Night Visitors.

Posted on September 25, 2019 by

31 Comments

Hello everyone!  I hope that you are all having a wonderful week so far.  We had a beautiful sunny day on Monday.  More about that another time however.  This has been a very wet autumn.  And I don’t mean official autumn, but our northern autumn, which we have had for 5 weeks now.  Of course our autumn doesn’t normally begin so early.  But it did this year.  At least for temperatures.

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Not much boat traffic left on the lake now.

There has been a little, noisy, visitor for the last few nights.  A raccoon.  I call him Rocky.  He is a younger one and likely weighs no more than Muffin.  But Rocky looks bigger with all that fur.  I think he likes Muffin.  I have some plastic milk crates sitting in front of the window.  Rocky climbs on them to look in the window at Muffin.  She was scared at first.  No more.  At 4:30 this morning, Rocky shows up.  Muffin was at the window.  She attacked Rocky, scratching at the window, hissing, spitting.  Scared Rocky.  He fell off the crates.  Muffin was so happy and proud!  Poor Rocky.IMG_6058

I used to participate in a lot of different bird studies at one time.  One such study was trying to determine the breeding range of different species of owls.  That meant being out at night looking for owls.  That was no easy task.  It’s dark.  You may remember my encounter with the police doing this.  This time I stayed off the main highways and traveled down this lonely country road.  Hardly anyone lives along this road, I think there was 3 houses.  It was a long winding road. 

I would stop now and then, get out and call for owls.  I got very good at imitating their calls and they would come flying in nice and close so I could see them.  I always chose a night with good moonlight such as that particular night.  After a bit I noticed a car coming up behind me, but it stayed back quite a bit.  It traveled at the same speed as me and stopped when I stopped.  After the third time I was getting a bit nervous.  I had already passed the last house.  And it was a good distance before arriving at another road.  Hmm, what to do?

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A cloudy autumn day on the lake.

I was stopped and had just called for owls when 2 of them came flying in.  Nice.  2 Great Gray owls.  They are large owls and not easy to call in close.  I was so excited about this as they are considered a rare owl, so I was very intently watching them.  The car behind me had stopped as usual.  But this time it started driving slowly up behind me.  I was in front of my car, about 20 feet.  It was so amazingly quiet on that lonely road.  Yet I didn’t even hear this car driving closer until it stopped behind my car.  Great. No one got out of the car.  That just made me more nervous.  I started back to my car.

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Some smaller islands on the lake.

Just as I got back to the car it happened.  Bright light and loud voice saying don’t move. My heart was pounding but at the same time I knew who it was.  The police.  Two officers got out and came over to question me.  There was no problem once I showed my ID.  Apparently there had been 2 break ins at one of the houses in the past month.  They laughed when I told them what I was doing.  It was 1 am, I went back home.  Enough excitement for one night.

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Happiness is a squirrel with a walnut.

Night visitors can be so exciting.  Or not.  I hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

© 2019 Steve McLeod.

Category: Adventure, Autumn, Cat, Country, Country Living, Country Pleasures, Fall, Fun, Humorous, Laughs, Night, Outdoors, pets, Raccoon, Thoughts, UncategorizedTags: , , , , , , , , ,

31 Comments on “Night Visitors.”

  1. That would have probably been my luck lol! But would have had a nice ride in the back of a car…. Being there were recent break-ins. 😂 And Muffin sure is a feisty girl! She scared that bad Rocky away!Grace was climbing up the hickory nut tree this morning after the hummingbirds, as I watched the sunrise. She’s a mess…Have a great day!

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    • I think Muffin might have been upset that Rocky didn’t bring her any flowers!😂😹🦝Wow, chasing hummingbirds, that’s what I call hopeful! Thanks for reading Renee and you too!😀🌞🍁🍂

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  2. Omg stay save and close well your door when you go out or even when you home, you never know these days, so could you get at least pictures of owls? 😂

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    • Unfortunately I didn’t have a camera at that time. A couple times I’m sure I could have gotten some nice pics📷 even at night since the owls were less than 2 meters from me.😀 I should keep my door locked all the time I guess,🙄 I usually lock it at night though.😀🙄 Thanks for reading today Ilona! Have a great day!😁😺🌞🍁🍂

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      • No no—in front of the camera—not people…
        Hahaha! I’m practicing singing and playing the keyboards—scratching my head and patting my belly at the same time…as per your request :))
        We have here a tiny little owl that goes “poh poh poh pohhhh” 😊

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      • But the camera means lots of people all over the world. I would be shaking too much to hold the camera!! 😂🙄 Did I say that?🙄 we have 2 tiny owls, one is very brave.😃😁

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      • More brave than some Officials we know…hahahahaha!
        Ok, this next video I’m about to post—I’m dedicating to you….

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  5. Calling for owls? Wow! Now I truly envy you. The moon shots is so beautiful ❤ And I have to look closer again to the squirrel to be sure. Because for second it looked like he had the walnut in his mouth. So my first thought was how's that possible? 😂

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    • You should have seen the eyes on that little squirrel when he saw those walnuts.👀 He could barely carry them in his mouth, but he did it!😂😹 Calling for owls was fun, I don’t do it now though, at least not since last year!😀🦉 Guess I have the right voice for animals of all kinds. Hmm, raining again. But a mild 12C.😀⛈⛈

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  6. Wow ! I wish that I could have seen how Muffin scared Rocky ! …We give our squirrels special treats near Christmas with chestnuts…very comical to watch , but they do manage to carry them away…how does Muffin react with the squirrels and chipmunks ?

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    • Chipmunks are her favorites, followed by squirrels, just the right size for dinner guests. She probably figures Rocky is another cat. He is kind of cute though. I wouldn’t mind him coming around but he’s so noisy and he’ll end up breaking my hanging bird feeder. Sigh.

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  7. Hey Steve! Oh u be careful when faking it, and ensure they dont take revenge 🤪😄. Muffin is so naughty and poor rocky😄😄. Lucky to have such strangers… and 1am. cant you sleep early 🤔… And its actually a lovely feel to drive alone around early mrng 😄.. Nice post Steve!!

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