Visiting Opossum

A surprising visitor showed up right outside our basement window tonight: a Virginia Opossum! It was rustling around in the dry leaves, probably searching out the sunflower seeds that the birds regularly scatter from our window feeder. We carefully opened the window to peer out at it (it was just a few feet away!) and it looked right back at us before running (well, waddling) away:

I've never seen an opossum so close and just going about its business before. (I have met opossums in live traps destined for relocation in the past, and those individuals were not exactly happy.) Look at that face! I'd say this is quite a lovely creature.

The opossum came back and spent some more time foraging in the same spot after we closed the window (even with the lit room and people moving around behind the glass). Then about an hour later, I was working on another floor, and I heard some suspicious leaf-rustling coming from outside the big glass doors. This fellow had found a second seed spot (beneath another window feeder), and it was foraging right next to the glass! I can't believe how much it just did not care about the room and porch lights and our faces and cameras inches away from it (until, that is, it noticed we were there). How amazing to be so close to this creature! Here's a video of our visitor at work:



Happy foraging, bold opossum!