10.23.11 Raccoons often come to my garden and yard foraging for dropped fruit and whatever else they can find. These tracks were made last night, probably on their way to look for apples.

Now the leaves are falling, the nests of baldfaced hornets are easier to see. This one, about the size of a basketball, is about 30 feet off the ground. Foxes, raccoons, and skunks looking for larvae to eat will tear apart the nest if it's near the ground. Constructed at the end of a small branch in the top of a maple tree, this nest will be protected from those predators unless a severe wind knocks it down. Birds sometimes use the nest 'paper' in constructing their own nests in the spring.