A couple of nights ago I was in the study checking out 365 on the computer and I heard rustling outside, when I checked to see what the noise was I spotted this mum and baby ringtail possum eating the fruit on the strawberry guava.
There is quite a bit of fruit on the plant so I suspect they will be returning quite a few times over the next week or so as more fruit ripens.
I may pick some of the fruit and put it in a dish at the other side of our garden because brushtail possums frequent that side of the house picking fruit from the trees.
So very well caught! (I moved the bird feeders closer to the house to get more shots but it backfired on me as the birds see me sooner and get spooked too quickly!)
I too thought these were bats when I first saw them. It's the way they are hanging upside down or at least appear to be. What a catch you got here Babs, I suppose it's quite normal fir you but us not used to seeing possums it's very interesting. I have only seen a possum dead on the road in NZ before!
What a cute photo. Although since I have experienced the damage possums can do, I don't envy you having them around your house. Great capture though. Definitely a Fav!
@365projectorgjenfurj Hopefully we can keep them out of the roof. We have metal gutterguard so hopefully it is tough enough. A friend of ours had one in their wood burner chimney.
@pcoulson Luckily my camera was in the study with me because I had just downloaded photos to my computer. The possums were very tame though and didn't even move when I put the light on outside and got close to them. They must be used to people.
@sangwann There is plenty of food for them in our neighbourhood. Our neighbour has a mango tree but he covers it with netting to keep out the birds, possums and bats.
@helenhall The strawberry guava isn't a fruit we eat. We didn't even plant the bush either. It just appeared one day in the garden and we let it grow to see what it was. The birds, bats and possums love it.
@olivetreeann I think you are right Ann. We have lots of visitors. Word must get around.
We put seed out for the birds and one day a little corella turned up, the next day he returned with five of his friends and after that we now have about 20 corellas here every day. It costs us a fortune. ha ha.
We put seed out for the birds and one day a little corella turned up, the next day he returned with five of his friends and after that we now have about 20 corellas here every day. It costs us a fortune. ha ha.
We have a family of bush tail possums that visit the other side of our garden too. They prefer the olives.