Missouri Maude did it again.
This year, she has twins.

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This is the first time I've seen them.
However, for the last week or so, I haven't been outside much because we've had day after day after day of rain & severe weather. The babies could have come out during that time frame. They already seem very comfortable being out in the yard close to the woodpile. So, I would guess today was not the very first day they've been "outside."

In April, I should have known something was up when Maude decided to redecorate the old groundhog tunnel under the woodpile. Closing off the old entrances, she dug out two new entrances that were to her liking. Then, she spent several days collecting & carrying dried leaves into the new main entrance. Soon afterwards, she just disappeared.

While I was planting some of my seedlings yesterday, I surprisingly found the old marigold planter boxes on our deck severely chewed up. Since we had taken down last Summer's barricades to the deck, it was possible for a groundhog to again get on the deck. That's why I checked out the woodpile to see if maybe one of the groundhogs had returned. Nothing yesterday, but today was another story. In the distance, I spotted an adult followed by the motion blur of something small. How curious. This prompted me to get out my camera to use as binoculars & check out what really might be going on. Surprise! That little blur was a baby groundhog!!! Because the new groundhog hole had been pretty well hidden by Maude, I was lucky to remember where she had put it when redecorating a few weeks ago. Not the best place for my doing photography, but a secure place to raise another family. And that's where I found the newest member of our yard's wild zoo.

Here we are today. As long as they don't cause a lot of damage, I like groundhogs. They are fascinating little critters. Watching them has taught me a lot of stuff about groundhogs that isn't written in books. I like the idea that there are now two new groundhog babies for me to watch grow up. While watching them today, I noticed that both are climbers. Although not successful, both tried to climb the same tree at the same time. Ah, shades of their half sibling Lumpy. Hopefully, they don't get into as much trouble as Lumpy did last Summer.

Memories of Lumpy https://pbase.com/britestar/image/173800116 made my husband immediately put the ugly barriers back across the pickets of our deck railing. That should keep even these tiny new groundhogs off the deck. Because Maude is too big to squeeze between the pickets and her new babies don't yet seem well enough developed to try, there is still an open question about exactly what animal has recently been on our deck & has left teeth marks in a number of the old planters and in some of the chairs. It may not have been the groundhogs.

Although we've had a groundhog (different ones) in the woodpile for the past 20 years, this is our third groundhog litter in 4 years. The moms have been a mother & daughter. Mama "Missouri Mabel" first set up residence in 2020. Before that, there was "Bobtail Bob" https://pbase.com/britestar/image/170724941 who probably wasn't related to any of our current groundhogs. Prior to Mable, all of our resident groundhogs have been quite secretive. Now, with Mabel's descendants, I have a ringside seat for watching groundhog natural behavior. Mabel's pups and grandpups aren't bothered by me or our dogs. This https://pbase.com/britestar/image/170715270 may have been the current new mom "Maude" when she was a baby. If not, it was her litter sibling.

This Summer should be interesting with the two new babies.