Mystery Solved!

Though really there was nothing mysterious about it. Each morning this past week we awoke to find our birdfeeders in complete disarray ~ some knocked down, some half-emptied, some gone missing entirely! I was eager to post the developing story here, but we were waiting to see how it all played out. Here are a few pictures from the crime scene:

Exhibit A

Small thistle feeder, knocked down and emptied.

Exhibit B

Large tube feeder (and unspecified amount of contents) missing entirely.

Exhibit C

Third missing feeder found 2 days later, deep beneath hedge.

You can probably guess, who was making off with the goods every night, but it took us a while to catch up with them! Finally though, last night, after I had gone to bed and dh was up late watching the World Cup, we spotted them (or rather, dh did and took pictures!) ...

First appeared one ...

then two ...

... then at least four raccoons he could count! (Sorry for the blurry photo, but I had to share this image!) They were all simliar in size, but possibly belonged to one family. (Do raccoons travel in packs?) In addition to the scrabbling noises, the sound that really caught my husband's attention was all the hissing they were making at each other!

So while we're down one feeder and several pounds of seed, we're up one really neat wildlife encounter! But we don't want to encourage these fellas hanging around - nor do we want to lose anymore feeders - so we are now taking in the feeders before retiring at night.

Stay tuned for late breaking developments - you can be sure we'll keep you posted! :)