Animal Entertainment

While camping at Forestville State Park a couple of weekends ago we were treated to some animal everyday life.  It started out Saturday night when returning to camp after having completed the Almanzo bike race.  I was unloading some stuff from the car when I hear Kerry blurt out "Hey, we got a little critter in camp."  It was a bit dark so I turned on my headlamp.  By what she said, and how she said it, I was expecting to catch a glimpse of a little mouse or a chipmunk scurrying away.  Instead, when I looked over towards the tent, I saw a decent sized raccoon casually making it's way toward the picnic table.  I quickly ran towards it and shooed it away.  It was then that I noticed that it had already been at our site earlier and tore into a bag of trail mix and mixed nuts that we hadn't properly stowed (my bad).  As we went to sleep that night we quickly found out that the raccoon must have had a den nearby.  Frequently, throughout the night, we were awoken by chattering, chirping and general carrying on of a raccoon family in the brush.

The next morning, as we were making breakfast we got to witness a family move, raccoon style.  It ends up the family was holed up in a brush pile about 50 ft north of our tent site and mom was intent on moving them to a hole in a tree that was about 50ft SW of our camp.  Five times, the mom made the trip around the perimeter of our camp, carrying her restless little ones to their new home.

I love how she's got the little guy slung over her shoulder as she climbs.

Hold on, I'm going to throw you over into that hole.