OOOOOOO, Opossum

Last week we spotted a baby ‘possum by the garage here at Chiot’s Run. It sure was cute.


I had to laugh because when I posted about our local turkeys I made a comment about how creepy opossums were. Lee commented about opossums on that post, this is what he said,

“Opossums are not so ugly. Baby opossums are very cute. They come to my backyard to eat the cat food and the fruits from my trees. Once in a while the babies come in the house so I grab them and take them to animal control. The ones that stay outside I leave them alone. Opossums are considered beneficial animals so they are not euthanized over here in southern California. They are taken to the hills and released. The babies are taken to opossum sanctuary where they are kept till they are big enough to be released in the hills. Isn’t that great? By the way, opossums are resistant to rabies so they are pretty safe to have them around in the backyard. Since the opossums showed up I no longer have slug and snail infestation. They love to eat the slugs and snails. I no longer have to use baits. One problem I have with them is that they love to leave presents in the greenhouse where I keep my orchids. Sigh lol.”

I guess he’s right, the baby ones are pretty cute. The adult ones however, still creep me out.

What do you think? creepy or cute?

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Crazy Little Birds

We seem to have a few new male hummingbirds around chasing all the young ones away from our feeders. I think they may be ones that are migrating through, since they just appeared today. There are 2 of them as far as I can tell. One sits on top of the feed in the back and chasing away any other birds that come and the other one sits in the maple tree on the side of the house and chases away any birds that try to go to the side feeder. They’re so crazy!


They will probably be leaving soon, the males usually migrate mid-august and the females follow in a couple weeks. The young may stick around through October.

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Shhhhh, Babies Sleeping

I checked on the robin’s nest today while mom was out hunting for food. It looks like 2 little ones are in there, who knows what happened to the third (or maybe it’s under the other 2).

Here’s the photo of the nest from July 8th.

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New Hummingbird Feeders

My old hummingbird feeder started leaking nectar and after falling off the window several times the glass tube broke and is much shorter than is once was. I have been looking for a nice hummingbird feeder for while now, but it seems like they’re all pretty ugly (I’m not sure why they all need plastic yellow flowers on them?). I finally found a simple one at Best Nest. I bought 2 new iron hooks to hang them from. So far the hummingbirds prefer their old feeder better. I’m hoping they’ll start using the new ones soon!

Update – They do love the new feeders! I think they love that there are 2 feeders now. They often eat from the one on the side of the house and then fly to the one on the back of the house for seconds.

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Baby Blues

Yesterday evening we spotted a nest in a pine tree. Looks like little robins will be around soon! The color of robin eggs is amazing, a beautiful shade of Tiffany blue. We’ll be keeping our eye on this nest and taking photos of the little birds as they grow up.

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