Outdoor Nature Hour: raccoons

We enjoyed the earlier part of our week with sunshine and temps in the 70s! We walked the horses to the back pasture and sat in the sun while they grazed. Hayes and Chooj explored the brush, finding Ruffian chewing on a rabbit skin. Hayes saved the tail and put it in a jar.
Of course, our study this week is on raccoons and Hayes informed me the name means "one who scratches his hands."
This is our picture of "our" raccoon last summer:

Yeah, I know, you can only see the glowing eyes. Seems this raccoon lived in the brush pile next to the creek and came up each night to finish off the horses' grain. One night I let the dogs out at sometime dark:30 and heard them tussling with the raccoon. Not a good thing to hear but no one was the worse for wear, thank goodness.
We still have the brush pile so we'll be watching to see if our raccoon returns with a brood this spring.