Blasted Raccoons!!!!!
Sometimes when stuff happens it is just sooooooo aggravating. Which is what Cleon and I experienced this morning when we looked out at the hummingbird and oriole feeders that you could see on the birdbath cam. Both cups of the oriole feeder were on the ground and licked clean. The lids were off two of the hummingbird feeders and on the ground – the sugar water gone. We are positive this was raccoons.
Tomorrow morning (Monday), it is going to be windy, but we will try to solve this problem. The birdbath cam will be shut down because we are going to change the position of the camera – we must move it from its position on the post. If this works, when the livestream is back up and running, instead of looking down on that large birdbath, you will be looking more across it. Hopefully it will still be a good angle and allow you to watch them and observe their behavior. If moving the camera is successful, we will be able to raise both feeders and still be within camera range. Then we can use longer poles and baffles. This will be a work in progress. For now, we will keep the oriole feeder up and just bring the jelly cups in each night and replace them each morning. The feeder itself is pretty indestructable and raccoons are generally nocturnal. We think once the jelly cups are gone overnight, the raccoons will leave it alone. The hummingbird feeder is much more fragile and raccoons could easily damage it, so until we get a longer pole and a baffle, we will not put that feeder back up. A work in progress. As Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot was always so fond of saying: “If the little grey cells are not exercised, they grow rust.” Outwitting raccoons certainly will keep Cleon’s and my ‘little grey cells’ rust-free!
The good news is Baltimore Orioles – so far, 2 males and 1 female – are using their feeder on and off during the day, using the birdbath – along with a few other birds – and the close proximity of the feeder to the birdbath does not seem to bother them one bit!