An Empty Nest Again

Mother raccoon and her tribe have finally left. They lived in our fireplace chimney for about six weeks. We first noticed them because of the little ones' "barking" that must have been shortly after birth. Leo volunteered to help us get rid of them, but with the babies it was more difficult. We did not want to do anything to endanger them.

Kathy kept climbing up on the roof at night when mother goes out to feed and with flashlight in hand peered down the flue to see how the little ones were doing. "They're still there and growing." She would also check by rattling the fireplace screen and would get a noisy response and that also clued us they were still around.

Yesterday Kathy rattled the screen again to get their response and there was none. Up on the roof to check. This time no baby raccoons.

Kathy capped the fireplace flue and cleaned up the mess in the fireplace that fell through the damper.

Now for the state bird of Michigan. A couple robins are trying to build nests on beams extending over the outside decks. But we keep knocking down the nesting material because we do not want to deal with any more little ones.