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Our little chucklets really love the back deck.
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And when I hear them scrambling across it I have to sit back and watch.
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It’s like their private playground.
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Tag, hide and seek…
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The grill cover is fun to duck under.
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The railings?
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A perfect back yard viewing platform.
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Did I mention Lord Dudley Mountcatten enjoys watching them too?
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Even when he has to duck under a blind to do it.
🤣
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Once or twice a day I hear scampering.
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And when I do?
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I know where to look.
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Out back on our deck where the chucklets are having fun.
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They run across it, they chase each other…
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But they really like the railings.
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In and out.
Out and in.
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It’s a veritable woodchuck amusement park.
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It’s bad enough I have to battle baby woodchucks stripping my flower gardens bare.
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They’re adorable, but it’s very hard to make them stop nibbling.
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I heard shredding Irish Spring around the plants helps, so I’m all in.
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My other problem this year?
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A mouse.
Who beheaded all my lovely marigolds and dragged the blooms under our shed.
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I didn’t even have a chance to photograph the pretty alternating yellow and orange combination before all I was left with was this…
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Because as soon as the mouse ripped off all the blooms?
The chucks ate 3/4’s of the leaves.
But I fixed them.
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I planted a row of taller crown daisies and no one likes those.
😉
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Along with all our other wild visitors we have raccoons, but since they arrive at night I’m rarely able to photograph them.
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Until the other evening when a pair showed up before sunset.
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They really are characters.
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Such expressive faces…
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And those dexterous little paws!
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These little fatties shimmy right up the center pole, knock the suet cages to the ground then empty them at their leisure. Those paws can open anything.
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I was hoping they’d do it while I was filming but no such luck. Seeing their big butts hanging upside down eating the orioles grape jelly is a riot.
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😊
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There’s always one little chucklet that sticks close to mom.
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It might be the runt…
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It might just realize she knows where to find food.
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Either way, momma has a shadow.
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A little mini me chuck.
❤️
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Everyone is welcome at our backyard buffet.
We feed birds, deer, ducks, woodchucks, fox, raccoons, skunks, a sometimes opossum and the occasional pheasant.
We never know who’ll show up and in what combination.
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Fox and duck is an odd one.
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In normal circumstances fox would eat duck.
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But with a steady food supply…
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They’re dining partners instead.
😊
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We have almost 3 acres of carefully tended mown lawn. So naturally when I take Lord Dudley Mountcatten outside, he heads straight for the barren patch of dirt under our bird feeders.
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Yes, the bird viewing is up close and personal there…
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But the main reason is he likes to roll.
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The birds eat there. As do the woodchucks, the raccoons, the ducks, the fox and the deer.
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So many good stinky smells in which to cover himself.
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Sigh.
🥴
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The babies are on the move.
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With and without momma chuck.
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They’re mastering eating standing up.
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If they can beat momma to the apples that is.
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Did you know woodchucks can climb trees?
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They also practice on poles.
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Cuteness personified.
💕
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I put a bowl of grain out every night for the deer.
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But lately someone beats them to it.
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And guards it from marauders.
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Momma Chuck likes the grain as well…
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But isn’t sure what to make of its protector.
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She inched closer.
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But finally gave up and stuck to her own buffet.
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😊
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Momma Chuck brings the babies out from under the barn every day now.
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When I see them?
I show up with apples…
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The little guys try to talk mom into feeding them.
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But that’s not happening.
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Junior figures it out.
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And munches happily beside his mom.
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If that’s not cute, I don’t know what is.
💕
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River's world..... 