Nature, Red in Tooth and Claw

Entertaining little nature show outside our house this evening. Heard lots of crows making a big commotion a few hours ago. Went out to see what was the matter. After much peering into the trees, we espied a large crow's nest perched high in the branches of the big pine tree that arches over our house. And on the branch leading out to the nest - a racoon.

After watching for a bit, we saw a second racoon, actually in the nest. Probably making a tasty meal of whatever eggs or fledglings were there. :-(

A. stalked them with the camera for a bit, and got these pics:


A little fuzzy, that one. As it got darker, the coons got bolder:

The two of them stayed in the tree for quite a while. Eventually, they plucked up their courage and skittered down the tree trunk. One of them stopped to growl at A. before taking off around the side of the apartment building next door.

A. mentioned that he found two dead baby crows on the deck a few weeks ago. Guess we know now who the culprits are!