If you feed suet to the birds that visit your backyard feeders, there is a chance when you make your morning check of your feeders, you will find that your suet was eaten by some critter during the night. If this occurs, you will undoubtedly scratch your head trying to come up with the name of the nighttime raider.

       You know the culprit is not a songbird or even a crow since these birds are not active at night.  In rare cases, the nocturnal raider may be a barred owl.  Yes, there have been a handful of reports of barred owls visiting suet feeders. Apparently, the chance of this occurring is greater if rodents are visiting your feeding area to dine on seed scattered on the ground.

       More than likely, however, the phantom visitor was either an opossum or raccoon.  Both of these mammals are active at night. If it is one of these two animals, they will often leave clues that you can use to solve this mystery.  Look for droppings, tracks or even their scat.

       Fortunately, raccoons and opossums have never staged a nighttime raid on my suet feeders.  If one does, I will not be a happy camper.  On the other hand, if I go outside one night and see a barred owl dining on suet, I will not mind a bit. In fact, it would be event that I would fondly remember for the rest of my life.