Adventures at an Urban Wildlife Feeding Station

 I want to tell you something funny. I find it funny at least. 

I live in a very urban area of an urban area. Across the street is a 24-hour gas station/convenience store and, one block to the east, is a very busy street. That being said, I still maintain my "Urban Wildlife Feeding Station". I put out birdseed, black-oiled sunflower seeds, unsalted peanuts and, the occasional Barnum & Bailey Animal Crackers for my little squirrel friend with the sweet tooth. The feeding station does not attract a wide variety of wildlife because diversity of wildlife is minimal in such an urban setting. However, I do consistently get a wide variety of beautiful little sparrows and my little, thin-tailed squirrel 🐿️ friend & crows which in my opinion are the cream of the urban crop. Also, when there is bird seed out, there is a brave little junco who goes where the sparrows don't which is right in front of our door to the porch. Seeds get scattered there and the junco, brave little soul that they are, goes to this areaand has a lot of seeds to themselves.

My son told me recently that he, when he is outside smoking, he has seen an opossum peek it's head around from the area underneath the porch. So, I did some reading up on opossums which look prehistoric and are really fascinating creatures. It turns out that they like to live underneath porches. I have never seen it but I am usually outside with my dog. My son is outside solo with merely a cigarette. I read that they are omnivores who eat bugs and like bananas and carrots amongst other food & things. Ding. Ding. Ding. I currently had over ripe bananas and a bag of scalloped carrot slices that had been in the refrigerator forever and old french fries.

Two nights ago, I cut up one of the bananas and put the banana pieces and some cold french fries on a plastic lid from a "to go" container. I put it on the ground on the east side of the porch. The next morning when I looked all of the bananas pieces and the fries were gone. Success. I was on my way to having a little opossum friend. 

Encouraged by my success, I cut up another banana & put those pieces and carrot slices out last night. When I went to check the plastic dish this morning, the banana slices were gone but not one carrot had been touched. I found this incredibly humorous. But even funnier was the empty bag of unsalted peanuts on the ground to the right of the uneaten carrots. I usually leave my bags of peanuts, bird seed & sunflower seeds closed up & stacked up on the wooden porch planks to the left of the front door if you are facing it. One time, my little squirrel friend had helped themselves to the bag of peanuts when my son walked out the door & they raced off from their peanut bonanza. The opossum had done the same & helped themselves to the bag of peanuts. However, he or she took the bag from by the front door to the ground on the eastern edge of the porch and emptied it leaving only a crumpled, stiff plastic bag. I am assuming it was the opossum my son has seen. I am also assuming it was the opossum because something besides my squirrel likes the unsalted, in-the-shell peanuts I put out in a bowl on the porch railing. And they, unlike the squirrel, leave no trace of having been there. The leave no crumbs. The squirrel cracks open all the shells & leaves a big mess on the porch railing. 

I look forward to further Chronicles of seeing what the opossum will or will not eat and, hopefully, one day, probably when I am outside without Heisenberg, my dog, I can meet my new little opossum friend. They will need a name. I call the squirrel "Taylor" for reasons related to their not bushy tail. I could call the opossum "Peanut"?