Where is Daniel Boone when I need him?

Ok, so I have a problem.  I have a very tenacious raccoon that visits my bird feeders nightly.  I have a squirrel proof feeder but as yet I haven't seen a raccoon proof one. Easy pickings for a raccoon with his nimble hands.  Every night he goes to the bird feeder and empties out the seed, then he moseys on over to the hummingbird feeder and drinks the nectar.  He's got a regular cafe on my deck!

I'm at wits end.  I can take the feeders in for an entire week and put them in the garage at night and thinking he has gone on to greener pastures I foolishly leave them out one night and he drains them.  Taking them in each night works, but the only problem is I am not always home right when it gets dark and if I get there too late he's already been there and gone!

That tenacious raccoon is brazen too.  I've chased him away, only to have him return in just a few minutes.  One night I stood at the sliding door leading to my deck and chased him off yelling like a banshee while he just gave me the stink eye, left, and returned moments later.  This happened multiple times till I gave up and went to bed.  

So recently I heard that raccoons hate mint.  So out I went and bought a bunch of pots and potted mint all over the deck. He would have to rub on it and get up close and personal to that particular herb.  So what did he do?  Well, this morning I had a ton of spilled and broken posts and muddy dirt spilled all over my deck, the ground, everywhere.  

I wish he could be made into a coon skin cap, so where is Daniel Boone when you need him?

Seriously I couldn't hurt a fly, in fact I don't even kill bugs, but I need a solution or the birds will have to just exist without me.  Makes me sad, since my husband calls me the bird lady.

Mystery solved!

Some of you may remember that this summer I was visited by a thief, a hummingbird nectar thief to be exact.  This went on all summer.  I either had to take it in every night, or just make more nectar every day--every single day or disappoint the hummers.  If I got home a bit late or had something going on and I didn't get it in--it was drained dry.  Some weeks I remembered to take it in every day for a week and I'd think that maybe if I left it out he wouldn't come, but I was always wrong.  What could it be, I wondered, bats, possums, raccoons?  After I found one feeder on the ground with it's top unscrewed I pretty much figured it had to be a raccoon.

I haven't seen a hummingbird for 5 days now so I think they have embarked on their journey to warmer climes.  Still I have put the feeder out every day just in case a lonely hummingbird passing through may stop to refuel.

Tonight I was bound and determined to catch the thief in the act if only to see exactly how he does it.  So I got a couple pillows, cracked  a space in the vertical blinds overlooking my deck and waited.  I pretty much had figured out that the culprit visited around 7:30 every night.

7:32 on the dot, he came.  Yup, raccoon alright and he was a pretty gutsy little dude too.  He reached up and tilted the feeder.  Our eyes met and I swear he gave me the stink eye, since I was  ruining his party. I opened the sliding glass door and he ran, but only after he gave me one last very dirty look.

Sorry I have no photos since my camera is not that high tech and all I got was a very blurry furry!

Mystery solved and since Hummingbird season is over, he will have to get his kool-aid somewhere else.

Anyone else have raccoon raiders?