The Great Opossum Food Selection Test

It occurred to me that as Opossums eat almost anything and we know they like sunflower seeds, what might their other favorites be?

Therefore as I was cleaning out the refrigerator and cupboard I selected some possible foods for Pinky to choose between.  


Far left are some meat scraps and a left over portion of baked potato.  Next are some cheese crackers still in the wrapper?

Do possums remove wrappers?  Another question...though if they don't like old cheese crackers the wrapper thing isn't relevant to the test.

Next pasta salad which does not include any meat or cheese.

Then there is a pile of matzah flour and a partially eaten piece of toast.

That done and as it was a bit after 3PM and it doesn't get dark until  around 4:30 PM the first possible time for Pinky the possum to appear, I decided to check out what other critters might be around. 

Across the street in the park were a flock of Canada Geese just standing around for the most part looking toward the Mill Race which comes off the Sugar River.  

Mill Race?  It isn't a natural body of water.  Back in the day it was dug by hand to power the town mill.

The water fowl don't give a fig if it is natural or not.  It's a water area that has been naturalized by being around for a couple of hundred years.

They decide I'm not too scary and start to do a little preening and a desultory nibble at the grass or an insect.

And here is what they've been keeping track of, the rest of the flock who are swimming around on the Race.

No action here so perhaps I'll go check and see if the Cooper's Hawk who has been stealthing around my feeders for the past few days  is back waiting for feeder customers. 

By the time I cross the street, the lead geese are up and honking calling to the others that it is time to get moving.

 The group is forming up amidst a tremendous amount of honking.  Wouldn't want anyone to be left behind.  They begin to circle.

And around they go with a tremendous cacophony

 Back at the feeding station, nothing has been touched.  

Is the Cooper's around?

There's movement in the Ponderosa Pine!

Nope,  not a hawk but rather a squirrel. 

 Sigh.  I head into the house.

It gets dark.  I keep checking out the window.

No possum.

8 PM, 9, 10....  Still no possum.  Is it going to be another 3:45 in the morning feeding?

To be continued