more on our wildlife

Watching wildlife from the kitchen window is always entertaining. I  see a variety of birds small and large, very colorful and playful. A few days ago a great heron was flying towards the river... It was beautiful.. I see squirrels running and hiding their food. They are typically grey, but we have one black squirrel and some partially red ones around too.  It it nice to see them run on top of the tall pine trees chasing each other... amazing how they can jump between branches...  Of course I also see cats and dogs walking around, but these are people animals... Very rarely I am able to see some unusual little animals.  Last summer I saw a woodchuck in the middle of our backyard. Our dogs did not even blinked! Obviously I took a picture and could identify the intruder later using wikipedia... Today I saw something very different which made me a bit more aware of the hidden nature around our house...  I was cooking dinner watching sunset and enjoying the day moving into night... At some point I looked out towards Tony's house and I saw a big raccoon on top of the roof... and then the animal started climbing the chimney! It was amazing!... It went straight up on the smooth chimney surface - 5.14 climbing!!!! Tom went to get his camera, but it was back too late to take a picture. I was just watching the raccoon disappear inside the chimney... slowly... first the head, then the body and after a moment the tail... It was gone inside the chimney. We were wondering whether it went into Tony's house or just into the chimney and what happened to it. We kept watching the chimney during our dinner until the outside become completely dark and we could not see the house across the street any longer.  The raccoon did not came out.

Of course the obvious question is if our chimney gets some visits from the raccoon. Tom made sure the flu is closed. I cannot imagine  walking into our leaving room and seeing the raccoon sleeping on our sofa. Our dogs are just too friendly to scare the intruders. They will welcome any guest!