A Tale of Two Critters

A couple of nights ago, we lost one of the male ducks to some kind of predator.  My research into the way the drake met his end revealed that our culprit was either a possum or a raccoon.  We haven't seen any raccoons around the house, but several possums visit nightly, waddle onto the front porch and consume whatever is left of the cat food.  We can hear them crunching and usually turn on the light to identify which of the several ones around has come to dinner. Silky?  Blacky? Stubby?   But I digress...

I was not happy about the loss of the drake and was totally unwilling to lose another.  The ducks are really close to the house, the idea being to deter predators.  I turned on the outside light and tried to keep watch.  Indeed a possum did show up just after dark, but all he was eating was leftover duck food.  I ran him off.

Last night, I sat in the den with one ear cocked.  I'd moved the duck food hoping the possums would stay away, but then just after dark again, I heard a duck in distress.  I flew out the side door, down the steps, tripped over the garden fence, lost my reading glasses and confronted an awful sight.  A possum, finding no leftover duck food to munch, was chewing on the duck's leg instead!  I flapped my arms at him and he reluctantly let go and backed off.  My yelling brought my husband and daughter.  Hubby volunteered to either shoot or remove the varmint, but I know he didn't really want to have to shoot it.  I was torn.  "He's a duck killer!  He should be shot...Oh, just catch him and get him out of here." 

He was fairly easily cornered in the duck shelter and transported out of the pen by the tail.  We depositied him into an empty bucket with a tight lid.  We were in the process of deporting him a couple of miles down the road when we had to swerve to miss a small round feathery orb in the road.

"Was that an owl?  I think that was a screech,"  my husband said backing up the truck.  He hopped out and by the light of the headlights rescued the stunned bird, placing him in yet another bucket with a lid that I had in the truck.  (Which just goes to show you can never really have too many buckets).  The bird flapped around in his bucket while we went on to the release site and let the surprisingly calm, duck-killing possum free. I hope no one around there has ducks.

Back home we opened the bucket and removed the screech owl with gloved hands.  They can deliver quite a hurt with claws and beak.  This one was fairly calm and probably a little dazed. We are guessing he was bumped by a car.  After taking photos and dubbing him Owl Gore, we left him on the porch with the bucket on it's side as shelter.  We kept an eye on him for a couple of hours, but sometime around 10:30 he must have gotten his wits about him and flew off into the October night. At least we hope that is what happened and that he didn't become the latest victim of the killer possums.

The chewed duck is recovering.

Owl Gore