Raccoons

Before I get to the raccoons... Today we got in a young great horned owl. He came in because someone found him tangled in a volley ball net. At a nudest colony...
We're thinking he must have been awfully distracted by all the naked people and then flew into the net... (he was looking for other hooooters. Ha!).

Anyways... I spent most of Friday helping out raccoons. First we started getting one of the silos ready for some of the raccoons to move up to the hill. At paws the young guys get to stay inside in little cages, and once they weigh over 1200 g and are self feeding, they move to a large outside enclosure. This year we hung tarps below the ceiling - because they like to climb and this way it would catch them if they fell. But it turns out they really love sleeping up in the tarps. The nice thing about it is the cages are easier to clean, because they spend so much time up there. Bad thing - it must be super gross and full of poop!
We have 4 silos that can each hold 10 raccoons - I was getting ready the 3rd one. Once that was ready I went down and tubed some of the remaining raccoons - we have about 20 left, only 12 or so getting tubed. Raccoons are so cute.
Once we replenish their water dishes they get so excited and run to dunk their little paws in it, and knead the water. They often stand in the water, just moving their feet. Here is a video if a raccoon in water from youtube to give you an idea of them:


Right now they are pretty young still - and they are curious but timid. So you open the door and they try to dash out, then you reach in and they shrink back, not sure what to think. Up in the silos I found two of them curled up in a big dog food bowl (which had food in it that morning). So cute! They just glanced up at me and went back to sleep. They also like to sleep in their "hammock" which is a black piece of canvas hanging from its four corners, folded in half, and they all pile up in it on top of each other. To get in they have to climb the fence, and they do so slowly, while eyeing me, not sure if I'm interesting or terrifying. At this age cleaning their cages is sorta fun!

I ended the evening helping out with meds and tubings again. I tube fed a gull - who is very bitey. And did manage to bite my finger once (bad gull).