Mt. Hoo has yet to make the Michelin Fine Hotel guide, but we are becoming more popular for wildlife looking for overnight accommodations.
The most recent visitor arrived in the wee hours last week.
The muted hues of a new day were clawing into the eastern sky when my wife’s voice pulled me awake.
“Ernie, come look at this,” she was stage-whispering with a sense of urgency while peering out through our open bedroom screen door.
As I pushed sleep aside, I was expecting a great horned owl or maybe a flock of fuzzy little quail chicks, both common early morning visitors to Mt. Hoo this time of the year.
But my interest piqued as I neared the door and could hear a clawing sound.
Slowly waddling up the side of a 20-foot fan palm was a plump raccoon. Apparently, he was done with his nightly rounds and looking for a comfortable place to catch a little sleep.
I know many urban readers might be thinking, “what’s the big deal, I see raccoons all the time raiding my trash cans.”
They would be right.
Many city dwellers refer to raccoons as trash pandas, because these cute little mini-bears have adapted well to urban life, raiding trash cans for food scraps, or stealing pet food, fish from backyard ponds or plucking garden fruit trees.
The easy availability of food in local neighborhoods finds raccoons often residing in chimneys, attics, storage sheds, under decks or in cozy crawl spaces under houses.
It’s a good life.
Other than bird seed and nectar feeders for orioles and hummingbirds, we don’t feed wildlife on Mt. Hoo, so raccoons here follow their more natural routine, which is somewhat nomadic as they wander larger areas than their urban cousins in search of food and water.
There are no fences here, and our landscaped areas blend into the native vegetation, so it’s easy for the wildlife to visit.
Our goal was to create a wildlife resort where our native neighbors can come when they want to enjoy food, water, and shelter.
We have landscaped with native plants and created winding pathways through thick shrubbery where snails, small lizards, toads and frogs and a variety of insects hang out. We also have four water sources for wildlife.
All of this attracts larger visitors looking to sample this smorgasbord of available delicacies.
Our game cameras see raccoons randomly as they wander by for a drink at one of our fountains, or climbing into the fig tree to enjoy ripe figs, much to my wife’s displeasure.
We have a young cherry tree that is fruiting nicely, but fortunately is not big enough to the weight of a plump raccoon. When that day comes, I must alert raccoons and birds to the wrath of Kati, my Canadian bride who considers cherries to be fruit of the gods.
Sure, these little masked bandits with the ringed tail are cute and cuddly, but going after the coveted cherries could be dangerous.
At any rate, back to our snoozing raccoon.
After watching him climb into the tall palm tree and snuggle himself into a comfortable spot, I decided to follow his example and I went back to bed.
He was still there when I got up, so I decided to take a few photos. He watched me through squinty eyes and when I checked a few hours later, he was gone.
Maybe he just needed a little snooze after a long night on the road foraging for food.
Our visiting raccoon is not the only wild neighbor to take advantage of our lodging options at Mt. Hoo.
Routinely our resident quail will huddle at night in the dense cover of a lush bougainvillea vine and on wet winter nights my cameras have caught them perched in the rafters of our patio roof. On warm summer nights it’s not uncommon for a great horned owl to linger in the palms for a while.
During their summer visit, the colorful hooded orioles prefer longer term lodging in the palms, constructing their woven pouch nests where they lay eggs and produce a new crop of fledglings before their return to Mexico for winter. This puts them close to the nectar feeders we keep filled with fresh sugar water.
I’ve written before about the tiny tree frogs who live in the colorful pots of succulents on our patio table, and lately, there seems to be full occupancy of spiders hanging in webs over our walkways.
I’m not thrilled about that.
Maybe I could introduce spiders to the raccoons as a delicacy? After all, it worked with the roadrunners who just love our offering of escargot.
Well, I’d love to chat more, but I need to go Michelin to see about getting Mt. Hoo on its list of fine deluxe lodging locations.
Cowan is a freelance columnist. Email [email protected] or visit erniesoutdoors.blogspot.com.
