Backyard Visitor

Mr. G

Meet Mr. G he (she?) has been a regular visitor to my backyard the last few months. Today he actually came within shooting distance of my zoom lens. He started off staying at the back of the yard initially, then into the middle. One day I saw this "huge thing", as it seemed to appear in comparison to the usual squirrels, running up the trunk of a tree. It was Mr. G - or one of his mates.

Until then I hadn't realised groundhogs, or woodchucks to give then their other name, actually climbed trees. Well they do and they're pretty fast at it too. Mind you Mr.G is a fair size so he probably has to have a fair lick at it to obtain any height.

Mr. Groundhog

How did he get that big? Well I can tell you - he eats his way around the garden, literally. To be honest I knew absolutely nothing about groundhogs until arriving in the States. Then the only thing I heard about them was the myth surrounding the practice of dragging one of the poor creatures out of their holes and seeing if they could see their own shadow, what!?

Lets face it this is Michigan, it's only February and winter can extend into April. So anyone in Michigan can tell you "Yes, at least another six weeks of winter!"
Let the poor creature sleep - there's nothing to eat but snow!