Possum in Carrying Place, Ontario

by Lesley Hennessy
(Carrying Place, Ontario, Canada)

We live in a semi rural area on the waterfront on the Bay of Quinte.

Last evening, around 10:30 pm I spotted a "whitish" mid to small size animal coming up our backyard slope from the marsh.

In the brief second I had the back garage door light on (to throw out some bread slices for the raccoon visitors) I glimpsed this animal. I quickly turned the light off and all lights around me and waited at the door for five minutes. No show. So I went back into the house, turned all the lights off and watched from our living room windows.

Sure enough, at 11:00 pm this animal appeared again having found the bread slices beneath the walnut tree. With the help of the full moon and the close proximity of the animal to the house (and a bit of help with binoculars) I was able to identify it as a POSSUM!!!! How very special!

The previous evening a bold skunk had been giving the raccoon family some grief but last night all was quiet and the raccoons had moved off.

We have an ancient willow tree on the property and plenty of other trees, a very vibrant marsh frontage - no shortage of shore birds and lots of other birds, etc. We leave the shoreline and fringe of the property natural and encourage natural plant species, berries, etc. to thrive.

Our cats are kept indoors and only allowed outside in a fenced yard and under supervision.

I hope he/she makes it through the winter and thrives.

Lesley

Thank you for sending us this report of your Possum sighing, I'm sure our readers will enjoy it as much as I did.

I hope you don't mind, but I added a picture of a Possum to this page.