Meet the Hair Hen…
This is the Hair Hen. Actually, there are two; we call them both the Hair Hen because we used to not be able to tell them apart. Now we can: one has two kits, the other has three.
This is a picture of the three-kit Hair Hen. She lives under the Mexican Fan Palm in the back yard, where she spends much of the day. She talks to the kits and keeps them in line with a soft churring purry noise, so we know they’re there even when we can’t see them in the deep thicket of thorny fronds and shaggy trunks.
We’ve been seeing the two-kit hairhen and her brood, but this evening our neighbors called
and alerted us to the three-kit hairhen: the furry family was headed our way. Sure enough, a minute later they were strolling along the pool deck, learning how to drink from the pool by putting their paws on the plaster under the tile and leaning way over. (Hey! be careful — no lifeguard on duty…)
This may or may not be the same hairhen who threw three kits last season; we can’t know for sure. (If she is the same one, she now has a chip in the tip of her right ear).
How many raccoons is too many?
(Photos A. Shock)