Sunday, July 25, 2010

crows or raccoons?

Who's the culprit?

The last few weeks I've noticed a murder of crows foraging about at the edges of our non-lawn. Hard NOT to notice, since they're highly verbal creatures, making their presence known at 5 am every morning. So when we arrived to find a handful of molested fruit lying beneath our largest tomato plant, I was all set to vote for crows...until another dastardly candidate presented itself.

In the middle of the night, Seven, our quiet cat (no joke), let out a sound that had me out of bed and at the front door (jumping over Michael) in under 10 seconds. It sounded like she was being ripped apart, slowly, with hot tongs. Instead, she was face to face (through the glass of course) with a raccoon. Said raccoon seemed entirely nonplussed by the screeching cat and sleepy human. It lumbered off the deck, slowly, leaving a trail of muddy footprints on the hood of the Volvo.

So who's the rat bastard who destroyed our first two red tomatoes before we had a chance to taste? All the rest are green, and it will be at least two weeks before we have another chance at home grown tomato goodness. If the craccoons don't get them first.

13 Comments:

At July 25, 2010 at 1:17 PM , Blogger meemsnyc said...

My vote is the raccoon. However, I think they would cause even more damage.

 
At July 25, 2010 at 6:26 PM , Blogger Marie said...

I vote crows.

 
At July 26, 2010 at 9:11 AM , Blogger SaraGardens said...

If I were a raccoon, I wouldn't just maul your tomatoes - I'd eat them. I'm guessing crows, too. Or maybe both. Sorry you're being robbed of those moments of perfect ripeness.

That Seven is a real watchdog of a cat!

 
At July 26, 2010 at 7:15 PM , Anonymous Zoe said...

Ha! They're acting in concert, I'm sure. Raccoons using their almost-opposable-thumbs to free tomatoes from vine, crows then coming along to take a little taste... Perhaps they decided they'd prefer someone's moldy toast out of the compost pile, after all? Here's to hoping you get the next fruits before anyone else!

 
At July 27, 2010 at 12:04 PM , Anonymous Dirty Girl Gardening said...

I say crows, but who knows what tomato thief is in your garden.

 
At July 27, 2010 at 2:51 PM , Blogger Ellen Zachos said...

Wow, the crows are winning, thanks for your input. Maybe I'll risk netting the tomato plants after all. I've had images of finding a tangled tableau of raccoons in net fencing amongst toppled tomato plants...and I'm certainly not going to untangle them! We'll see what the weekend brings.

 
At August 9, 2010 at 11:30 AM , Anonymous Susan said...

Ah ha! I have the same marks on my toms as the one pictured at the lower part of the photo. It is a "half-bite" with out a piece missing. About 3/4 inch wide. I vote racoon since I don't have crows. Another gardener suggested that the varmit would be searching for hydration.

 
At August 9, 2010 at 9:22 PM , Blogger Ellen Zachos said...

Interesting, Susan...for the water content, not the fruit. We haven't had any more damage since then and the harvest is coming in nicely, so I'm not exactly breathing a sigh of relief, but somewhat.

 
At August 22, 2010 at 8:28 AM , Blogger Anne said...

My tomatoes look better than yours!

 
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