Yesterday morning we spotted a possum trekking across the snow in our garden. It must have been really hungry to venture out in daylight. Usually we only see them roaming around the house in the evening.
Playing Possum
The Nature of Things
A blog dedicated to flora, fauna and all the wonderful things in nature.
The Nature of Things 
Such an adorable visitor, Sue!!
We don’t often see him but I think he is currently living under our front doorstep.
These are really good shots! I see their tracks in the snow, but I only catch a glimpse of them at night if I’m really lucky.
Thank you, Sylvia! They seem to be very much creatures of habit and follow the same route regularly. We used to see them at the same time every evening during the summer months and the tracks in the snow indicate that they are still taking their usual path.
Great shots of a cute critter.
Thanks, Irene! Although I was happy to have the opportunity of capturing these shots, I was also concerned for the poor thing. He must have been desperate for food to put himself in such a vulnerable position in broad daylight.
I hope he found some. 😊
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a possum before! It looks an interesting animal to be visiting your garden. Love its ears and paws! Hope it’s not a dangerous animal!
Although it may look cute, it’s not something you want to try and pet, as we found out many years ago when we woke to find the remains of several baby possums scattered over our front lawn. Going outside to investigate, we found that one had escaped the carnage by falling down a window well, while the mother, with another young one on her back, was pacing up and down nearby, hissing and baring very large teeth. I put on two pairs of thick gardening gloves but couldn’t reach down far enough to get the little critter out so I had to climb down into the well while my mother kept the mother at bay with a broom handle. The upshot was that mother possum and two babies toddled off to safety. I don’t know what it was that killed the others but it must have been extremely fierce to face those teeth.
Oh my! Goodness that sounds awful. You were brave to go and try to rescue the baby and go down a well! Your mum was brave too facing a creature with large teeth just with a broom. Whatever killed the others, as you say, must have been fierce. Who knows what happens in gardens overnight and what kind of creatures could be roaming around? At Christmas I bought a night time camera for watching in the garden and all our garden shows up are plenty of little mice. I think your garden would capture more interesting creatures than here!
Total confusion, poor soul! What do they normally eat? Did you put something out for him? 😦
I think they’ll eat pretty much anything including birds, mice and other small critters. They’ll also eat the seed and bread that we put out for the birds. I did throw some extra scraps out in case he came back at night for another look around.
Did it find something to eat under the snow?
I don’t think so, although it seemed to sense that something was there.
It will be very happy when warmer weather arrives, Sue. Thank you for the photos.
I think we’ll all be glad when Spring finally gets here. Thanks for stopping by, Tracy.
It was my pleasure.
We saw our possums out in the daytime but our garden was filled with sunflower seeds and peanuts for all visitors. They love apples, hate olives.
Despite there being plenty of food available during daylight hours, our possums remain nocturnal by habit, for the most part. Thanks for the tip about the apples.
I think our sub tropical possums were shell-shocked by the weather…
Ah, it’s so cute!
Certainly an endearing character.