the authors develop to determine the effects of removing each of the six hosts from a woodland ecosystem. Removing intermediately-useful hosts like veeries or catbirds doesn't have much effect on tick density. On the other hand, if you remove very tick-friendly hosts like the white-footed mice, tick populations plummet. And if you remove opossums, they increase dramatically. This is important because, the authors say, larger mammal species are the first to leave as patches of woodland are reduced to make way for human development -- so an early effect of woodland fragmentation may be to reduce or eliminate opossums in that woodland, and boost the density of disease-bearing ticks.

[Curmudgeoness]

11. I had one of those at my feeder one evening.

I went out to get the feeder and bring it in for the night so that I wasn't feeding the raccoons, who are such hogs, and there he/she was. I have always heard that they will "play possum" and act like they are dead when confronted----WRONG. This one stood it's ground and hissed at me, no matter how close I got. In the battle of who is the toughest, the opossum won...I went back into the house and left the feeder outside.

[mnhtnbb]

12. Good story. I'm not sure I'd want to confront one, either.

Took these photos from our elevated deck looking down on the feeder.

[alfredo]

14. If hissing fails, playing dead is the next ploy.

[Curmudgeoness]

15. LOL. It didn't fail. nt

[alfredo]

16. It does have very sharp teeth and powerful jaws.

[justiceischeap]

17. When I lived in Missouri as a young girl

my best friend rescued a baby possum she found along side the road... when I say baby, I mean it was still naked at the time she found him. She named him Benji and he lived for four years with her and her family until he died. I remember he liked snuggling the best.

[NCarolinawoman]

18. I use to help out a licensed rehabber.

She would often have me help out with her overflow of mammals and birds. I went from thinking possums were kind of ugly to thinking they were downright CUTE. There were so many orphaned babies.