And now for something completely different.
It was so surprisingly warm last Friday that our hopes for a white Christmas seemed to be blown to smithereens. I was home sick and I had gotten up at about 7 a.m., which is late for me. Feeling somewhat dejected, I was sitting at the window and staring at nothing in particular because the wind and my local neighborhood Cooper’s hawk were conspiring to keep the number of birds at the feeders extremely low.
I was sipping on some peppermint tea in the hopes that it would settle my stomach and considering going back to bed when all of a sudden the entire mood changed. Coming toward the feeders, from the corner of the deck where some tall lilac bushes grow, was an opossum! Walking with slow deliberation, the animal made a beeline for the spot just below the tube feeder that is filled with sunflower seeds. As I watched, this poor thing started licking the deck boards in search of any calories that it could find. My heart broke just a little bit, but that did not stop me from taking the opossum’s photo.
The real problem was the low light on this windy, rainy morning. The opossum was cooperating nicely, but the camera just couldn’t manage a clear photo through the kitchen window. I took about 100 photos, trying to get lucky, but it just wasn’t working. The only thing left to do was to gently open the kitchen door and take an unobstructed photo or two. Fortunately, the extremely slow “processor” in the opossum’s brain allowed me to do this with ease and the best photo possible was quickly captured.
My beautiful wife, Susan, was standing next to me and she was extremely worried about the “poor little thing.” She asked if we could give it something to eat and I quickly grabbed a slice of wheat bread and tossed it out the door. It landed just in front of the opossum, and we waited for the food to be retrieved, but there was no such luck. The sound of the camera from two minutes earlier had registered with the opossum and that slow “processor” had finally made a decision. The little creature walked away from the food and crossed a high beam on the edge of the deck in a retreat back to the lilac bush. It paused, looked over its shoulder at the door, and then disappeared over the edge.
Technically known as the Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana), this curious creature stands alone as the only marsupial that is native to the United States. This means that the female gives birth to extremely under-developed offspring that only seem to have front legs. Blind and deaf, these little pink pollywogs must make their way to the female’s pouch, where her nipples are located. Once there, the babies latch on and feed, growing quickly. One of the many bizarre facts about opossums is that females have 13 nipples.
This gives the female the capacity to support 13 offspring, but the normal litter size is 8-10. You can imagine that this many babies will quickly outgrow the shelter of their pouch and they must eventually emerge into the world. Unlike any other North American mammal, the little opossums will simply move up onto their mother’s back whenever it is time for the family to move around. Photos of mother opossums with six to eight babies catching a ride are easy to find on the internet. I pray to Nikous and Iso that a baby-laden mother opossum is sent in my direction someday.
Once weaned from their mother’s milk, the young opossums will become the ultimate omnivores. They will consume anything edible, including some items that may seem rather disgusting to us. A short list of possible food items includes: mice, voles, slugs, snakes, frogs, insects of all kinds, ticks, roadkill and other dead animals — the bones of which are an important source of calcium — berries, fruits, nuts, garden vegetables, garbage, pet food and — you guessed it — birdseed. To chew their food, opossums have an arsenal of 50 teeth, which is the most of any North American land mammal.
Opossums are so homely that they are cute. Their shaggy appearance, “beady” eyes and pointy face might make them somewhat sinister in appearance, but that pink nose and their “slow” personality seem to push them over into the adorable category. Susan was visibly moved by the opossum’s appearance and she was particularly insistent that I mention that nose.
The arrival of Christmas always overshadows the fact that we are now officially in the season of winter. On Dec. 21, we noted the arrival of the Winter Solstice, which was the longest night — about 14 hours and 47 minutes — of the calendar year. At this point, the days are already starting to get longer, but the coldest weather of the year is likely still ahead of us.
I hope that you are safe and warm and able to celebrate the season with friends and family. Those of you living in the Valley can listen to WHMP radio’s “Talk The Talk” program at 8:35 a.m. on New Year’s Eve Morning when I will talk about some of my most interesting encounters with wildlife in 2025. Until then, have a great day!
Bill Danielson has been a professional writer and nature photographer for 28 years. He has worked for the National Park Service, the US Forest Service, the Nature Conservancy and the Massachusetts State Parks and he currently teaches high school biology and physics. For more information visit his website at www.speakingofnature.com, or go to Speaking of Nature on Facebook.