Possums encroaching on observing site

[casstony]

We have a park full of trees which is home to a number possums at our back fence. They've recently become more adventurous and slowly moved up our 80m long block (which is also full of trees/shrubs).

Our dog (Chloe) enjoys being in the yard with me while observing or imaging and keeps the critters away, but without her they move closer, breaking twigs and growling in the bushes - they make very creepy and unsettling noises. I'm expecting to find one on the telescope some night.

The possums do provide endless entertainment for Chloe at night; she mostly keeps them at the bottom of the block where they growl and break branches as she patrols the ground below the trees.

[multiweb]

You should start training them to open/close the obs and set up when it's clear.

[Startrek]

My back fence is like a Possum racetrack at night , running back and forth all night when I’m out imaging
I don’t mind they stop you from falling asleep in the early hours when your fighting to stay awake
We have Brushtales down here near Ulladulla and Ring tales in Sydney
The Brushtales seem more active

[LewisM]

They come and visit with me when I am imaging - usually 1 comes right over (probably Mum) while the other 4 run around the roof like d!ckheads :lol:

So long as she doesn't climb a tripod leg or pull at the cables, I don't mind.

[glend]

My place backs onto the bush and the possums sit in the trees growling at me. When I shine my red led torch into the trees these little red eyes are staring at me. I don't mind them but they can startle me if I am heading out to the observatory and they scatter. My old Labrador used to patrol the back fence but I would back the possum in any confrontation. Mostly I run the session from inside the house via Teamviewer, but I always make sure I make some noise when I head up there to close things down. I dread finding a possum in there one night.

[casstony]

They are characters, but they look a lot cuter than they sound. I feel much more secure with the dog outside keeping them at bay.

Chloe is a kelpie/staffy cross and I've seen her run a couple of metres up a tree trunk chasing possums; it wouldn't be a pretty sight if she caught one on the ground (hasn't happened so far).

With each new generation of rabbits one or two newbies enter the backyard and it turns into a racetrack. There have been a couple of rabbits deposited on the door step.

[casstony]

I could use some munchkin assistants :)

[casstony]

My daughter tells me they do employ possums at Monash Uni - here's one checking light globes. They're all over the campus apparently.

[MichaelSW]

A few years ago I was observing in my back yard. Had to pop upstairs for something and left my 12" Collapsable Dob pointing straight up. Came back down to find a brush-tail possum sitting up on the Spider!!

"Shoo Possum" didn't work. Had to lift it off, but the little critter latched on and didn't want to let go. Eventually got it off without being bitten. And Thankfully, there was no possum wee on my primary mirror.

Lesson learned, and with a dose of Get-Out-of-jail-Free. (We also have lots of flying-foxes in our trees who occasionally leave 'messages' as they fly over)

[brian nordstrom]

:lol:I love possoms , they can be so friendly , here is ' Balls and all ' our friendly local that visits about 2 times a week , he is really interested in what I am doing at midnight outside , cool critter for sure .

Brian.

[DJT]

My favourite encounter with a possum on an imaging night was to find that it was nibbling on the cucumber it had fished out of my GnT whilst I was tinkering with the scope.. Ballsy little sod.

[Wilso]

Did a fishing trip to Kangaroo island a while back and stayed at a farmers shack. He did a 2 week trip away only to come back to his house only to discover a possum had come down his chimney. Absolutely distroyed his kitchen getting into the cupboards looking for food. He said it looked like a vandal had been in there.

Don't leave food in your observatory!

[glend]

I can see how he got his name. Is that a sandwich he is eating?

[Kilanya]

Hahaha, very cute though!

[pmrid]

I would rather have possums than some of the other critters sliding about in the dark. I recall being at an fairly remote astro camp not far north of here several years ago with a young bloke who was a snake-collector. He calmly announced to us that he had seen several reptiles sliding across our visual-only paddock while we were there. He seemed a bit surprised that we were didn't share his pleasure at this observation.

Here on the farm we see a fair number of bandicoots around the place and plenty of harmless carpet snakes and the like. I'm used to them now. But that was not always so.

Peter

[xelasnave]

In Sydney one crawls along the patio railing directly behind the "cube" (observatory box) not 2 .5 feet away from me sitting in there and he is not the least worried by my presence and I am not worried by him.
I had a pet one when I was a kid ..he fell down the chimney and I kept him for a long while but eventually let him go but he hung around the place for a long time..he was still there when we came to Sydney.
Alex

[pjphilli]

There used to be lots of possums around our way and I tolerated them until one decided to have a sleep in my RC scope (see pix).
However, later a Powerful Owl took up residence in a nearby tree. It wiped out all the possums in a couple of months. Cruel, but I guess that's "natures way".

[glend]

Talk about a "Central Obstruction"!

[Sunfish]

Very unlucky and then lucky with the powerful owl.

I hear them but never see them although I have seen a few half possums. I They can eat half the possum then keep the other half in their claw for a snack.

How can I encourage the owl?

[casstony]

Maybe you could do Owl calls in the backyard at night? I hear it works very well.

I had a crazy US relative visit one time who thought she had a special power to call cats. It was rather humorous to see neighbours coming out to see what the hell was happening in front of our house.

[LewisM]

I'll leave that up to you Michael.

We'll dub you the Back to Front Possum Pecker Checker

[MichaelSW]

Most know that female marsupials have a pouch. But did you know that with the males, their scrotum hangs in front of the *****, not behind.

Check out a bit of road-kill some time.

[RKenning]

I had a whole family out the backyard for a few weeks.

[LewisM]

How the heck did my response to Michael get above the post of his I was answering? :P

[RB]

Either you're ahead of yourself or he deleted his original post and re-posted it again 3 min after your reply.

:lol:

[sharpiel]

He did mention the possum’s bits were ahead of themselves...maybe that’s why..?

Or maybe he’s a possum and to him you’re the wrong way around...

[LewisM]

I knew I could break the space-time continuum if I tried hard enough.

[MichaelSW]

Lewis,

G'day.

I wanted to quote Brian from his post with they photo of 'Balls and All' so I used the # key from the Tool Bar. (Yes, I didn't realise there is QUOTE tab of this very purpose). I saw that my reply was in unexpected / wrong format and then I discovered the Quote Tab. Simplest remedy was to delete my post and re-do. (Three minutes sounds about right).

Some years ago I attended uni lectures in animal reproductive anatomy. There are some strange structural variations out there in the animal kingdom.

Cheers.