Back to the den in the woods.

The frozen ground has finally made it possible to safely walk around the den site (Daisey's Den)across the water without the fear of caving it in. So I got one of the coon cams set up over there the other night.

One of the first familiar faces was none other than Popeye!! Haven't seen him in a while and it's great to see he's doing so well! He's a big fatty now!

Button is there too! Seems to be quite a mix of coonies hanging out in there.....some of the old, some of the new, some of the juveniles, and even some big scrappy males.

I had the camera out there for 3 nights....but thanks to the curiosity of this coon....

....and the decision to play with his new toy, the camera was repositioned away from the activity of the den, thus not many photos.

We can thank the little bugger for one thing at least, the new angle gave us a great shot of a red fox in the area that night! I think he looks a little gimpy though, but unfortunately there weren't any more clips of him to be able to tell for sure.

Well hello there!

So I decide I'll set up the coon cam at the den site again. (I'm always torn between the feeding station or the den site now!) It was a last minute decision before going to work (it was 1pm), and I brought my regular camera with me so I could get some pics of the older boys while I was out there. Thank god!

Imagine my surprise as I'm fiddling around with the coon cam, attaching it to the tree and aiming it....I turn around and I've got an audience! I see this head poking out of the entrance watching intently.

I usually talk a little when I approach the den so as not to surprise or panic anyone, so obviously someone was awake and wanted to say hi!

So I start chatting away and my little friend comes out further and gets comfortable while watching me. I'm really not sure who it is, but definitely someone familiar with me!! The more I talked to him/her(didn't get a look underneath to know) , the more comfortable he/she got and just kind of chilled out with me.

Then, curiosity satisfied, and probably disappointed by the lack of treats presented (had I known I was going to run into someone I would have brought some!), back inside the den to bed!!

Not one of the "usual's" that visit regularly like Ringer or Red, but could very well be someone from a while back that I have not seen in ages...like Nel Mezzo or Whitey....that still remembers Mom! It could even be one of the grand kids! Some of Ringer's and Brownie's kits got used to me by following mom, they would even let me give them an occasional chin scratch sometimes. Their appearances really can change so much through the seasons I just can't be sure...but it makes me all warm and fuzzy to know they still trust me!

Video at the coon den.

OK! Finally got some video to work here. Sorry but it's just some short 5 second clips. I haven't figured out how to stream it into one long video.

We have at least 4....but I think even more...using the den. Based on last night video, I know we have Daisy, and what I think is a mom and her 2 kits from this past spring.

Here's momma saying Hi to everyone in video land! Smile for the camera!

Here we have the 2 kits I believe, wrestling with each other having some fun!

And here we have Daisy in the front, and momma walking over to her kits. See the way they act with her....she's definitely the boss, and they are happy to see her, not afraid.

Daisy and Momma get along well. Daisy on the left....I can tell her by the skin tags she had on the left side of her face. You can't see them here, but the clip just prior to this with these two, she was turned the other way and I could see them. I can see them in the video above also with all 4 of them.

Everyone that came and went in and out of that den appeared fine. Whoever was injured....if it was one of them, is none the worse for wear, and other than the minor trail I saw this morning, no new blood to report thank god!

Lots of activity at the den!

Last night was a busy night for this gang! I could tell before I even checked the camera....Instead of one set of tracks, there were tracks everywhere and lots of dirt around the entrance. These are some still shots from the video I got at our newly discovered den site. If I am ever able to figure out how to get the video on here, I'll post it.

Suffice it to say they started early...about 6:30pm and were coming and going until about 5am! There are at least 4 of them....that's the most I saw all at once on the video, and one of them is Laurie's girl Daisy. She's done a great job making friends with my gang!

By this point someone had decided to climb near the camera...probably to check it out! The camera shook a little and was moved, but luckily not too much...the den entrance was still visible.

I would love to know how many are really holed up in there...it's a huge den!

Following the coons.

So I'm checking some of the feeders near the edge of the pond. There are always lots of tracks around them, but I come upon a set of coonie tracks that were just too perfect, leading across to the other side of the pond, not to follow.......so I follow them!

So across the pond I head, parallel to the coonies path......

(the tracks perpendicular to mine and the coonies are coyote)

It wasn't far....this is looking back from whence I came! Right from that scrub on the far right of the pic that is in shade.......

And not 2 minutes into my trek among the brush on the other side I come upon this! The tracks lead me right to a den dug into a small hill.

No small den either. Not big enough for a person to squeeze in, but definitely big enough for a coyote. This was the main hole and it is obviously still used. There was so much traffic in paw prints around I couldn't make out heads or tails of who is actually using the thing. Coyote and coon prints everywhere, and it's definitely big enough to be a coyote den! Even if it is being used by the coonies now, it probably started out as a coyote den.

About 6ft further up the slope from the main hole, another entrance...probably the back door!

....also well used and also lots of tracks around it.

Both holes are deep and lead into a dark, open, tunnel that I was not about to stick my head into!! I noticed one other possible hole in the area as well...who knows how extensive a den is under there.

Looking from the back entrance down to the main one you can see prints and trails leading in all directions, 2 of them more used as you can tell by the dirt trail.

The tracks at 12 oclock in the above picture lead through the brush and out onto the pond that is well traveled by them all!

I'm thinking I may take the cooncam and set it up by the den on my days off and see what I get. My only concern would be someone seeing it while walking on the path in the area and taking it or noticing the den and interfering. I'll scope it out Monday and decide then.

The rest of the gang is great. Frigid temps around here are keeping them all in their den boxes! Jingles the bat is sleeping away as usual also, so nothing new or exciting to report other than my discovery!

Red, Belle & some silly pics.

Red is doing great...enjoying her star treatment at the Ritz!! Breakfast in bed and all! The swelling is going down, her foot is getting better and I'll probably send her out soon. Since she's not anxious to leave and I'm in no hurry to boot her I'll just give it some time for the swelling to go down more and let it heal a little longer so there is less chance of her re-injuring it too quickly.



Belle is taking good care of her babies. She pops out during the day to eat so she can stay with them at night when all the other coonies are out and about. I got a brief glimpse of her when she popped her head out today to check me out when I was putting the coon cam back at the feeding station. She was pretty quick though and all I got was part of her head before she ducked right back inside to her babies.

The rest of the gang was just enjoying the nice weather (FINALLY!!). Just hanging out making silly faces!

The new & the old generation.

Baby Bella is growing like a weed. She's up to 117 grams and showing some attitude when she doesn't get as much to eat as she wants! Last night was the first time she made what I call "the question" sound. It's like the sound a guinea pig makes when it talks. The whooo ooo sound that usually means things like "who's there, who are you, what are you doing" type things. When she did it last night, it meant "where did my damn bottle go?" after I took it out of her mouth! haha



When I went down to the feeding station last night I ran into Ringer. I haven't seen her in a while so it was nice to know she was OK. She looks great! Her coat is perfect which makes me wonder if she's gonna be a mom this year. I find the pregnant ones tend to get ratty, scruffy looking coats (like Dandy and Reds) as they prepare to have kits. I could definitely be wrong of course. Time will tell. Ringer is the one that brought her 3 kids out for a visit with Grammy last year when they were old enough.

Belle and kids are tucked away in their den box. Deep in the shadow's beyond this entrance mom is taking care of her new babies as we speak!

Dandy, Belle & Baby Bella

Dandy had her sutures out today. She's good to go so I will be releasing her tonight. She has a little fistula where food can get stuck behind her new nose, but she keeps it clean so it is not causing a problem. She can't wait to go. I think she is pregnant on top of it, so it will be good for her to go back to her own den and settle in again...assuming someone hasn't already taken it over and she has to find a new one! Good luck Dandy, I'll be keeping my eyes on ya!


Tuesday afternoon I discovered someone was using the large den box out back. I couldn't tell who it was...just saw her go in from a distance and when I checked she just huffed and wouldn't come out and say hi. This afternoon I was out back and ran into Belle. I beleive it was her the other day and she may be settling in to have more kits. She had her kits last year in the same den box so it makes sense she might want to use it again.

She is one of my 2006 releases and had 3 kits last spring. Tragically 2 were killed by a strange male I found in the area one day, but her third remaining kit did great and I was out there the night Belle led him (Stumpy) out into the woods and a new den somewhere else. I would occasionally run into him out there afterwards with his mom but he would keep his distance when he saw me.

Of course I didn't have my camera with me when I ran into her, but I got one off the cooncam though! She was down there eating like she was eating for an army and her nipples are getting bigger so she probably IS eating for an army! hehe

The new baby Bella is doing great. She's up to 105 grams and growing every minute!