I believe a raccoon was living in our chimney last year around this time. Every night for weeks, it would climb up the drainpipe and across the roof over my bed. I encouraged it to leave by pounding on the grate with a wrench, and, we cleaned and capped the chimney. So, this breeding season, it has moved to the annex just outside the fence - a tree which snapped in half.
Here are a couple of pictures of the mother. We saw the kits for the first time yesterday evening - no good pictures yet.
Picture 1 and
Picture 2