Possum, Oh Possum!

The possum has been back. And this time, I've got a better picture.

Sort of a big rat with bad hair. And long toes.

I've been confused about the name; is it possum, or opossum?  And is that the same as the Mexican tlacuache?

I Googled it, and now the confusion has doubled.

The American possums are actually called opossums, scientific name, Didelphimorphia. But for some reason, they are more commonly referred to as possums. ... Australian possums are (scientific name) Phalangeridae. Both are marsupials, but that’s about it. Other than that, they are not really related at all.(From BobInOz)

Here's Wikipedia on the American possums:

The opossums, also known by their scientific name Didelphimorphia ..., make up the largest order of marsupials in the Western Hemisphere, including 103 or more species in 19 genera. Of South American ancestry, they entered North America following the connection of the two continents.
...
The word "opossum" is borrowed from the Virginia Algonquian (Powhatan) language ... from the Proto-Algonquian word meaning "white dog" or "white beast/animal".
They are also commonly called possums, particularly in the Southern United States and Midwest. However, the term "possum" was borrowed into use to describe distantly related Australian marsupials (specifically those of the suborder Phalangeriformes) when Australia became known to Europeans.

They originated in South America, from where one species spread into the American Southeast, and then west and north to here. And in each country in Latin America, they go by a different name: "tlacuache" (from an Azetc word) in Mexico, which is the name I knew, and ...

en El Salvador como tacuazines ... en Ecuador como guanchacas, en Honduras como guasalos, en el Perú como mucas o canchalucos, en Bolivia como carachupas, en Colombia como faras, chuchas, runchos o raposas, en Venezuela como rabipelados ... (From Wikipedia in Spanish)

And the Latin name, Didelphimorphia, means "double womb", referring to the split reproductive system; baby possums are born very early in their development, and crawl up the mother's belly to a pouch where they attach themselves to a teat and grow until they're ready to face the world. They are marsupials, like the better-known kangaroo.

Looking up names, I learned that some of the things I "knew" about possums were wrong.

• "Possum" has been used in the phrase, "playing possum," referring to the habit of a threatened oppossum of keeling over and pretending to be dead. Except that they don't, really, all that often; only about 10% of possums play dead.


• They are also supposed to have prehensile tails, but this only shows up in the young; an adult is too heavy for his own tail.

UPDATE: Christopher Taylor adds, in the comments,

The "double womb" is actually a bit more literal than that. Unlike the situation in humans, where the Fallopian tubes lead from the ovaries on each side to a common central uterus, marsupials have an entirely separate uterus for each ovary, with a separate vagina for each (though only a single cervix, so I think there would still be only a single visible opening externally). I believe many male marsupials have a divided head to the penis, so that they are able to fertilise both sides of the female's reproductive system at once. Even though this feature is (I think) common to all marsupials, I suspect that Didelphis was the animal that got tagged with it because, of course, the American opossum was discovered by Europeans long before the Australian forms.

Two uteri, and a pouch, to boot! And then the mother carries her babies on her back for weeks after they're out of the pouch. The burden of motherhood is a heavy one for an opossum!

Small doings

The new BirdCam has taken dozens of shots of chickadees and white-crowned sparrows taking their baths. A grand display of splashes and wet feathers and dunked heads; they've all been having fun.

This youngster wasn't so sure about the whole procedure.

"Well, I've got my feet wet; now what?"

Here's the mother. She's just given her kid a full demonstration, but he's not ready yet.

And I never expected the camera to pick up this:

Bald-faced hornet, getting a drink. He, or one of his family, came back several times when the birds had finished their baths and dinner.

Creatures of the night

One nice thing about being a night owl is that, when the days get too hot, the nights are perfect, and I'm not wasting them asleep in bed. A whole heap of critters agree with me, too.

I found these in my backyard, this week:

Once the birds are asleep, others get a chance at the birdbath, resting on the "shore", or even going swimming. This weevil is following the edge around and around, looking for the exit.

Slug and springtail on birdbath.

Algae on my bare cement, and snail eating algae.

I checked the new BirdCam's photos, and was amused by this snail. I was fussing around with flashlights and the tripod, and the BirdCam kept taking photos as I moved around. And in all the bustle, in each photo, there was the snail, moving right along, and somehow not getting stepped on.

Long slug, going places.

"Look before you slither."

The mosquitoes have been voracious these past few weeks. Even though I slather myself with repellent, I'm still scratching bites. I tried burning these mosquito coils outside the door to discourage them. I don't know that it helped.

On the plate with the next night's coil set up, I found this small slug. He doesn't seem to mind the chemicals in the coil. Later, I found him on the coil itself.

"Did I hear something behind me?"

The door stays open until late. A few critters followed me inside.

Pretty yellow spider on the wall by my desk Update: Enoplogatha ovata.

Very small moth, ditto. (White-shouldered moth)

And this: what is it? The BirdCam picked this up last night.

Something in a hurry.

Not a 'coon, not a skunk, not a cat, nor a fox, rat, or dog. It looks to me like a possum. I hadn't realized that we have possums here in the Lower Mainland.

And take a look at those toes!

Headless prowler.

I'm still sorting the ten-lined June beetle photos; I took 'way too many.

BirdCam upgrade, with sparrow

I bought my backyard Bird/RaccoonCam three years ago. It is a bit primitive; three distance settings, no viewfinder, fixed size, and strange colour balance, so when I saw a new model in the Lee Valley catalog I ordered it, and set it up yesterday.

It's still a bare-bones camera, but the resolution is better, and there are a few options, like shape and size of the image, and more distance settings. The first batch of photos, with the camera set to 11 inches, turned out more or less ok; noisy, but more or less in focus, and the right colour.

White crowned sparrow, with hulled sunflower seed.

And I learned something.

Chickadees are very polite birds. They take turns dropping down to pick up one sunflower seed, and fly away to hull and eat it on a branch, leaving the rest for others. When they're done, they come back, pick up one seed, and go away again. Everybody gets their share.

This white-crowned sparrow is not so considerate. He stays put, eating until there is nothing left. And in photo after photo, he had stuffed his bill with three or four seeds at once.

"Mine, mine, mine!"

Just like a kid with candy. Or Tex, the hermit crab. Is it greed, or gluttony? Or just bad table manners?

As seen by the BirdCam

Birds by day...

Junco and box of heather

Sparrow and cowslips, just opening.

And sometimes a coon by night ...

Just passing through.

And with every batch of photos, a few shots of my bare feet. But I'll spare you those.

In the absence of raccoons

I keep the BirdCam loaded and aimed at my birdbath, where raccoons occasionally come to drink. Every few days I check the photos. Usually, they're of juncos and chickadees, chickadees and juncos, and sometimes a raccoon tail, just leaving. This week's take was a disappointing series of me, out in the night murdering slugs.

As I went to replace the memory and start the camera going again - never give up! - I saw movement on the edge of the lens. A little springtail going around and around, following his own footsteps, like Piglet. The BirdCam delivers, one way or another.

"There's gotta be an end to this path."

"Maybe back this way?"

I'll have to send this in to the Springtail group for an ID; Entomobrya sp. or Orchesella, possibly.

While I'm at it, here's a carpet beetle that dropped in to visit. He's a giant alongside the springtail.

Not a raccoon, either.

Fat sparrow

From the BirdCam, while I was hoping to catch, instead, a fat raccoon:

"Hello?"

Later, it caught the fat raccoon's tail, just leaving. I'll get it, though. Patience!

Opportunist

I've been setting out hulled sunflower seeds for a chickadee with a damaged beak, and recently he's been sitting in the rhododendron scolding when he can't find them. "Dee dee dee, where's my dinner?" The BirdCam caught the reason:

"Nom, nom, nom!"

So laser eyes are hereditary!

Proof:

Mother and kits, getting a drink and practicing crab catching. Caught on the BirdCam.

It's been so hot and dry here that I've been making sure there is fresh water available for this little family every night. The kits can't reach the birdbath yet, so I leave a metal basin on the ground for them.

The mother drinks; the kits not so much. They're still nursing, so they get their hydration from poor, thirsty Mommy. But they're learning to search underwater for goodies. Last night, one stepped into the basin with all four feet, felt around, then went on his way. Nothing there but water; what a disappointment!

I wonder if they'd like some mussels? I've got spares.

Spectral chickadee

I've been trying to get photos of towhees -- too timid -- and juncos -- too jumpy --, with not much luck. They don't mind the BirdCam's flashes, but mostly the photos show a place where there was a junco a second before.

But I had to laugh at this one.

Junco and the ghost of a chickadee in the rain. The junco seems a tad perturbed.

I don't know how the camera caught half a transparent chickadee, rather than a flying one.

One junco sort of in focus. Another few thousand photos, and I might get a good shot, maybe.

Beware of The Cat!

Another midnight visitor, captured with the BirdCam; a cat with laser eyes.

Chasing a moth, maybe?

Ma Squirrel

I'm getting the hang of positioning and focusing the BirdCam. For now, it goes on the ground in the daytime, on the tripod at night. The nights have been quiet, but by day, I'm seeing chickadees and a black squirrel that never stops moving.

Today, a grey female showed up:

Hello? Did I hear a click?

"Again? Do I need to worry?"

No, little one; no worries. And I see you have kits; 6 hungry kits. Eat up, eat up! There's more where that came from.

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And now it's only four days until Rock Flipping Day, this Sunday, September 9th. I've invited a 6-foot teenager to come and help me with a couple of big rocks across the street.

Instructions, history, etc.