raccoons, ‘possums, and, one night, a red fox. We live smack-dab in the middle of our small city and see more wildlife than I ever did growing up on a farm. (Having an outdoor farm-dog probably had something to do with that.). So now, every morning we set out some water on the back deck, along with two pans with a variety of seeds. Sometimes I throw out peanuts in the shell or some apple slices. It’s turned out to be lots of fun to watch everybody coming to feed, with the main drawback being the expense of feeding larger animals. And we accept that once the critters start relying on us for part of their diet, we have to continue at least through the winter. But hey, there’s not a lot of other places these days to spend money for entertainment. We think our squirrels are especially frisky and bushy-tailed after several seasons of our buffet. And we’ve gotten some nice photos, too.

Something I learned from a cooperative extension agent: In hardware stores, sometimes you’ll see bags labeled “Deer Corn.” But people who feed corn to deer are actually harming them, he said. The corn fills up their bellies and messes up their digestion. They probably won’t die on your property, but eventually they’ll die somewhere else. Click on the link for more information about deer and corn.