Love them or hate them, leave food out and they are there. Personally, I don't mind them, and I think the kits are completely adorable. This spring, two raccoons have become regular visitors to my bird tables. One (pictured below) has an orange tint to her fur and a narrow, dark facial stripe, while the other has greyish fur and a broad, pale facial stripe, and so they are easy to tell apart. The fact that they are both foraging in daylight suggests that they are nursing mothers and very hungry after nurturing their kits all night. I am hoping to see some kits soon! Neither raccoon is comfortable around me - they run and hide while I am filling the bird feeders - and so I don't think either of them have visited here before. I suspect that last year's resident raccoons died from distemper, leaving a vacuum that was quickly filled.

Raccoons find food by touch, using the sensitive palms of their hands, while they balance on their hind feet or simply sit down. In the above pic, the raccoon has run her hands over scattered corn and sunflower seeds, and then selected some to eat. In the pic below, she's eating a hard piece of corn. Raccoons have incredibly strong jaws!

Does anybody else have raccoon stories or pics?

This morning I had one of those "smack the forehead and say DUH!" moments. Yesterday afternoon, I filled the bird feeders with sunflower seeds - and then I forgot to store the jug of seeds back inside the garage. I left the jug on the deck steps, which was where a raccoon found it some time last night. This morning, the jug lay on its side at the bottom of the steps, tooth-marks on the edge of the lid, and the flip-up cover over the circular pouring-hole wide open. The contents of the jug had been scooped out to about the depth of a raccoon's arm and devoured. The orange-tinted raccoon (I'm naming her Ginger) looks really bloated today and is moving as if she ate too much and now has belly-ache.

All is not sweetness and light when it comes to raccoons. They, like many territorial animals, sometimes make a statement by leaving a pile of poop. Sometimes they use poop to say, “This is part of my territory”, in which case it is usually left in a prominent place such as the middle of a bridge or log that they use to cross a stream, or on a raised deck or stump where they sit to view their territory. Their poop can also express displeasure or anger. When I am late delivering food to the bird table, and a raccoon arrives to find the table empty, sometimes I arrive to find poop. When I set out my cactus collection on my deck for the summer, if a raccoon investigates the pots and pricks its sensitive palms, it may turn around and poop on the plants.

Dispose of raccoon poop as if it were mildly radioactive. Raccoon poop may contain the eggs of roundworm parasites. If the poop is dry the eggs can become airborne, and you don’t want to be breathing them in, so if you find dry excrement, handle it very carefully. Raccoon poop may also contain leptospirosis bacteria, which can enter the body through cuts. When removing raccoon poop always wear gloves, and preferably use a tool such as a trowel so that even your gloves do not touch the poop, and afterwards disinfect the tool you used. Dispose of the poop in a place where no-one will accidentally touch it. I’ve been cleaning up after raccoons on this property for twelve years and never had any health problems from it, but I would worry if I had young children, outdoor pets, or farm animals that might come into contact with raccoon poop.

Yesterday a fox ran through the garden, surprising a raccoon that was feeding on the ground beneath the bird feeders. The raccoon took off as if rocket-propelled and climbed the nearest tree. The fox, however, showed no interest and ran on without giving any attention to the raccoon.

It's time to cut back on the corn and sunflower seeds. No less than five raccoons turned up for breakfast this morning. I only have two bird tables. Ginger allowed one of the new arrivals to share the large bird table with her. She turned her back and carried on eating, no growling or snapping occurred, and so probably the other raccoon is a female relative of Ginger's. The other two new raccoons foraged on the ground. They will all be in for a shock tomorrow and for the next 10 days, when there will be no food at all until later in the day, and then not as much as usual. I will be away on vacation and DH will be on feeder duty. He's not an early riser, and is not as generous as me.

June, I'm enjoying the saga of Ginger and her masked friends!

Ibis! I will not be able to post for the next 10 days, as I'll be away from home, but I hope Ginger and friends will still be around when I get back.

Yep , the moms are out with the babies teaching them to forage in my pots

this WAS my baby leaf spinach

There's still no sign of kits here. While I was away DH took a pic of the gray raccoon. She seems to be looking cross-eyed at the sunflower seed husks stuck to the end of her nose.



@gardengus , you could try dusting your plant pots with hot pepper or topping the soil with sharp-edged grit to discourage raccoons from rummaging.

It is to be expected I am a wildlife release sight for my county










all going free in my back acreage along the creek

@gardengus , it looks like a lovely spot for them, with the all the water! Are the released raccoons from rehabs, or is the county sending relocated nuisance raccoons to you?

There was a sudden increase in the number of raccoons turning up for breakfast last week (6), and I wondered if some might have been released nearby. However, there was an almighty ruckus a few nights ago, the matriarch of the territory asserted herself, and now we're down to three: Ginger, the gray, and one other. The third raccoon has an inquiring mind and stands on her hind legs to look at us through the living room window. Our cat got hissy about this at first, but then she realized the raccoon was not coming inside, and now she ignores it.

They are from a wildlife rehab , mostly orphaned
The place does areal good job keeping wildlife wild .
In the spring they have tons of babies and always ask if I want to feed , I always have to say no because you are not allowed to talk to the babies (no human voice imprint) and they would have to duct tape my mouth , I would not be able to control my baby talk

I woke up at 5:30 a.m. this morning to the sound of high-pitched trilling and the patter of tiny feet on the deck. I rushed to the window and was just in time to see two tiny kits clamber down the deck steps and run to their mother, who hid them in the tall weeds at the edge of the pond. I think the mother is Number 3.

Interestingly, the facial markings on the raccoons I'm seeing are quite different from the ones that @gardengus posted pics of. Cinda's raccoons have proper "masks", but mine have separate eye patches that don't join up on the nose, which makes them look as if they are wearing shades. I wonder if this is a regional variation?

Interesting about the markings.

They all look a bit different

could not find 2014 photos but there were 3 siblings that were almost all black and only two bands on the tails

They are so cute.

I saw a baby racoon trying to cross the road today in the middle of the day. After stopping traffic and some confusion on the part of the youngster, it made it to safety and to hide in a storm drain.

Great portraits, Cinda, and I especially like the pic where one of the raccoons in the tree is resting his derriere on a branch and he looks so relaxed. As you say, all look a bit different. I wonder if humans all look the same to raccoons? I'm not sure they recognize me from one day to another, if I'm wearing different clothes, but they recognize the sound of peanuts hitting the wooden top of the bird table.

Oh, Rita, I do hope the baby raccoon you saw finds its way back to momma! It should not have been out in the middle of the day on its own.

JuneOntario said:Oh, Rita, I do hope the baby raccoon you saw finds its way back to momma! It should not have been out in the middle of the day on its own.

Oh I know it shouldn't have been out alone. But it looked totally alone, maybe got lost from mom and the rest of the kits.

Ginger has four kits (and one of them is a blonde)!